You all thought I was making it up didn't ya? lol Hell, I would. Who writes a whole article about a family renovating a house? Well apparently this town does! lol Page three of the local paper with a color picture on the front leading you to it. Honestly, we're pretty excited about it. Makes us feel special. :) We've always loved this house, and I guess the rest of the town does too. It's pretty front & center in a major part of town, so a lot of people have been sad to see it fall apart over the decades. Here's hoping we can live up to their expectations now! :S
So I'll type out the article here for you since it's only available online with a subscription to the online paper. And I know that the vast majority of you know exactly who we are & where, but this blog is public & I do see some random readers on my stats (who the heck is reading about me from Russia!?) so I have blocked out our last name and other information for privacy. I haven't named our city up until this point, so for the sake of the article, in the spirit of the holidays & having recently watched White Christmas, we'll call it Pinetree, Vermont. ;) lol
Midwest Couple Plans to Restore Historic Area House
A Pinetree family is embarking on a "brave" adventure, restoring a Mansard-style home at the corner of (~) streets.
Mathew & Stacia G purchased the five bedroom home from Thelbert & Marjorie Brown. The faded yellow building, which sits next to the chinese restaurant parking lot, was purchased by the Browns in 1979.
According to the G's, they've been told the house was likely built around 1860, based on some interior design features common to that era, but they've been unable to locate a complete history of the home.
For the past 20 years or so, the home has been a curiosity, with local residents wanting to know who owned it, what the owners' plans were, and whether the dilapidated building would someday collapse or be torn down.
Mathew G said he has heard that the home was built by it's owner as a home for his mistress, but he makes no claim for the accuracy of that report.
The G's, along with children Mark 9, Gavin 8, and Natalie 3, moved to Vermont from Kansas City, Kan.
The couple began touring northern Vermont on vacations, primarily visiting the Lake Placid area and the Adirondacks. They became attached to the northeast and continued their exploration of Vermont into the Northeast Kingdom.
On a drive through Pinetree in 2000, the G's saw the house for the first time and it was love at first sight, according to Mathew. Mathew sent a letter to the Browns in 2002, and over the ensuing years, sent additional letters expressing interest in purchasing the home.
The couple connected with Maurice Chaloux, a Pinetree Realtor, who indicated the Browns held onto the home all these years because they wanted to sell the house to someone who would preserve it, not tear it down.
There's a happy ending to this story. After loving the home from afar for the last 10 years, the G family bought the house in August and have moved to the area. They are at work restoring the home to its former glory.
They know what they are doing. Mathew G is a real estate broker and has purchased and restored 40 properties since 1998 in St. Louis, MO and Kansas City. He's used to dealing with mold in the Midwest as well as lead paint and all the other hazards that come with saving derelict properties.
He's used to working with state agencies and historic preservation groups. He's gotten advice from energy efficiency organizations while renovating buildings in Missouri.
In Pinetree, he's already been up on the roof of his new project and has found it surprisingly solid. He's made it water tight and is going to replace the brick chimney.
With help from Stacia, who is a registered nurse in the bone marrow transplant program at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon, NH, renovations are under way. The home will be the first renovation the G's have done entirely on their own and they hope to have it done in a year.
They'll keep the home true to its original design, but hope to make it energy efficient. The family will live in the home. The two oldest children are students at (~) School in Pinetree.
A search of the Pinetree land records the house was sold to Julia Johnson Nov 3, 1913 by John & Bessie Gale.
On Feb 17, 1941, Bernard and Julia Johnson deeded 8 feet along the front and side of the home to Pinetree. The town used the land to raise the sidewalk level 8 feet and built the retaining wall along the front. The construction was part of the construction of the Memorial Bridge on (~) Street in 1941.
On Feb 11, 1960, the home was purchased from James Campbell "for less than $100 consideration" and included "all of the household furniture, household supplies and equipment, also all tools and other personal properties kept on premises."
On May 3, 1974, the home was sold by B. Clark Johnson, executor of the estate of Julia Johnson for $22,500 to Leland and Diane Banister. Passumpsic Savings Bank foreclosed on the Banisters March 19, 1979 and documents stated the bank was owed $22, 329.
The bank in turn sold the home to the U.S. Veterans Affairs Administration. Max Cleland, with the VA, is listed as selling the home to Thelbert & Marjorie Brown Dec 3, 1979 for "$10 and other valuable considerations."
On August 8, 2011, the Browns sold the home to the G's. According to Pinetree records, the home, which was most recently listed on the Pinetree Grand List at $xx,xxx, was sold for $xx,xxx to the G's. The property tax bill was $x,xxx in 2010. (yes they really printed that!)
The home, according to a listing sheet, has 11 rooms with five bedrooms and two baths with a detached garage.
So that's our story! Pretty cool huh? Matt looked up the daily circulation info on the paper in which it was published. It goes out to 50 communities and is read by nearly 10,000 people each day. 93% of of our town itself is said to read the paper. So... basically that means that now eeeeeeverybody knows our business! lol We went to the Christmas Bazaar at the kids' school yesterday and already people were coming up to us saying "Hey! I read about you in the paper this morning!" lol And so it begins. Ha ha.
