C-VILLE Abode: March 2016

Inside.

Outside.

Home.

MARCH 2016

BRINiG ng!

ON Spr NTS

S & EVE

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Spring to life Prep your garden for warm weather

In residence A county house fit for Faulkner

Interior motives At home with Leftover Luxuries’ Wendi Smith

A Nelson County house takes a playful approach

Fun with form

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MILLRACE FARM - 172 acre turn-key Free Union area farm with beautiful Blue Ridge views and long Buck Mountain Creek frontage. The custom, 3,700 sq. ft. timber-frame home enjoys a private, picturesque setting. A restored 1800’s log home serves as a guesthouse to the residence. Not under conservation easement. $2,495,000

3497 KESWICK ROAD - Kingma Developers craftsmanship at its best. Combining a high level of quality and finishes with efficient design and an elegant layout. Wellproportioned rooms create main level living with two additional bedrooms upstairs. A high-ceilinged, walkout basement allows for additional space. House is close to netzero (low to no power bills) due to state-of the art solar panels, LED lighting and insulation.

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THE MASSEY COTTAGE AT BUNDORAN - A stunning design based on the Southern Living Cottage of the Year. Natural materials, high-end finishes and spacious open living spaces are the hallmark of this thoughtfully designed residence with a firstfloor master. The four bedroom, 3,200 square foot cottage sits on 7 acres in the heart of Bundoran Farm. $1,975,000.

0 PLANK ROAD - A premier Albemarle County lot. This coveted 25 acre equestrian lot in Bundoran Farm is gently rolling lot backs up to 400 acres of land in conservation easement with views across protected, Bundoran Farm.

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DICK WOODS (LOT 2) - 5 acre lot in the Murray District, only 10 easy minutes from town. Sweeping views of the Ragged Mountains and surrounding farmland. Close to 64 allowing easy access to Charlottesville, the University, UVA Medical and Martha Jefferson Hospital. $245,000.

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Blueprint 9 Waterstreet Studio’s Bill Mauzy on the intersection of photography and architecture, a fully loaded octagonal house, a Q&A with designer Wendi Smith and more.

Real Estate 37 William Faulkner was here.

What Remains 38 Birdwood’s lighthouse-shaped water tower.

Cover photo by Philip Beaurline.

Comments? E-mail us at abode@c-ville.com.

308 E. Main St. Charlottesville, VA 22902 (434) 817-2749 n c-ville.com c-ville.com/category/magazines/abode

Features HOME 21

LANDSCAPE 29

When Tom Davidson and Marilyn Mars moved to Nelson County from Florida, they asked Marilyn’s brother, McLean-based architect Randall Mars, to design them something modern, but not minimal.

Cathy Clary, a local gardening teacher and consultant, helps you understand how to prep your garden for warmer weather. No matter your setting, she says, each spring has a common wake-up call.

Playing with form

Spring awakening

ABODE, a supplement to C-VILLE Weekly, is distributed in Charlottesville, Albemarle County and the Shenandoah Valley. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Editor Jessica Luck. Special Publications Editor Caitlin White. Copy Editor Susan Sorensen. Creative Director Bill LeSueur. Graphic Designers Harding Coughter, Henry Jones, Max March, Lorena Perez. New Media Director Gabriel Rodriguez. Retail Advertising Manager Bianca J. Johnson. Senior Account Executive Greg Allen.

Account Executive Katie Harper. Classified Advertising Manager Ashley Wood. Classified Account Executive Kristen Canseco. Production Coordinator Billy Dempsey. Publisher Aimee Atteberry. Chief Financial Officer Debbie Miller. Circulation Manager Miguel Coradine. Account Manager Randi Henry. ©2016 C-VILLE Weekly.

ABODE 5

ABODE

EVENTS THIS MONTH

ROBERT LLEWELLYN

Spring Vegetable Planting Saturday, March 12, 10am-noon A two-hour, hands-on workshop with gardening tips and practical advice for spring gardening. Participants will start seeds from the Monticello garden to take home with them. $28, meet at Jefferson’s Tufton Farm. monticello.org

Make the the Make theMake SMART MOVE SMART MOVE SMART MOVE

From Seed to Sky: Micro and Macro Perspectives in Photography Wednesday, March 16, 4-5:30pm Albemarle resident and professional photographer Robert Llewellyn, whose name you may recognize as a contributor to Abode, participates in a talk on Seeing Seeds: A Journey into the World of Seedheads, Pods, and Fruit by Teri Dunn Chase. UVA Harrison Institute/Small Special Collections (UVA Central Grounds, 160 McCormick Rd.). vabook.org

Monticello in Mind: Fifty Contemporary Poems on Jefferson Sunday, March 20, 3-4:30pm Ten prominent poets share their work from Monticello in Mind at this national book launch. Hosted by Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello and presented at the Virginia Festival of the Book. David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center: The Woodland Pavilion (931 Thomas Jefferson Pkwy.). vabook.org

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Thursday, March 24, 10am-noon Monticello fruit gardener Jessica Bryars leads this two-hour class aimed at demystifying the practice of pruning. Learn proper techniques for apples, peaches, pears and cherries. Meet at The Shop at Monticello, David M. Rubenstein Visitor Center. monticello.org

Beauty, Integrity, Resilience: Can a Garden Have Everything?

Thursday, March 31, 7-8:30pm Can we make a difference to the environment by changing the way we approach design, plant choice, planting techniques and maintenance regimes? Designer, naturalist and educator Cole Burrell leads this talk to give you new insights into making beautiful gardens that provide the environment necessary to maintain insects and birds. Albemarle County Office Building (1600 Fifth St. Extended). piedmontmastergardeners.org

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Blueprint ARCHITECTURE

A house of many sides FINISHES

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Leftover Luxuries’ Wendi Smith on design A LINE TO DESIGN

BILL MAUZY

Forced perspective Landscape architect Bill Mauzy uses photography to shape his design ABODE 9

BLUEPRINT

B

ARCHITECTURE

ill Mauzy has been a Virginia resident all his life. As he says, it’s a wonderful place “to make art and gardens,” which, as a landscape architect with Waterstreet Studio and a photographer, is exactly what he does. “I’ve come to consider myself more as an artist who practices landscape architecture than a landscape architect who also makes art,” Mauzy says. But the two are far from mutually exclusive. In fact, his photography work often affords Mauzy the chance to see his work through a different—pardon the pun—lens.

