… there was a house.  From outward appearances, she was a grand old lady with stately Raised Creole Plantation architecture and an historic feel which belied her birth date: August 1993.   Indeed, the house was modeled after the Maison Olivier plantation in Louisiana which was built in 1815.  The original designer only made some minor changes to the structure.  Instead of cypress siding, she was fashioned of aged brick.  Like all Raised Creole Plantations, the main living area is the second floor, with the first floor being an above-ground basement reserved primarily for storage (in this case, an office, half-bath, garage and workshop).   Another oddity of the Raised Creole Plantation is a lack of hallways. You move through one room to the other directly or by means of the gallery porch.   That is a strange concept for people accustomed to modern architecture!

The Childfree Chic House circa 1998

As you might imagine, such an odd house probably didn’t appeal to many buyers. This is why it had been sitting on the market for well over a year when I happened upon it in 1998. The housing boom was just beginning, so I was a bit concerned that the house might have major structural problems, thus explaining the lack of buyers. However, a thorough home inspection allayed my fears about the quality of the construction. The inspector said it was a very solid home, and the techniques used outshone those in modern million-dollar homes.

It turns out the reason the home hadn’t sold was that it didn’t appeal to families with children or elderly people. For starters, it has a lot of stairs in it. Since the main living level is the second story, you are always climbing stairs. The bedrooms are on the third story, which means more stairs. Therefore, any family with small children would need several baby gates to make sure the kids are safe. The property upon which it sits, though large and wooded at 3.5 acres, isn’t quite kid-friendly due to the creek off-shoot running though the yard. The closets aren’t grand. Remember, it was designed to look like an historic home, and those usually didn’t have any closets; people used furniture to store clothing. The kitchen is on the small side for those with large families, and it doesn’t have formal dining and living rooms, which everyone wanted back in 1998.  Finally, it isn’t a brand new home, and North Carolina was (and still is) experiencing a building boom. Everyone craved brand new McMansions in subdivisions with kid-friendly amenities.  This house, though in a subdivision, is quiet and has no HOA fees but no chi-chi extras, either: no playground, no pool, no tennis courts, etc.

Well, the things that made the house impractical for families with kids made it almost perfect for me and Mr. Childfree Chic. We view the stairs as a form of daily exercise we wouldn’t normally get, and they’re worth the trade-off for an all-brick exterior home with such great style! The odd layout didn’t bother us too much even though we would have liked larger closets and bathrooms. We’re a family of two, and we aren’t formal people;  we didn’t give a hoot about the lack of formal dining and living rooms!  However, what really sold the house to us was the wonderful double-gallery porches. For me, there is nothing better than spending a lazy summer day on the upper gallery with a tall glass of homemade lemonade and my thoughts.  The very moment the two of us set foot on that upper gallery in June, we were in love.  We closed on the house at the end of July 1998 and never looked back!

It was also a bit of a fixer even though it was only five years old.   Let’s just say the interior in no way matched the grandeur of the exterior.  It had horrific popcorn ceilings and shabby beige carpet.  It even had hideous patterned carpet which reminded me of casino carpet in the third-floor bathroom!  The kitchen had ugly faux-oak cabinets and cheap laminate counters.  Most of the fixtures were shiny brass.  Finally, it had none of the historic finishes which give those old homes such great character: no decorative molding, no wainscoting, no beadboard.  We didn’t let any of that deter us, though.  We decided we could add those things later.

That’s where this blog fits into the picture.  I want to document the transformation of our home for posterity, hopefully inspiring others along the way.  If one person looks at what we did with an older, not-quite-perfect home and is motivated to do the same, I’ll feel that this is well worth the effort.  I’ll have more photos coming soon.  I’m looking for some pictures we took right after we moved into the home.  Those will really give you an idea of where we started with the interior!

3 Responses to “In the beginning…”