When you walk up to the front door of Melissa Wiley’s Belmont house, you’re struck by a sense of tidiness: old railroad ties are stacked into low walls, well-tended plants are arranged just so, and the grass is lush. Walk through the house’s central hallway, with its checkerboard paint job, and keep going out the […]
When you walk up to the front door of Melissa Wiley’s Belmont house, you’re struck by a sense of tidiness: old railroad ties are stacked into low walls, well-tended plants are arranged just so, and the grass is lush. Walk through the house’s central hallway, with its checkerboard paint job, and keep going out the […]
Lately, “Main Street” has become a tiresomely banal political slogan for Everywhere America. But in some well-preserved parts of the country, like historic Palmyra in Fluvanna County, Main Street isn’t a saying; it’s the soul of the community, both past and present. Downtown Palmyra, simply known to locals as “the village,” sits on a short […]
We’ve long admired this house on JPA—it’s an island of tranquillity on its well-traveled corner. It’s not just the stone construction and cottage profile that make it so romantic; it’s the exuberant garden that surrounds the house and pushes back against the JPA traffic. A small bridge over a stream, gravel walks, flowering things […]
Setback to where you once belonged At a recent Houses That Work seminar, where local builders gathered to learn about building energy-efficient houses, the topic of thermostat setbacks came up. Setbacks are simply the automatic settings that let you program your heat system to run cooler at certain times, like when you’re asleep or […]
So you want to sell your house. Ouch. The current housing market may not welcome you with open arms, but Realtors repeat like broken records the idea that pricing your house correctly can go a long way toward finding a buyer within a reasonable time frame (which, these days, is about two months). Supply exceeds […]
A decade ago, Brynne and John Potter were house-hunting and showed up at a certain Locust Grove property with little enthusiasm. “We didn’t like it on paper,” Brynne remembers. Upon walking in the ranch house’s front door, the couple were greeted by thick carpets that had absorbed the effects of long-term smokers and multiple cats. […]
One of the biggest indicators that you may be dealing with a dangerous wine freak
Not your ordinary hoagie, Cubano’s Cuban sandwich, from the specials menu, is a winning combination: thin-sliced ham, roast pork, Swiss cheese, pickles and mustard are piled between slices of soft Cuban bread and pressed until they all become one. Another case of the whole being much more than the sum of its parts. Served with […]
The holiday season is fast approaching. This means one thing: The annual time to feel the pressure to say the things you feel in your heart to the people you care about is upon you. Soon, a stroll through the cards aisles of CVS or Hallmark or Harris Teeter—a stroll that might, at other times […]