“It’s a challenge, but the art work helps and continually points to new ways of working and thinking about the design process,” he says. Here, he tells us about getting into landscape architecture, how his music factors in and what he’s working on currently.—Caite White

fact, in most instances, our work is reliant on change. The work of making a garden is only begun when the construction ends. The only constant in life is change. In this way, I feel like my work is a practice not only of making places and space, but also a practice of understanding life.

Why did you choose to practice in Virginia?

Why landscape architecture?

“It is not enough to be busy. So are the ants. The question is: What are we busy about?”—Henry David Thoreau At some point in the past I decided that I wanted to spend my time and energy creating beauty and contributing something positive to the world. The idea of being a landscape architect lay dormant until around 2000. The birth of my

AMY JACKSON

son that year spurred me to take a longer view, and I was accepted to the Master of Landscape Architecture program at Virginia Tech in 2003.

In hindsight, landscape architecture seems inevitable in my life. From the time of my earliest memories, I’ve been drawn to the natural world, plants and animals. When I was a child my family would make frequent trips into the mountains of Virginia and West Virginia to visit grandparents. At a very early age I remember being fascinated by the landscapes we traveled through and curious about how they seemed to affect emotions. I also had a creative streak and spent much time drawing, making models, building forts.

Then as a teen I learned to play banjo and spent many years making music in local bands.

One aspect of landscape architecture that I find particularly appealing is its embrace, when well practiced, of impermanence and change. In 10 ABODE

I’ve never been one to follow a career from place to place. To the contrary, I think place has profoundly influenced my sense of what career and avocation might be feasible and desirable. In recent years I’ve traveled more, been tempted by and even fallen in love with the mountain west, the Southwest, coastal New England, the coastal South, but Virginia remains a wellspring of inspiration and comfort and is simply the place I want to be.

The somewhat abstract, hard-to-define concept referred to as sense of place is a key factor in my creative endeavors. It’s important both as a point of departure and as a grounding element that informs meaningful work. I identify deeply with the Shenandoah Valley, the Appalachian Mountains and, to a lesser degree, with the South.

Being a creative person or an artist from the South has a particular gravity. There’s the emotional weight of the landscape, its central position in the imaginative lives of those from the South, memory, the weight of history.

The photographer Sally Mann writes about this well in her book, Deep South: “To identify a person as a Southerner suggests not only that her history is inescapable and formative but that it is also impossibly present. Southerners live uneasily at the nexus between myth and reality... against a backdrop of profligate physical beauty.”

What a wonderful setting for the making of art and gardens.

What was childhood like and how did it lead you to design?

One of the formative experiences of my childhood was being present for the construction of my parents’ house. They were do-it-yourselfers.

While they were building, I watched and learned fundamental lessons about how things get built and the value of hard work. I also spent many happy hours making Tonka toy-sized roads, rivers and hills out of the “mountain” of topsoil stockpiled on site. I think this is where the idea of working with the land was planted.

Also, my mom was an avid gardener and plant collector. She often recruited me to help her in our garden. That must have made an impression on me. In high school I began working with landscape contractors during the summers.

I began playing bluegrass and old-time string band music at the age of 12, eventually learning to

play, with reasonable efficacy, all of the typical instruments except fiddle. There’s something elemental about good mountain music—it seems to have seeped into my soul. Though I no longer play seriously, music is still important to me and the experiences I had—the lessons I learned—heavily influence both my design work and photography.

The feeling of a groove. Simplicity. Soul. Rhythm.

Timing. Syntax. Balance. Harmony. Counterpoint. How to convey emotion. Persistence. Practice then trust in intuition, i.e., perfect then forget.

It’s so interesting to me how artforms that have the outward appearance of being completely different are in fact so similar in fundamental ways.

On process: How does it begin?

The most critical aspect of process for me is spending focused time with a place, without thought of outcome, developing an intuitive sense of it. Ideally this comes long before pencil is put to paper. Following that, there’s typically a period of study that involves analysis of the various environmental, legal and social factors that affect the site. Then, I try to forget it all. Not literally forget, but try to let the facts of place and program, once considered, fall away to the background, so that meaningful, unforced design solutions can begin to emerge.

The importance of this practice has been reinforced by my work in photography. My approach to photography relies heavily on intuition, looking beyond the readily obvious surface appearance of a thing or place, and when it’s all working, true seeing. The technique can be applied to garden design and site planning with equal effectiveness.

Design iterations and ultimately solutions proceed from that basic understanding.

Beyond those initial steps, the design process at Waterstreet Studio is highly collaborative.

Ideas are freely exchanged between junior and senior designers. There’s an open dialogue between our designers and clients. It’s always our goal to make spaces that meet our clients’ needs and inspire them. No one person can take credit for the outcome.

What inspires you?

The wild. Time spent in the wild. Trees. Mountains.

Streams. Poetry. Simple, honest, soulful music.

A handful of photographers. Gardens that stand the test of time. Good conversation. My family.

When I make photographs I concentrate on subtleties: light and shadow, surface variations, temporal changes, precise spatial relationships, perceived mood, emotion, and I try to preserve these qualities in the prints I make; to create the potential for visceral experience by the viewer. All these qualities are available to the garden-maker as well, but I think the intensity with which I en-

BLUEPRINT

ARCHITECTURE

PHOTOGRAPHY: BILL MAUZY

“The only constant in life is change. In this way, I feel like my work is a practice not only of making places and space, but also a practice of understanding life.”

Among Bill Mauzy’s projects (clockwise from top) are a parking court, fire pit and lawn terrace in North Garden and an herb garden at a Barracks Road residence.

