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Lake Pointe Luxury Valley Homes And Gardens On Show For Tour page 6
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Spring 2018
Q&A With A Realtor:
Corey Tierney, Editor Justin McIlwee, Staff Writer Shelby Mertens, Staff Writer Nikki Fox, Photographer Daniel Lin, Photographer Stephen Swofford, Photographer Jennifer Dehoff, Design Rhonda McNeal, Sales Manager Homes & Hedges is a publication of Rockingham Publishing Co. Inc. Copyright Š 2018 Rockingham Publishing Co. Inc. 231 S. Liberty St. Harrisonburg, VA 22801
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Kline May real estate agent Ritchie Vaughn has tips for buying your first home.
Landmark Listings:
Stephen Swofford
Staff
Daniel Lin
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This $2.5 million property in Penn Laird has novel amenities that include a basketball court and solar panels.
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Nikki Fox
Homes On Tour: Spotswood Garden Club is set to host the annual Harrisonburg Garden Tour.
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Spring Cleaning Success:
Cover photo by Nikki Fox The home of Robert and Tammy Lyon in Massanetta Springs is part of the 2018 Harrisonburg Garden Week Tour.
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Send ideas or suggestions to editor Corey Tierney: ctierney@dnronline.com
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Cleaning can be made easier with help from a professional organizer.
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By Justin McIlwee
With A Realtor: First-Time Home Buying
As spring gets into full bloom and people start to thaw out from winter, shaking off that cabin fever is essential. For some, all that entails is getting up and going out. But for others, it’s assessing their living situation and realizing they need more space or are ready to stop renting and look for something to call their own. Ritchie Vaughan, a Realtor and real estate broker at Kline May Realty, specializes in firsttime home buyers. She makes sure that those seeking to purchase their first home know as much as possible before penning a name on the dotted line. From finally deciding to make the leap to own, to the day you move in, she has you covered.
Q:
How far in advance should a buyer start looking before they intend to buy? A: [It’s] at least several months. Once a home buyer identifies a property that they want, after that point, depending on the type of mortgage they’re getting, it’s anywhere between 30 and 60 days before the house is theirs. Then, add onto that how much time you spend looking. For some people, it’s the exception rather than the rule. Some people do buy the first house they look at; other clients may look for several months. It also depends on the time of year. A first-time home buyer wants to buy a house sometime in the springtime; there’s far more inventory and they’re more likely to find a house they like quickly.
Q:
When looking at finances for the house, what percentage should a home buyer save up for the down payment? A: That is a totally personal decision. The majority of my first-time home buyers probably put down nothing or three percent. It’s a common misnomer that in order to buy your first house, you have to have a very large pool of savings and a big down payment. In our area, there are many different loan types, [some] where you need no down payment at all, so you don’t need much in the way of 2
Spring 2018
Realtor Ritchie Vaughan poses for a photo in the lobby of the Kline May Realty office in downtown Harrisonburg. savings. The other thing in terms of money savings is that there are closing costs involved when purchasing a house. You have to pay a settlement company to do a closing, you need to buy homeowners insurance, you need to pay for a home inspection, you probably have to purchase title insurance and you have to pay your lender. Sometimes, you can have a seller pay that for you, or other times, you have to pay those costs yourself, and those run in the thousands of dollars.
Q:
What are some things people should be on the look out for on a walk through? A: You always want to be aware if you’re buying a house that needs updates or has maintenance needs. [It’s] leaks, [it’s] if it looks like the wiring has been done wrong, if it looks like the roof is going to die or the heating system is at the end of its life. Those things can all be big ticket items if they need replaced. It’s something they also hire a home inspector to look at and talk through with them. One of the other major things is where the house is located. With enough time and money, you can change anything in the house, but what you can’t change is: How far away is work? Where is the neighborhood park? How does your yard lay? What are your neighbors like? That’s really important to pay attention to. It’s a really hard answer to get as a purchaser because Virginia is a buyer
Daniel Lin
Q&A
beware state; a seller has no legal obligation to disclose to you most details about the home, including what neighbors are like. The local police force does have a website with information with whether there have been break-ins or domestic disputes or there’s lots of car wrecks at the stop sign nearby.
