Moving is stressful. Moving to an old place that needs a gut renovation is more stressful. Fighting with your spouse every step of the way? That’s a major test. Jason Becton and Patrick Evans, owners of the beloved MarieBette Café & Bakery, were at odds about their new place. “Jason wanted nothing to do with […]
Enlisting your best friends to design and manage the renovation of your home can be a risky endeavor, particularly when you encourage them to exercise creative freedom in designing what you hope will become your dream house. If you don’t like their work, can the friendship survive? That was the question friends often asked photographer […]
We have all seen the perfectly groomed gardens on TV house-flipping shows and in magazines, including this one. Pinterest is a slideshow of landscapes that are intended to inspire creativity but often just lead to feelings of inadequacy. It’s as if these picture-perfect settings were chia pets—just add water and watch them grow! The truth […]
The empty bottles were piling up at Free Union’s Glass House Winery. The recycling service that co-owners Jeff and Michelle Saunders relied on for years had begun hauling the glass to a landfill, which the environmentally conscious couple couldn’t tolerate. At the same time, the winery was increasing production, having gone from six acres under […]
Before it opened in 2017, Common House—the co-working, networking, meeting, dining, and events club on Market Street—sent membership invitations to 100 people, giving the impression that it would be an exclusive place. But not long after it launched, 500 people had joined. Today, with more than 1,000 members and plans to open locations in Richmond […]
The door photography craze can be traced to 1970, when a New York ad exec created a colorful collage of 36 arched Georgian townhouse doorways he shot while on a project in Dublin. As the story goes, the adman showed the assemblage to the head of the Irish tourism office in Manhattan, who commissioned copies […]
Stanhope Spencer Johnson doesn’t pop to the top of the list for most architectural historians, but the Lynchburg-based designer was remarkably prolific in his seven-decade career, and some of his better work—including two buildings on the National Register of Historic Places—can be found in Charlottesville. No one knows Johnson’s work better than our own Carolyn […]
The couple was living in Boston when they started looking for an architect to build their house on a mountaintop in Albemarle County. It would have to be a unique design, one that meshed with their reverence for nature and rigorous commitment to personal fitness (he’s a serious hiker and outdoorsman, she’s an avid runner). […]
Christina Osheim distills a wealth of fine arts education and diverse influences into her ceramics. She studied at Minnesota’s St. Olaf College, the Rhode Island School of Design, and the Cranbrook Academy of Art before establishing her Charlottesville studio, Möbius Keramikk, at 1740 Broadway St. Her wheel-thrown objects (cups and tumblers) and items with stenciled […]
After meeting in college, the couple got married and pursued their respective careers—she as a librarian and he as a patent attorney—living for many years in Delaware. About two years ago, when the time came for them to retire, there was little question they’d end up near Keswick, specifically, on a piece of land connected […]
The graphic artist, web designer, and bookbinder worked in Charlottesville for many years, running her own business. She shifted gears, taking a full-time job at a non-profit. But after a while, she wanted to get back to being her own boss, and to find a way to spend more time in the country, gardening, hiking, […]
Chef Ian Rynecki and gardener Diane Burns modestly refer to their creation at Pippin Hill Farm & Vineyards as a kitchen garden, but the result of their collaboration is nothing less than the ideal template for farm-to-table cooking. Before making his way to Albemarle County in 2017, Rynecki had climbed a ladder with a basket […]
The Charlottesville woman grew up in California wine country—St. Helena, to be precise. Her home, where she lived until she was 16, had a farmhouse feel: open, airy, and not fussy in the least. It was a place for family and friends to gather and literally see one another, without too many walls getting in […]
Ever wonder where those Yodels-like rolls of grass come from that you’ve seen stacked on pallets or laid out in front of a newly built home? From a sod farm, of course. Growing and harvesting sod is a practice that thrives mainly out of sight (and out of mind). But in Orange County, Andy and […]
There’s an air of mystery about the renovated third-floor apartment on the Downtown Mall. A wall of rough-sawn reclaimed white oak treated with bleaching oil runs nearly the entire length of the main room, interrupted only by the rectangular opening that accommodates the black-glass stovetop, kitchen sink, and counter space for food prep. It’s a […]
Leslie and Rich Hock, a real estate agent and commercial pilot, respectively, live the way many of us can only dream of. In the garage beside their home at Eagle’s Nest Airpark, in Waynesboro, they stow their Beechcraft Bonanza, a single-engine four-seater. When they want to visit their daughter, they wing down to Austin, Texas. […]
Compost isn’t a glamorous business, but then again—if it helps you hang onto a big, beautiful piece of land in Albemarle County—maybe it is. The 20-or-so acres that Steve Murray uses to produce compost and mulch at Panorama Paydirt, near Earlysville, have been one way to keep the 850-acre farm in the family. “I raised […]
An interesting housing experiment called Lochlyn Hill is taking shape about two miles east of the Downtown Mall, on the Charlottesville-Albemarle line by Pen Park. Five custom builders currently have a stake in the development, which the promotional material is careful to describe as a neighborhood or community. The architectural portfolio includes country-style homes with […]
Natural Virginia, by Ben Greenberg “The pictures and layout are spectacular. I love being able to share the beauty of the wonderful state of Virginia with out-of-town company when they’re visiting.”—Kori Messenger, Foxchase Design Chasing Bocuse, by Philip Tessier “It’s a dream for designers and foodies—a well-told story of the journey of America’s first chef […]
Starting plants from seed may not be the easiest, or even the most economical, way to supply your garden. It requires investing not only a lot of time, but also money for seeds, potting soil, flats, cell packs, thermometers, those cute little markers, and perhaps heat mats, a cold frame, or small greenhouse. Regardless, the […]
A garage is often a dank, dusty place, cluttered and cobwebby, smelling of gasoline and grass clippings. It’s the last place most homeowners would choose to create a bright, inviting space that could host, say, a wedding party—but a Farmington couple did that and more, with a contemporary renovation of their three-car garage, an addition […]
Centuries before Google Earth and Google Maps, taking the measure of a piece of property was grueling work. A surveyor produced rudimentary descriptions, such as: “Beginning at the white oak, head true north 30 degrees, then east 500 poles to a red oak, then south to the muddy creek.” Lovingston cartographer Mike Crabill, 75, relied […]
For the interior redesign of a large house in a leafy Charlottesville neighborhood, architect Bethany Puopolo reassigned many of its spaces—a family room became the master suite, and the living and dining rooms switched places—in order to make them work better for her clients, a couple with three young children. But the father, the family’s […]