On the previous page, pond plantings near the UVA Foundation office.

gage these when making photographs is altogether a different experience. Whenever possible, I try to bring that intensity to the experience of a site and translate that into the built work.

Eastern philosophies have profoundly shaped my life and work. While I don’t identify with the religious tenets of Buddhism and Taoism, the worldviews and sensitivities conveyed in certain writings from those traditions, along with the paintings, poetry and other art they inspired, have provided a structure and touchstone for the growth of my own work. The natural world as source, solace and inspiration. The role of artifice and metaphor. Embrace of balanced asymmetry. Recognition of the importance of emptiness. Celebration of the seasons. Beauty in impermanence, change and even death. I don’t

pretend to fully understand these ideas and their implications for garden making, but I intuit their rightness and can see that my work is increasingly less plastic, more authentic.

What are you currently working on?

I am heavily involved with several projects now under construction including an enchanting mountainside garden that complements a rustic log cabin off Taylors Gap Road, a garden renovation for a former caretaker’s house in Farmington and a meditation garden for a historic residence near Milton. We are also in the early stages of implementation for a sanctuary garden at the Blue Ridge School and developing planning documents that will guide improvements to the historic garden at The Valentine museum in Richmond.

In addition to landscape architecture, I’m quite busy with photography at present. In the near term (this spring) I’ll be working to put finishing touches on a long-term project that focuses on spring ephemeral wildflowers of the Appalachian and Blue Ridge mountains. I also have a number of commissions for architectural and landscape photography in the planning stages. Most notably, I spent the month of February in Zion National Park as an artist-inresidence with the National Park Service. Zion is a crown jewel of the national park system, and I am honored to have been selected to serve in this capacity.

To see Bill’s photography work, visit mauzy photography.com.

ABODE 11

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12 ABODE

BLUEPRINT

ARCHITECTURE

DESIGN SEEN

Eight sides of efficient The Octagonal Living Unit redefines small

ADAM BARNES

T

here’s an enduring appeal to the idea of a compact dwelling that can go up fast— it’s been expressed in everything from the teepee to the mobile home. In the zeitgeist of the moment, it’s the phrase “tiny house” that holds currency. Down in Amherst County, sculptor Craig Pleasants has created his own version of the easy-to-build, inexpensive shelter. He calls it the Octagonal Living Unit.

Pleasants’ interest in small, eight-sided houses goes back to 1981, when he and his wife, Sheila, built an octagonal dwelling in North Carolina. It was just the two of them then. Constructed with a traditional “stick” frame, it wasn’t easy to build.

“The angles made it difficult,” says Pleasants.

In other ways, though, the house was a big success—“remarkably airy-feeling,” he remembers. The octagonal shape made it feel bigger than it was, as did the generous number of windows and a high ceiling. The couple lived there for three years, comfortably. “It never felt crowded or claustrophobic,” he says—though it was less than 500 square feet in size.

Fast-forward to about a decade ago, when Pleasants learned about Virginia-made ThermaSteel panels—steel and polystyrene panels that arrive with door and window openings precut, ready to fasten together. They provide structure, insulation and vapor barrier all in one, and they come in a standard 4'x8' size.

“I said, ‘This is the way to build this octagonal house and make it reproducible,’” says Pleasants. “I could engineer this house as a do-ityourself kit.”

After a lot of experimenting, Pleasants arrived at a design that matched exactly the footprint of his original octagonal house: 20' across, with each wall being 8' in length. One big change was that the hip roof turned into a shed roof—meaning that “the upstairs is completely usable,” says Pleasants. The Octagonal Living Unit (OLU) has 300 square feet of downstairs space and a 150-square-foot loft upstairs: enough, Pleasants says, for a tiny bedroom and bathroom.

At $34,000, the kit includes all the wall and roof panels, doors and windows, Ply-Bead exterior siding and tin roofing, plus loft structure and hardware. Interior finishes are left to the buyer to provide. “It can be done very inexpen-

The Octagonal Living Unit kit can be constructed in three weeks, says creator Craig Pleasants. Visit sculptorhouse.com to find out more.

sively or in a much more luxurious way,” Pleasants says.

Visit the prototype at the Pleasants’ home outside Amherst, and you’ll first be struck by the playful exterior, painted in various shades of yellow and enlivened by a jaunty arrangement of small windows on the second floor. Inside, it’s finished to reflect its purpose as an art studio: particleboard walls painted white and handsome maple flooring. Though it’s wired for a mini-split heater, Pleasants relies only on a small space heater, which in this energy-efficient structure is enough to keep things toasty.

Pleasants sees the OLU as embodying many possibilities—simple or swanky, vacation cot-

tage or primary home. One could reach the loft with a ship’s ladder, spiral staircase or regular staircase.

The common denominator is that the OLU is easy to put up. “Three people can put this kit up in three weeks,” says Pleasants. Completing the prototype—including interior finishes—took 600 man-hours altogether.

Pleasants has spent years exploring the intersection of sculpture and architecture, building structures out of materials as diverse as cigarette cartons, secondhand shirts and morning glories.

The OLU is an extension of his art practice. “I see it as a piece of sculpture that you live in,” he says.—Erika Howsare ABODE 13

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BLUEPRINT

FINISHES

Phone home

Top-shelf home security systems have gone from sci-fi to Wi-Fi

Reliable detection The logistics of motion sensors and door and window trip alarms haven’t changed much in the past decade, according to Travis Toms of Charlottesville’s Mechums River Security. They’re still mounted much the same as they’ve always been and monitored by an off-site team ready to call the homeowner at the hint of wrongdoing. But they have become more reliable.

“In terms of motion sensors, the equipment manufacturers have spent a lot of time making sure there are fewer accidental trips,” says Jim Ragsdale, president of local home electronics firm Arcane Technologies. “The false alarms have been a big negative for a long time.”

Ragsdale says if there is a false alarm, monitoring companies these days have multiple checks and balances in place beyond the analog password to make sure they get it right before calling the cops.

Cord cutting Motion sensors have—like so many modern electronics—gone wireless. That means security system installation is now simpler and more efficient.