Q:
Any advice on paying full price versus walking away if the seller won’t come down? A: In the current market, we’re actually seeing a lot of homes selling at full price or above; I don’t hesitate on full-price offers at this point. It’s not the buyer’s market it was a few years ago. It comes down to: What are you going to regret? The difference in mortgage payments that $5,000 makes, you’re not going to notice that difference day to day and year to year in terms of payment. But you will know if you’re not in the house that you want. One final thing Vaughan recommends to first-time home buyers is that when choosing a home, they take travel into account when calculating costs. “What a lot of first-time home buyers forget about and overlook is how far they live away from work, the grocery store, that sort of thing,” she said. “If you’re looking at your budget holistically, make sure to calculate how much wear and tear on your vehicle, how much gas, how many tires you’re going to go through. If you do choose to live farther out, [maybe] get a cheaper home.” s
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Landmark Listings: The Pinnacle Of Hickory Point Trail
Our series on unique properties for sale or rent in the Valley By Shelby Mertens Photos by Stephen Swofford
The property, worth $2.5 million, is located in Penn Laird. 4
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radition meets modern on Hickory Point Trail in Penn Laird, with a stunning $2,675,000 property sitting on 34 acres. The property is surrounded by sweeping views of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley and boasts rustic 150-year-old reclaimed wood floors. Its farmhouse design blends with its modern, luxurious amenities. Built in 2014, the three-story manor features five bedrooms, five full bathrooms and two half-baths, totaling almost 11,000 square feet. Additional rooms include a gourmet kitchen, breakfast room, dining room, living room, den, in-law suite, sun room, foyer, mud room, locker room, laundry room and a library study. The master bedroom is located on the first floor. The farmhouse-designed kitchen comes with a stainless steel refrigerator, microwave, double oven and dishwasher adjacent to the cozy breakfast nook. The kitchen is also equipped with a range hood, six burner stove, trash compactor, kitchen island and butler’s pantry. This dream home is ready to entertain with an indoor basketball court, gym, golf simulator and sauna. Other amenities include walk-in closets, granite countertops, crown molding and fireplaces. The basement is fully finished with outdoor access. Outside the estate, which has a stone exterior, offers a private yard that is partly wooded. The rear of the home features an enclosed terrace, an outdoor patio, a putting green, an in-ground pool, a barn and a four-car garage. The 64 rooftop solar panels and insulating concrete form construction provide energy efficiency and eco-friendliness. This quaint and cozy “down home” yet luxurious manor caught our eyes as one of the most extravagant homes the Shenandoah Valley has to offer. The property is located at 563 Hickory Point Trail in Penn Laird. s A basketball half court is in the basement of 563 Hickory Point Trail. Spring 2018
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Homes On Tour
The home of Robert and Tammy Lyon is in Massanetta Springs.
Virginia’s Historic Garden Week Showcases Homes And Gardens By Justin McIlwee Sylvia Rogers and her husband, Arthur, didn’t volunteer to be part of a tour. In fact, it was quite the opposite. “I had a knock on the door, and there was my friend from [Daughters of the American Revolution] and another lady,” Sylvia Rogers said. “I invited them to come in and they said, ‘We’re here to invite you to have your home on the garden tour.’” Initially, the two were skeptical about having their house on the tour. But after taking a week to talk it over and realizing that some of their neighbors were also taking part, along with the fact that the couple were familiar with Virginia’s Historic Garden Week from years of visiting other homes and gardens, they accepted. “I’m really impressed by the work the garden club does in terms of preservation and promotion of native plants and flowers,” Sylvia Rogers said. “I’ve also been blown away by the beauty of the floral arrangements they do for the homes that are in the show.” By agreeing to be part of the Harrisonburg Garden Week Tour, the Rogers family home is now a small part of the much larger Historic Garden Week put on by the Garden 6
Spring 2018
Photos by Nikki Fox Club of Virginia, April 21–28, 2018. This year, the Garden Club of Virginia celebrates its 85th tour and describes itself as “America’s Largest Open House.” The Garden Club of Virginia opened in 1920 with eight founding clubs throughout the state. According to their website, the club’s mission is “preserving the beauty of Virginia for all to enjoy.” Early members raised $7,000 to help preserve trees planted by Thomas Jefferson at Monticello. That fundraiser then spawned the statewide Garden Week fundraiser which, according to the Garden Club’s numbers, has raised over $425 million for Virginia’s economy and has funded restoration projects such as Mount Vernon, the Pavilion Gardens at the University of Virginia and the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library. While the Spotswood Garden Club isn’t as old as the Garden Club of Virginia, according to Joy Strickland, one of the co-chairs of the tour along with Suzanne Obenshain, Spotswood has been around for more than 90 years. This year’s Harrisonburg Garden Tour will take place
ABOVE: Arthur and Sylvia Rogers’ kitchen is a highlight of the property they built as their retirement home in 2006. RIGHT: A gas fireplace is a focal point in the living room of Arthur and Sylvia Rogers’ home.
