Finding a house in downtown Charlottesville isn’t easy, but Kate Stephenson managed to do it when she spotted a commercial space for sale just north of the Downtown Mall. Like many onetime residences, the brick building had been serving for decades as offices. When she first walked in, Stephenson definitely noticed a “law-office” look—acoustic tile […]
Finding a house in downtown Charlottesville isn’t easy, but Kate Stephenson managed to do it when she spotted a commercial space for sale just north of the Downtown Mall. Like many onetime residences, the brick building had been serving for decades as offices. When she first walked in, Stephenson definitely noticed a “law-office” look—acoustic tile […]
Don’t call Brian and Andrea Hubbell flippers. Even though they admit what they’re doing sounds a lot like that, the husband-and-wife team behind HubbHouse think they can come up with a better term, one that conveys their more thoughtful approach. “We’re definitely not a quick-flip company,” says Brian. “Quality is really important and the process […]
Talk about seizing the day. When Anna Boeschenstein found out that a practically new kitchen was slated to be removed from a home in Farmington, she realized she was looking at a golden opportunity. The place had served as the 2014 Design House—a fundraiser for the Shelter for Help in Emergency, in which many local […]
The house in downtown Charlottesville had lived many lives. Built in the early 1900s, one of a number of similar foursquare houses on its street, it had served for decades as an office building before Gerald and Marianne Starsia first saw it in 2014. And though the couple liked the structure right away, they also […]
What does it mean for a garden to have “good bones”? Like a beautiful woman or a handsome man, it’s what remains when the bloom is gone. Some believe good bones reveal character, or perhaps it’s just a matter of chance. We know it when we see it, however, in gardens as well as faces. […]
What’s better than finding that perfect vintage material to reuse in your home? Donating that perfect vintage material for others to cherish for years to come. Or at least it was for C.J. Stands, whose dream plot with a view in Lynchburg was blighted by a water-damaged house when he purchased it. “We thought we […]
Dave Fafara stands over the noisy machine in the back of his Shenandoah Joe’s Preston Avenue shop, coffee-scented steam rising from a batch of freshly roasted beans. A metal arm pushes through the beans heaped in the cooling tray, and Fafara occasionally stirs them with his hand, until they’re cool enough to slide out a […]
As a professional designer, Kathy Heiner is familiar with all the twists and turns of the renovation process. So, when it came time to redo the kitchen in the Bellair house she’s shared with her sons since 2012, she appreciated having the luxury of time to think about what she wanted. “Lori Randle and I […]
Perched high in the surrounding mountains of Crozet is the stunning and solitudinous modern home of Rod and Maggie Walker. Located in Albemarle County and overlooking the Sugar Hollow Reservoir, the 1,500-acre property is accessed by way of a lengthy country road that, after winding through forested hills and over single-lane bridges, arrives at the […]
The cabin sits on a steep Albemarle mountainside under a tall forest canopy. It was built in West Virginia, probably in the early 1800s; it was moved here in the 1970s, reconstructed and updated with basic conveniences like plumbing. Its owners used it only a few weeks per year as a vacation spot. Then, on […]