FILE PHOTO

Y

ou’re away from home on a business trip.

Your cell phone buzzes in your pocket.

It’s an alert from your home security app.

There’s been a breach in one of your living room windows.

Your phone rings. It’s your home security monitoring company. They’ve detected the breach and will send a police officer unless you say it was a false alarm.

You flip over to your home security app and view the feed from your exterior camera. There’s someone trying to break in. But as the sound of Albemarle County Police Department sirens approach, the would-be burglar takes off running.

This type of home security suite would have been considered pie in the sky only about a decade ago. But according to local security professionals, as networking and cameras become more efficient, home security systems have entered the space age. Here’s a look at the latest advancements in technology designed to keep you and yours safe and sound.

“I think that’s the biggest change,” Ragsdale says. “It gives you the opportunity to retrofit homes now where before you had to fish for wires. And that capability has come a long way. It’s more stable.

It makes it accessible for a lot more homeowners.”

That doesn’t mean you have to go wireless.

Toms says Mechums has customers who still prefer the peace of mind of a wired system.

Better cameras Modern digital video recorders are smaller and offer higher resolutions at lower price points, which means video monitoring isn’t just for commercial customers anymore.

“Networking cameras increases the number that can be installed so you have better coverage and it allows for easier remote monitoring,” Ragsdale says. “It’s completely software based, so it can be programmed to provide analytics.”

That means masses of video data can be analyzed more quickly to determine if anything is amiss on a homeowner’s property, and the higher resolution allows the cameras to pick up more of what’s going on.

“We are doing a lot more cameras,” Toms says.

“Where it was mostly more commercial, we’re seeing a lot of residential clients putting in cameras so they can view video any time on their laptops and tablets.”

It’s a technology that requires more participation on the part of the user, Ragsdale says, but it’s worth it for a lot of customers. Not only can it show the type of breach that occurred during a break-in attempt, it can be used to monitor delivery people who come to the door or make sure the kids get in the house safely after dark.

Full networking Where home security systems long relied on landlines to link with homeowners, cell phones are now king of the castle. “Landlines are going by the wayside,” Ragsdale says.

But that’s just the beginning. Modern security systems are part of a larger home data collection mechanism, according to Ragsdale. “There are more and more components and appliances that are able to give us data,” he says. “They can be automated and incorporated into an overall residential system. The security system becomes one more element that is giving back metadata.”

The systems have long been capable of linking up with smoke and fire detectors, Toms says, but now they can also network with interior and exterior lighting and other systems.

All of the systems, from security to your washer and dryer, can be controlled in the palm of your hand. “The technology is just a lot faster and better now,” Toms says.­—Shea Gibbs ABODE 15

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Favorite designer?

endi Smith has been in the design business for more than 20 years, beginning with commercial design work in New York City—from the Chase Bank trading floor to a standardizing two floors for Citibank in the MetLife Building on Park Avenue. “I have done everything from a brand new, 17,000-square-foot space to just helping firsttime homeowners pick out paint colors,” she says. “I love what I do.”

In 2009, Smith founded Leftover Luxuries, a pop-up consignment shop for antique and contemporary home wares, and has since expanded it from Charlottesville to cities across the nation.

We asked her to tell us about her favorite colors and textures and what she believes can really transform a room.—Caite White

While attending interior design school in NYC over 20 years ago, I fell in love with Mario Buatta. I love the way he layers a room in patterns, color and texture.

Which design blog, website, TV show or magazine do you peruse religiously?

Architectural Digest, Dwell and Veranda.

Décor-wise, what should a homeowner never scrimp on?

Art. It doesn’t have to be expensive, but there should be a painting or artistic photograph in every room. It truly adds character on any budget.

What are you afraid to DIY? Probably wallpaper.

What do you wish you could do without?

Social media—it just sucks me in. For business

Antique or modern?

it has been a terrific tool, but I have had to set time limits!

What is your most treasured possession?

Besides my children, my jewelry. The pieces handed down from the different generations.

If you could live in one historical figure’s house, whose would it be?

I have always been obsessed with Coco Chanel— her place in Paris. She once said, “An interior is a natural projection of the soul.” Even though she slept next door at the Ritz, the apartment is an embodiment of her aesthetic and the spirit of a thoroughly modern woman who had the same irreverent approach to her home and fashion as she did with her life.

For more information, visit the Leftover Luxuries warehouse or go online to leftoverluxuries.com.

I love mixing both, but if I had to choose what to be surrounded by for the rest of my life, it would definitely be antiques. I love knowing the backstory on pieces.

Which colors do you gravitate toward?

I love lavender and blues—something so soothing.

Yet, my home has lots of rusts, blues and greens, which are very welcoming. Once my boys are grown and on their own, I would love to redo my home— all upholstered “soft” pieces, anything with fabric to be done in white, surrounded by rich woods and splashes of lavender and gold throughout.

What is your favorite interior designrelated word?

Scale and warmth.

Does your home look like the one you grew up in?

What’s one thing that can really transform a room?

Definitely lighting, but I’m also going to throw in paint color. If you want to change a room, I love starting with the color of it.

BRIANNA LAROCCO

Not even. I grew up in Southern California in the ’70s/’80s—a completely different vibe. But, I definitely do think I picked up a trait of my father’s: Every time we moved, as a little girl I would go to bed with the house being in total chaos, and, when I woke, it would be in order and complete.

I do not like unfinished rooms in my own home.

Even if I use a fill-in somewhere, I know that when I find the right piece, it will be replaced.

Wendi Smith says her favorite room in her home is the bedroom. “It is my quiet place,” she says. “When helping a client, I always encourage them to ‘finish’ their bedroom— it should be your tranquil place.”

ABODE 17

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ABODE 21

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T

om Davidson and Marilyn Mars love to laugh, and their house shows it.

When they moved to Nelson County from Florida, they sought a modern dwelling, commissioning Marilyn’s brother Randall Mars, a McLean-based architect, to design it. Though clean lines attracted them, Marilyn says, this house—full of colorful, detailed art and objects—is anything but minimal. Warmth and playfulness are the watchwords here.