on Wednesday, April 25, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will take visitors through five homes and gardens along the way. And even though the homes on the tour change from year to year, the method used to select the homes stays the same. “We try to begin the process two years ahead of time,” Strickland said. “We meet as a committee and try to think of different areas that we’d like to be in amongst the committee.” Then, with each area, committee members make suggestions as to people they know who may be interested in showing their house during that week. “Then, we actually approach people and explain. We take a catalogue and a brochure and explain how the process works.” This year’s tour will take guests through houses in the Lake Pointe Village area in Rockingham County, just a few miles outside of Harrisonburg. Each of the four houses on the tour are within two minutes of each other, and the White Oak Lavender Farm, which is also part of the tour, is only six minutes from the tour headquarters. Each house along the tour offers different architectural and landscaping visuals Spring 2018
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Robert and Tammy Lyon’s decorated porch provides a welcoming entrance.
and gems. Guests will have to take the tour to experience the intricacies of each home, but Obenshain, in an email, provided a few highlights to which visitors will be treated: n The home of Tammy and Robert Lyon: The brick exterior is punctuated by an oversized mahogany front entrance and a multi-sided turret housing the front veranda. n The home of Jan and Tom Leach: Among the antiques and collections on display is a Kentucky Long rifle built by the first gunsmith in Harrisonburg, a relative of the family. Tom Leach has an extensive collection of duck decoys lining the family room shelves. n The home of Sylvia and Arthur Rogers: A Chinese embroidery tapestry covers one dining room wall and is complemented by two ink wash paintings by Hau Pei-Jen. Many rooms are filled with impressive works by numerous American and international artists. n The home of Wendy and Dale Lam: A custom patio, hot tub and see-through fireplace have transformed this backyard into an inviting oasis for entertainment. The main attraction throughout the interior are numerous oil paintings by Wendy Lam. 8
Spring 2018
n White Oak Lavender Farm and Purple WOLF Vineyard: The family-owned farm grows over 8,000 lavender plants of various varieties. The newest addition to the farm is their daughter’s Rebecca’s project, The Purple WOLF Vineyard. Along with the inside and outside highlights provided by the homeowners, the Spotswood Garden Club also puts their own unique touch on each house along the tour. “There will be five or six ladies who will be assigned to a home, and they go in the day before and do flower arrangements throughout,” Strickland said. “Dining room table, big something in the kitchen; they go throughout the house.” Then, on the day of the tour, each group returns to their assigned house and hosts, telling visitors interesting facts as they peruse the home. Even though the Garden Tour lasts just a few hours, and many visitors may only spend a short amount of time at each home, the owners have known for months that their house is going to be part of the tour and have put in work to make sure everything is ready for show. “We have lived here 12 years and we looked around and felt there were some things
that needed to be done,” Sylvia Rogers said. “The dogwood trees needed to be replaced. We have a team of gardeners who routinely come here to help us with landscaping. Inside, just some bumps, dents and scrapes, so our handyman will be coming in a few weeks to do some things.” On the other hand, homeowners like Tammy Lyon took a different approach to the tour. “I’m just here doing my thing,” she said. “Whether you told me six or 600 people, I would still be pulling the weeds in the garden, vacuuming [and] cleaning the windows in the spring. I’m just doing the usual things I do for me.” This year, unlike in the past, there will also be activities throughout the day. The events will begin at the tour headquarters, the Izaak Walton League Barn, at 3616 Izaak Walton Drive in Harrisonburg. At 10 a.m., at the headquarters, Kappy Barnes and Judy Sullivan will be putting on a floral arranging demonstration titled, “The Language of Flowers.” At noon, there will be an antique furniture and reproduction demonstration by David Ray Pine, and at 2 p.m., Abby Chick will finish with another floral arrangement demonstration, “Arrangements for Your Home.” Mashita and Mama’s Caboose food trucks will also be selling food from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the headquarters.
Large windows provide architectural structure to the back porch of Robert and Tammy Lyon’s home.
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“MAKING YOUR LIFE AND HOME MORE AT PEACE.” The sunroom in Arthur and Sylvia Rogers’ home features large windows.
