January, 2000

This is what the farmhouse looked like the day my offer was accepted. It needed complete restoration and renovation. There was a hole through the back of the house in the entry where some of the stone fell out due to severe water damage. The property appraisal gave no value to the house. The barn appraised at $20,000. The remaining outbuildings also appraised at zero dollars. So I was basically buying the land. It really took "vision" to see the possibilities!

Demolition and Repair Start on the Exterior, Memorial Day weekend, 2000

The front porch was in danger of falling off the house, so it was tackled early in the project. The columns were rotted and some were missing, victims of grazing cows. The metal roof was rusted and the floor was unsafe to walk on. The roof structure was in good shape and retained. I was told that cows frequently walked through the house too until the previous owner's grandson fenced off the porch with barbed wire. 

Tearing Out the Interior, Summer 2000

After most of the exterior work was complete, we started on the interior by removing all the plaster and lathe ceilings, which were sagging. On the exterior, the stucco was removed from the stone, all windows were replaced (all 44 of them!), the mortar joints were removed from between the stones and new mortar was installed, the roof soffets were replaced, the east side of the roof was replaced, the roof rafters were extended by sistering (they had rotted), the slate roof was repaired, the chimneys were rebuilt, some doors were moved and others replaced, the front porch rebuilt, and the side porches torn off the house. In this photo, the south side of the house is shown. At the left is the "seam" where the rear addition was added to the original structure in 1880. The ramp is coming out of the guest bedroom. The dump truck is "Dewey" and was found in the barn. Dewey started right up after a tune-up.

Master Bedroom in the Civil War Addition

The walls were covered in soot and the wallpaper was peeling off. The ceiling sagged (they all did). It was a gruesome sight. This room was in better condition than most in the house. Hard to believe that someone else hadn't snatched this lovely property off the market before I did!

Master Bedroom, September, 2003

Much better! Furring (2x4) was placed on all exterior walls in the entire house and insulation was added. This also gave a place to run all wiring and plumbing. 2x4s were used to conserve floor space. Drama was added to certain rooms by removing the plaster from the interior walls and exposing the stone. Here, the wallpaper is being installed. The wallpaper "chair rail" hasn't been installed yet. The north stone wall with the fireplace has had the stone exposed and is visible on the right side of the photo.

Windmill, Pond and Driveway

The windmill is an original from the turn of the century (about 1900). Parts are still available for it! It's on "the list" to be restored. The driveway was the property line in 1830 when Bushrod McCormick inherited the house from his mother, Maza. The well below the windmill is hand-dug and dates to the 18th century. It is about 50 feet deep and lined with stone. We had drought conditions in Virginia for about five years until 2002. During that time, the well always had water in it. We removed 2 pumps from the well, dating from about 1905 and the mid-1800s. When the windmill is restored, it will be plumbed to pump water to the fields for irrigation.

The Barn

Here's the barn as viewed from the south side of the house. Built by Charles and Lydia Hardesty in 1881, it is now the largest barn in Clarke County, VA. There are two date stones on the barn, both with the 1881 date, but one has the initials W.J.B., believed to be for William J. Baker, a prominent builder during that time. Lots of the north side of the barn has been replaced, since 40% of the boards were missing or rotted. Miscellaneous repairs were made to stabilize the structure until more time can be spent on its restoration. It is badly in need of a paint job and hasn't been painted in about 50 years!

The Garage

This structure was used for the carriages, before the days of motorcars. The carriages were parked on the right side and center and the horses were hitched up in the left side. The story goes that after his wife's death and when his daughters were older, Addison Withers used to go to Summit Point, WV for a drink or two every now and then. When he couldn't find his way home, he would unhitch his horse from the post in Summit point and let the horse find the way. The next morning they would find "daddy" in the garage with the horse still hitched and daddy sleeping in the back of the carriage. This building was in very poor shape and started to fall over. It was cannibalized during the winter of 2002 to save the barn. The wood siding was recycled and used as barn siding.

Bringing in the sheaves

Summer 2003. Yes, this is a "working farm". All we do is work. We grow, cut, and bale timothy and mixed grass hay for horses. The summer of 2003 was a disaster - it rained so much that the fields flooded. When they finally dried up, it was too late to harvest the hay. So we managed to bring in only 385 bales of timothy hay. We should have had 1,200 bales of timothy and 1,800 bales of mixed grass. My death certificate will read "Farmer" under "cause of death"!

The Wash House

The Wash House got its name from its earlier function. There was a chimney at the back center of the roof and a large wood stove was located in the building. There, "a woman" would come to the Withers household once a week and wash the clothes. The stove was used to heat the wash water. The building also contained the "Delco", which was a generator used to recharge a bank of batteries to power the farm. A single wire ran from the Wash House to the main house and powered  everything. The house was never plumbed for gas lighting or cooking. When the wash woman would iron clothes, nothing else electrical could be used in the house since the iron took so much electricity. The house was finally electrified by the power company in the 1940s.

Smoke House

The smoke house is located next to the wash house, about 40 feet southeast of the house. The Clarke County Historical Society believes the log house is original to the property (1790s) because of the method of construction. The logs are petrified - as hard as rocks. The structure is in fair condition. It needs a new metal roof and the back of the building needs some logs replaced. Inside, it's dark and scary. It's on "the list" to restore and rechink.

Inside the Barn

This is the inside of the barn at the second story level. Access is gained by climbing the bank in front of the barn, hence the name "bank barn". This is the level directly above where the animals were kept. There are trap doors in the floor around the edges of the barn so food could be thrown down to the animals below. This is a view of the north granary and hay mow. There is a mirror image granary and hay mow on the south side. In the days before baling, loose hay would be piled up to the ceiling, about 40 feet high. A team of horses would be driven in one side of the barn in front of the hay mow, the hay would be forked into the mow, then they would loop around the back side of the barn, past the opposite side hay mow, then out the doors. This is a truly magnificient building!