The couple met and married in Tampa, and when retirement approached, they decided to return to Virginia, where they’d both previously lived. “We wanted to get away from city life,” says Tom. Seeking a rural property of about 50 acres, they eventually found a parcel in Faber.

Though it wasn’t photogenic at the time (the seller had knocked down a blighted pine forest), the pair responded to its underlying topography, which slopes down toward a creek.

It was a place where they could enjoy total privacy and lovely views. “We wanted to see where we were,” says Tom. Accordingly, one of the major requests they made to the architect was to include many big windows. At the same time, their considerable art collection demanded plenty of wall space.

Both Marilyn and Tom would need offices, and they wanted guest rooms to make visitors comfortable during lengthy stays—“more than one or two nights,” says Tom. “People can disappear from us and we from them.”

Given the setting, they also wanted to allow overnighters and dinner party guests alike to easily flow outside, to the terrace, deck and roof deck.

“We didn’t want a particularly formal house,” says Tom. Mars’ solution elegantly separates public and private spaces: Common areas occupy a onestory wing with a shed roof, while bedrooms and bathrooms are in an adjacent three-story “silo.”

The two volumes are quite distinct, linked by an interstitial office space, and they evince very different characters: The public space is essentially open-plan, with soaring ceilings, while the bedrooms offer enclosure and privacy.

While the couple currently uses the second floor as a master suite, they’ll be able to switch places with guests in the future if the stairs become too tough. “Randy was very accommodating,” says Marilyn, “working with us on what he knew we would want to have, down the road.”

A flat roof structure shades and protects the couple’s outdoor gatherings. “The front is very much a social space, where the back is more private and preserves the view without encouraging social interaction,” says architect Randall Mars.

a detail that could read as austere, but not in this case. “We didn’t want people to think we were too serious, so we put all this stuff out,” says Marilyn, showing off a collection of tiny, kitschy figures that live on the shelf.

Mars brought plenty of surprises of his own to this project. Inside the fairly simple arrangement of volumes that compose the house, there are many unexpected moments. One of these struck Tom soon after the house was done and furnished. He sat down on a couch, gazed toward a pair of floor-to-ceiling windows that comprise the opposite corner, and noticed for the first time the complexity of wall and ceiling angles—sub-

The house, which the owners call Slowdog Run, contains a high level of detail, both in terms of architecture and the finishes, accents and objects that its occupants have furnished. One small example is a bumpout on the backside of the fireplace, which creates a very shallow shelf, the height of a chair rail, near the dining table. It’s

VIRGINIA HAMRICK

The little things

tle variations on the standard 90 degrees—that faced him.

“The ‘silo’ and public areas are orthogonally organized,” explains Mars. “The office bar cuts through them, creating a diagonal element, which adds a certain dynamic character to the space.”

This occurs in what the owners call the “anteroom” to the first-floor guest suite, a space that, tucked against the staircase, could have been nothing more than a hallway. With a bit of extra square footage and abundant natural light, courtesy of the fully glazed corner bumpout, it becomes an appealing den.

The details answer practical needs, like the long wall of built-in bookcases, deep enough for two layers of books, in Tom’s office. But they also serve up pure aesthetic delight, as in the sliding glass doors on the upper kitchen cabinets, with glass panels by 3form that include real pressed ginkgo leaves.

Materials such as dark-red cherry cabinets, slate bathroom tile in variegated shades and maple flooring bring ample warmth to this home. The owners’ taste, though very contemporary, is maximalist rather than minimalist, as exemplified by the light fixture over the dining table, the Mikado by LZF—a sculptural, birdlike creation made of thin strips of wood.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 25

ABODE 23

• In town location • Albemarle County • Exquisiste 2-7 acre homesites • Stunning mountain views • Sites ready for your new home

24 ABODE

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VIRGINIA HAMRICK PHILIP BEAURLINE

VIRGINIA HAMRICK

PHILIP BEAURLINE PHILIP BEAURLINE

While the homeowners’ style is maximalist rather than minimalist, austere elements like the fireplace provide a simple, smooth counterpoint to the home’s other aesthetic details, such as the sliding glass doors on the upper kitchen cabinets, with glass panels by 3form that include real pressed ginkgo leaves.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 23

Finding balance Pivot doors, which are anchored by pins rather than hinges, are a striking modern touch, as are the use of split-face concrete block and vertical mahogany planks on the exterior. Mars allowed different materials to delineate the various volumes of the house, emphasizing their separateness.

Yet the Southern vernacular lives on in the sleeping porch off the upper-floor bedroom, cementitious siding (which mimics clapboard) and the standing-seam metal roofs.

Perhaps the fireplace is the element that best marries old and new. Made of poured concrete

by Alexander Kitchin of Fine Concrete, it is a nod

to the couple’s former home. That house, a century-old Cotswold cottage in Tampa, featured a poured concrete hearth too, though it was meant to look like stone. This one is unapologetically itself, smooth and minimal, and, as Marilyn says, “It’s such a nice counterpoint to the art.”

Outdoor spaces provide for both togetherness and solitude. “The concrete wall defining the front court is ultimately designed to support a simple flat roof structure, to shade and protect gatherings,” says Mars. “The front is very much a social space, where the back is more private and preserves the view without encouraging social interaction.”

It’s a formula that seems to be working for the residents. Contemplating their home, says Marilyn, “Tom and I pinch ourselves regularly.”

THE BREAKDOWN Square footage: 2,400 square feet Structural system: Conventional framing with precast concrete panel basement walls Exterior material: Mahogany siding, split-faced concrete block, cementitious siding Interior finishes: Maple flooring, concrete fireplace surround Roof materials: Standing seam metal, rubber membrane Window system: Weathershield windows and doors Mechanical systems: Conventional furnace and air handler General contractor: Abrahamse and Co. Builders, Inc.

