In 2014 I left Washington DC for a life in the wilds of Virginia. This 1814 house on two and a half acres sat dark and empty for many years before it found me, and I embarked on a renovation project that changed my life. I remember pausing one icy February day, bundled up and alone in the unheated house, pulling down drywall that the previous owner had used to cover up the original plaster, to question my motives. The answer was clear - I was building a place for my family and friends to come and find solace, peace, magic, and restoration, just as I knew I would. Over the next nine months I would learn so much about the house, its previous inhabitants, this historic village, and myself. I would make unexpected new friends I didn't even know I needed, and be enveloped in a close knit community stitched together by a love for history, architecture, and preservation. Over the years I have shared this home in many ways, hosting dinners, celebrations, and even my own (second) wedding. It is now my husband Matt’s and my home and I have a partner in our continued work to bring this place to life.
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Cultivating Home, Preservation Magazine Feature
A few months the after I moved in, while I I was interviewed by Logan Ward for Preservation Magazine, and the house was photographed by Scott Suchman. Read the article HERE
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Day of The Dinner with Paul Wharton
We had the pleasure of throwing a dinner party with our friend Paul for the first episode of his new show Day of the Dinner! Watch it on Homeworthy HERE
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Virginia Farmhouse Makeover, Country Living Magazine
Our house was featured in Country Living Magazineand again in their Fixer Upper edition in 2020, after the full restoration was fully complete. Read the article HERE
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Home Tour on Homeworthy with Paul Wharton
Paul Wharton came out to host a full tour of our home and get into the nitty gritty about the what led me here, the restoration, and life in the village. Watch it HERE
My goddaughter Chase lived with me my first magical summer in this house, in 2015, weeks after the restoration was “finished.” It was a slow, heartbreaking, magical summer, for both of us. I was recently divorced, my father had just died, and she was ending a difficult relationship. Sharing this place, which gave us both such comfort, made it feel like I had really built a home, for more than just me.
Last year, she decided she wanted to get married at what is now Matt and my house. She had a beautiful, precise, vision for the day, and wanted only immediate family. The guests list totaled 18.
She arrived a week before the ceremony date and settled in. Her guests arrived in shifts, slowly over the course of the week, staying in and around the village, in quaint rentals. We took long walks on the Phillips Farm after quiet dinners at the house. We picked fresh calming herbs from the garden every night for tea. We looked through the linens and candlesticks and chose the ones that felt right. We looked around the garden and decided together on the menu, which was cooked from scratch in the kitchen the day of the wedding.
The day arrived and there was nothing left for Chase to do except bask in the love that surrounded her. The perfect cake was delivered, the vegetables and herbs were harvested from the garden, dinner was cooking, the table was set, and the ceremony began at 5pm, under a tree in the back field, to the sound of a mockingbird symphony.
That week confirmed what I have known all along, that this is why we built this home - not to keep it to ourselves, but to share the real magic of this place with others, in ways that deepen our own connection to people, to each other, and to this house and land.