ABODE 25

Everyone Deserves a Slice of the Pie Special Olympics • JABA • Blue Ridge Area Food Bank Salvation Army • Albemarle HS Chorus • Monticello HS Independence Resource Center • Toy Lift • March of Dimes Goodwill Industries • Thomas Jefferson Food Bank • SARA Make A Wish Foundation • St. Judes • Kluge Children’s Rehab • Habitat for Humanity • Ronald McDonald House Mosby Foundation • Shelter for Help in Emergency ARC of the Piedmont • Albemarle Fire & Rescue Virginia Wounded Warrior Program • Caring for Creatures • ARC of the Piedmont • SPCA • SOCA

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GO SOLAR

Ground control Prepping your garden for its spring awakening

BY CATHY CLARY ABODE 29

WHAT’S THE BEST REASON to live in Charlottesville?

the music

events

The University of Virginia McIntire Department of Music presents over 100 concerts and events every year.

UVA Jazz Ensemble, directed by John D’earth Saturday, February 27, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall Virginia Sinfonietta Sunday, February 28, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall

FIND OUT MORE: music.virginia.edu/subscribe facebook.com/uvamusic twitter.com/uvamusic music.virginia.edu/events 434.924.3052 UVA Chamber Music Series: Nathaniel Lee, Trombone With The American Tormbone Quartet Monday, February 29, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall

Will Dickinson: Distinguished Major Conducting Recital * Saturday, March 19, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall BrassFest Concert * Sunday, March 20, 3:30 pm, Old Cabell Hall

Birdsong/Bachsong: Sonic Pleasures of Spring * In Celebration of J.S. Bach’s Birthday Monday, March 21, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall Doug Spaniol, Bassoon Recital * Thursday, March 24, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall

UVA Chamber Music Series: Daniel Sender, Violin Monday, March 28, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall Charlottesville Symphony: Variations for Spring Saturday, April 2, 8 pm, Old Cabell Hall Sunday, April 3, 3:30 pm, Old Cabell Hall

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“I joined Montague, Miller & Co REALTORS after completing my US Air Force career. Real estate was always my passion, so the transition was natural. Buying and selling homes while living in five states exposed me to several different real estate environments, which help me in the diverse Charlottesville area markets.

I understand the stress of moving into a new town, not knowing the area at all, and needing to find a home. I also know the process of buying and selling is still stressful even if you have lived here your whole life. My job is to make sure the process is as smooth and comfortable as possible.

Buying or selling a home is an adventure. Let me help you enjoy the ride!”

Paul D. McArtor, REALTOR Military Relocation Professional Licensed Sales Associate in Commonwealth of VA

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30 ABODE

comes to us variously—covered in mud, blasted through on dry winds, smuggled beneath the skirts of late freezes. It has been known to rise gloriously from a burgeoning earth like the first day of Eden, which seems likely this year. Abundant moisture from rain and snow portend a spectacular flowering of classic favorites: dogwood, azalea, spirea, deutzia and early bulbs are on schedule to explode in a riot of white and pastels.

That kind of display takes a bit of planning (start your calendar now), but a good spring fluff-up and judicious planting from newly stocked garden centers will work wonders.

Whether you have a pocket handkerchief courtyard, extensive shrubberies and an allée of trees along the drive or something in between, each spring has a common wake-up call.

Give established beds a thorough grooming, removing dead branches and handing out leaves from the center of shrubs and perennials. After raking, if you’ve still got 2-3" of mulch, don’t add more until fall. Shrubs, perennials and ground covers benefit from pine bark, leaf mold or compost-based mulch.

Avoid leaf blowers that blast the ground, requiring new mulch every year. Well-tended grounds restrict blowers to hard surfaces. When used regularly as a way to clean planting beds, blowing compacts the soil and wastes valuable amendments. Avoid also the shame of volcano mounds of mulch around trees; rake it away from the trunk in a wide circle, preferably out to the drip line, to a depth of 2-3" of shredded hardwood, least likely to wash and the best mulch for woody plants.

Fall is ideal for amending soil, so resist corporate advertising and go light on fertilizers other than compost and other slow-release organics. Spring is when high nitrogen chemical fertilizers wash into the bay to feed destructive CONTINUED ON PAGE 33

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ABODE 31

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32 ABODE

To help develop buds for next year, azaleas are best fertilized with a slow-release product.

Early bulbs

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31

Put these on the calendar for late-summer orders (try vanengelen.com and brentandbeckysbulbs.com).

Crocus Muscari Snowdrops (galanthus) Siberian squills (scilla) Tete-a-tete miniature daffodils

FIZYKAA

algae blooms. Don’t contribute to this. Contact Piedmont Master Gardeners’ Healthy Virginia Lawns program at hvl.albemarle@vt.edu to find out how to grow a sustainable greensward.

Azaleas are best fertilized with an organic acidic slowrelease product like Holly Tone after they bloom, to help develop buds for next year. Flowers for this spring have already formed and an application of fertilizer before blooming can lead to a spurt of excessive foliar growth that obscures the flowers. Pine needles are a good mulch for azaleas and rhododendrons.

Most of us know not to trim azaleas this time of year, but often mistakes are made with viburnums and blue hydrangeas, which also carry their flower buds through the winter. For all spring-flowering shrubs, the best rule is to prune immediately after flowering. Summer bloomers like butterfly bush and white hydrangeas are usually cut back one- to two-thirds in March. Cut ornamental grasses, including liriope (“monkey grass”), to the ground before they start making new growth (and before mulching).

Evergreen shrubs can be tricky. Hollies love a hard cutback this time of year. Boxwood, on the other hand, like any Southern lady, prefers a softer hand, with individual “plucking” cuts opening up the interior to light and air.

They resent the insulting assault of electric trimmers and will decline over time when treated this way. Although sometimes in the same bed, boxwood thrives in a neutral soil; hollies like it acidic. Don’t inadvertently lime the hollies when you’re amending the lawn and don’t put Holly Tone on the boxwoods.

Local garden centers are best for variety and, naturally, locally grown plants. Check out Eltzroth-Thompson, Southern States, Snow’s Garden Center, Ivy Nursery, Ivy Corner and Fifth Season Gardening to look for early bloomers (see sidebar). If you’ve been thinking about adding an ornamental tree like dogwood, redbud or cherry, now’s the time.

For those who actually like to touch the earth instead of mulch it, March heralds the magical time when the ground can be turned—not too wet, not frozen. Start that little vegetable patch or raised bed you’ve dreamed about and direct sow spinach, mesclun (mixed baby greens), carrots, radishes and Jefferson’s beloved pea sometime this month when the soil temperature hits 50 degrees.

Websites such as johnnyseeds.com and southernexposure. com will tell you all you need to know.

Ushered in by the equinox on March 21, however spring beguiles us, well-planned gardens and grounds will be ready.

ABODE 33

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Albemarle, Albemarle!

County living, with English-major cachet

S

PHOTOGRAPHY: STEPHEN BARLING

ometimes, knowing something about a place’s history is a total game-changer.

Imagine looking at a decrepit log cabin, then being told it was Abraham Lincoln’s boyhood home. You’d see it differently. Now imagine looking at a diminutive, aging Albemarle cottage. Would you be inclined to look again, knowing it once housed William Faulkner?

Let’s back up. Just off Owensville Road is a four-bedroom house, built in 1956. It sits at the entrance to a new subdivision, as yet mostly unbuilt, where the lots are marked along a straight, lonely road. The old house, at this moment, is a little bit like an island from the past, surrounded by a future that’s still taking shape.

If you keep your eyes on the immediate surroundings, you’ll feel a pleasantly timeworn Albemarle vibe here. The driveway circles through mature boxwoods, and a brick walk leads to the front door. Impressive trees—willow oak, magnolia, beech—grace the lawn.

Inside, though it’s recently been updated, the house is clearly a product of its time. There are things about the layout that now seem dated: the separateness of the rooms and the way the kitchen juts out from the back of the house in a long, narrow volume that isolates the cook from the rest of the house. On the second floor, the bedrooms and bathrooms offer hardly a glimpse of the outdoors, since the windows are almost exclusively located in very narrow dormers.

“Quirky” shades into “charming” and back again. The downstairs rooms boast an interesting collection of lovely, old-fashioned door hardware, each knob and handle a pleasure to touch. In the finished basement, there’s an Old Europe style comprising diamond windows, an oversized fireplace with copper hood and exposed ceiling beams.

This 1956 four-bedroom home in Albemarle is also the site of a cabin (below) where William Faulkner once stayed, presumably during his time as a visiting writer at UVA.

The breakdown

There are odd surprises—the lack bathroom cottage did indeed sleep of headroom on the stair landing; the likes of William Faulkner—prethe enormous walk-in closet off the sumably near the end of his life, basement-level bedroom—and adwhen he was a visiting writer at UVA. vantages that most houses can’t of- Address: 2107 Reivers Run It must have seemed a downgrade fer, like the storybook oak tree in the MLS#: 530688 from his usual stately quarters at backyard that becomes a presence in Year built: 1956 Rowan Oak in Mississippi, but, takevery room along the rear of the Acreage: 2.43 en on its own terms, is a sweet little house, including the pleasant master Bedrooms: 4, plus 2 in place, with a surprising amount of cottage bedroom. square footage.

4 full, 2 half, plus As for the update mentioned above, Baths: It’s fun to imagine that a master 2 in cottage it includes the kitchen (done in a Square footage Southern novelist called this place nice-but-standard palette of cherry, (finished): 5,355 home. What did he think of the view black granite and stainless steel) and Extras: Two-car garage from the cottage’s little brick patio? the bathrooms. All four of these are List price: $774,500 How large were the trees then? done in the same rather dull design: That vista has changed since Faulkthe black and white style, complete with subway ner’s day, and is set to keep on changing: From tile, that’s been de rigueur for years now. here, and from the main house, the next owners In all, the house is absolutely clean, spacious, will have a front-row seat as those empty lots get detailed and probably very liveable as long as filled in with big new dwellings. you don’t have too many kids who require large The special history at this property definitely windows in their rooms. lends a bit of sparkle. The developers of the new Now, about that cottage. According to the subdivision must have thought so, too: They’ve listing agent, the separate two-bedroom, twonamed it Faulkner Falls.—Erika Howsare

It’s fun to imagine that a master Southern novelist called this place home. What did he think of the view from the cottage’s little brick patio? How large were the trees then?

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STEPHEN BARLING

Allegedly built by a few of Thomas Jefferson’s workmen during the construction of the University of Virginia, Birdwood, a two-story brick house west of Charlottesville, was a plantation in 1850, producing tobacco, wool, butter, corn and wheat. While the estate is now used for university functions, there are still hints of the early property’s lavish ornamental gardens and a unique lighthouse-shaped water tower on the lawn added around 1910 by Hollis Rinehart. The owner of a civil engineering and construction company, Rinehart was familiar with lighthouse design, both form and function, and thus appropriated it for the pavilion grounds to collect water channeled from the Ragged Mountain Natural Area.—Caite White

417 Park St. Charlottesville VA, 22902 t: 434.296.0134 f: 434.296.9730

C O U N T RY L I V I N G I N V I RG I N IA

FRANKHARDY.COM

Sunnyfields c. 1830 - Completely renovated and historically significant home, previously owned and built by Thomas Jefferson’s builder, William Phillips. Surrounded by 330 acres under easement, this country property lies between Monticello and Ashlawn, with Jefferson Vineyards as its direct neighbor. Over 11,000 sf with 5 bedrooms and 6 full baths, amenities include a gunite heated pool, tennis court, and beautifully restored guest house. A superb location, only 5 miles from downtown.

Ann Hay Hardy 202.297.0228 ahhhardy@frankhardy.com

Blandemar Farm Estates - Sitting on 42 acres, this french inspired manor overlooks a pond. A home with both indoor and outdoor entertaining spaces, complete with Bluestone porches, pool and covered loggia with outdoor fireplace. Built by Alexander Nicholson, no expense was spared with features like copper guttering, slate roof and mahogany doors. The 1st floor master has large walk in closet, master bathroom with separate vanities, Jacuzzi soaking tub and stone shower. An open gourmet kitchen adjoins an inviting family room with vaulted ceilings. Basement is 2500sf+ finished.

Ann Hay Hardy 202.297.0228 ahhhardy@frankhardy.com

Keswick Estates - Perfectly located, private lot overlooking Broadmoor Lake and the new Pete Dye designed golf course (“Full Cry”). Enjoy breathtaking views of the surrounding golf course, woodlands and Blue Ridge Mountains in the distance. This low maintenance home is relaxing as well as perfect for entertaining with a beautiful billiard room, home theatre and outdoor kitchen. State of the art security system, whole house audio and Lutron lighting throughout. Five heating and air zones. Exceptionally well crafted with the finest of materials throughout.

Frank Hardy 434.296.0134 fhardy@frankhardy.com

Old Farm Rd - Home was built in 1960 and is brick with slate roof and enjoys spacious living room, dining room, slate foyer, brick sun porch, kitchen (in need of renovation) breakfast room and front and rear staircases to the second floor. There is an attached 2 car garage with finished bedroom and bath space above as well as four additional bedrooms and four full baths on the second floor. This home is ideal for family living with a wonderful open, landscaped yard on private lot. Beautiful crown moldings and oak hardwood floors are throughout the home which has 9’ ceilings. Exceptional location.

Frank Hardy 434.296.0134 fhardy@frankhardy.com

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated.

401 Park Street Charlottesville, VA 22902

434.977.4005 lwoodriff@loringwoodriff.com

IMMACULATE CLASSIC IN KESWICK ESTATE

GREAT PRICE IN GREENBRIER

1037 CLub dRive $1,595,000 This 4-5 bedroom, Randy Rinehart-built brick home boasts an excellent floor plan including 1st floor master, kitchen open to casual living, 3 car garage, blue stone terraces and an expansive, almost level rear lawn.

Immaculate condition and endless fine detailing, including wainscotting, striking marble and tile selections throughout, high ceilings & excellent light. After a $400K reduction, this stately, well constructed home is an excellent value. MLS# 542410

1406 LESTER DRIVE • $339,900 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. Enjoy the living room with fireplace that opens to the dining room. The eat-in kitchen adjoins a wonderful screen porch which opens onto a nearly level backyard. The family room with fireplace has plenty of room for everyone. Elizabeth Feil Matthews, (434) 284-2105.

DOWNTOWN GEM WITH SOUTHERN VIEWS

FONTANA HOME WITH MOUNTAIN VIEWS

SHORT STROLL TO MERIWETHER LEWIS

200 GARRETT STREET • $549,000 Like new 2 bedroom, 2 bath condo with abundant natural light.

Loaded with upgrades, including a gas fireplace with stone surround, Mountain Lumber hardwood floors, beautiful tiled bathrooms, custom drapes, plus high end appliances. Covered garage parking and elevator access. Lindsay Milby (434) 962-9148. MLS# 542314

1660 APPIAN WAY • $485,000 One-owner 4 bedroom home situated on a corner lot in Fontana.

Tall ceilings, formal and informal spaces, home Office with builtins, eat-in Kitchen opens to Family Room. Fabulous/must see Terrace level Rec Room with Pool Room, featuring custom oak wet Bar. Tommy Brannock (434) 981-1486. MLS# 542106

2810 OLD OAKS SPUR • $474,900 Spacious, 3,000 sq ft beautifully-maintained home on cul-de-sac.

Large kitchen with cherry cabinetry & large adjoining breakfast room with glass doors to the deck with built-in seating, and a hot tub. The huge family room has a cozy brick fireplace and builtins. Kristin Cummings Streed (434) 409-5619. MLS# 534155

PHENOMENAL FIND IN THE CITY!

NEVER BEFORE OCCUPIED LUXURY CONDO

ON 2 PRIVATE ACRES IN ASHCROFT

1532 DAIRY ROAD • $759,000 City charmer of 4300+ sf, 5 bedrooms, 4 baths, and twocar garage nestled behind stone wall on desirable Dairy Road.

Mountain views & large living spaces, including newly renovated gourmet kitchen, master bath, and full terrace level suite with rec room and wet bar. Erin Garcia (434) 409-5619. MLS# 530105

435 WHITE GABLES LANE #101 • $659,000 No one has ever lived in this 2 bed, 2.5 bath luxury condo adjacent to Farmington. Cherry cabinets, granite countertops, high ceilings, gas fireplace. Master bedroom and living area open to a spacious and private covered patio. Secure entry, enclosed parking and a large storage unit. Kathy Hall (434) 987-6917. MLS# 542295

515 LEGO DRIVE • $699,000 This open-concept, immaculately maintained and thoroughly updated home is a peaceful retreat just minutes from Historic Downtown.

Fully fenced-in backyard. Master suite with sitting room, sunny kitchen with granite, and terrace level basement with 5th bedroom & full bath. Lindsay Milby (434) 962-9148. MLS# 542559

WALK TO UVA & SCOTT STADIUM

1730 Lambs Road $945,000

316 ALDERMAN ROAD • $549,000 This classic 1950’s brick home is just a short stroll to all things UVA. Lovely 4 bedroom, 3 bath house with open family room, 2 fireplaces, hardwood and soapstone floors, finished basement, private backyard, and 2 driveways for ample parking. Great location for anyone wanting to be close to The University. Sally Neill (434) 531-9941.

MINI ESTATE OVERLOOKING IVY CREEK

This remarkable ‘city estate’ offers a wonderful mix of formal and casual living spaces on an expansive, private, extensively landscaped parcel overlooking Ivy Creek. An expansive, 4 bedroom, 4 full, 2 half bath home complete with pool, pool house with half bath, serious privacy and tranquility SO CLOSE to town. The residence offers abundant formal and casual living spaces inside and out, all immaculately maintained.

Gardens, level lawns, even an indoor racquetball court that can be used for multiple recreational pursuits. Priced below the 2016 assessed value.

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