Along with raising money to help restore and preserve historical gardens in Virginia, Sherry Leffel, marketing chair of the garden tour, explained that this is a labor of love to those who help put on the tour each year. “It’s a thing we do every year and we know we’re going to do it,” she said. “We always have fun doing it. It’s hectic and it’s hard work but it’s fun.” Strickland added, “We feel like we’re doing something bigger than us. It encompasses beautification of the entire state and preserving history. We just feel good about what we do.” Guests can come and go as they please and may visit the houses in any order they wish. Advance tickets are $25 and may be purchased online at vagardenweek.org, by calling 540-820-5045 or by visiting the Rocktown Gift Shop at the Hardesty-Higgins House in downtown Harrisonburg. Other advance ticket purchase locations can be found at spotswoodgardenclub.wordpress.com. Tickets will also be sold for $30 the day of the tour and must be purchased at the tour headquarters. s Store Hours: Open 7 a.m. - 5 p.m. Monday - Friday Open 8 a.m. - 12 p.m. Saturday Through October
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Spring Cleaning Success By Shelby Mertens
T
he grass gets greener and the weather gets warmer once again. At the same time, homeowners get out their work boots and gloves to start cleaning out their homes in a tradition known as “spring cleaning.” But spring cleaning can seem overwhelming if you’ve got that garage, shed or room in your house that you’ve been stockpiling with junk all year long (or maybe even for years). Kathryn McMillan, a certified professional organizer at Clutter Conversions, has helped homeowners in the Shenandoah Valley with their spring cleaning for 11 years. She has some tips on how to stay focused on your spring cleaning goals and how to make organization a longterm habit. If you decide to hire a certified professional organizer like McMillan, they will help you every step of the way, from planning to implementation. The first step is what McMillan calls the “pre-process.” Before you start anything, get your ideas out of your head and onto paper. She recommends using a little notebook to set a goal for yourself in ink, and write down everything that needs to be done in order to accomplish that goal. “Once you’ve decided your goal, you need to devise and write a plan, because if it’s just in your head, it’s not a plan. It’s just a thought,” McMillan said. “But once you put it on paper, it becomes a plan that you can then look at, remind yourself and it helps keep you on track with what you’re
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going to do.” Writing it all down helps us from becoming side-tracked, she said, which she sees happen “time and time again.” To maintain focus and prevent burnout, break your plan down into small projects. McMillan recommends spending only 2 to 4 hours at a time on a garage or shed project, and 30 to 45 minutes (no longer than an hour) on projects inside the home. “Now, your garage or shed, you’re going to want to do that probably once a week, but in your home, you’re going to want to do it three to five times a week,” she said.
“If you set it down in smaller chunks, it’s easier to get things done and keep on track.” — Kathryn McMillan McMillan advises against working on spring cleaning tasks all day long, even if you think you’re on a roll. People tend to try to do too much too fast. “Here’s why: People tend to feel good about what they’re doing, so they keep on going and keep on going and by the end of the day, they’re tired. But the project’s not done [and] they don’t feel like starting it back up again because they’re wiped out and the enthusiasm is gone,” she said. “If you set it down in smaller chunks, it’s easier to get things done and keep on track.” Before you start the process, you may
also want to make a rough drawing of how you’d like the room or area you’re working on to look when it’s finished. Also, determine if you will need any help and contact those people. To start the spring cleaning process, McMillan says start from either the left or the right of the room and work your way around. If you plan to donate items to a thrift store or nonprofit, make sure to keep it separately from trash. McMillan uses white trash bags for items such as clothing and toys that can be donated, and black trash bags for actual trash. Put those white trash bags in the front seat of your car, as opposed to the back seat or trunk, so you remember to drop it off. Another helpful organization tip: Use Ziploc bags or something similar to store items. “Everybody has a junk drawer, it just doesn’t have to look like a junk drawer. We really use a lot of Ziploc bags, [from] two gallon all the way down to the quart and pint or sandwich size,” McMillan said. “Take advantage of those. Put light things that are small and loose in the same bags, and then put it in your junk drawer. That way, it all stays together. When you open your drawer it’s all right there. They’re clear so you can see through them.” You can find all kinds of pretty, decorative storage bins at the store, but McMillan is leery of them. She calls them “clutter catchers.” “If you are going to use it, at least label it. That keeps you on track of what you’re putting in there Spring 2018
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you can ask yourself: Do I need it? Love it? Use it? If the answer is no, or if you have to think about it, it’s time to let it go. If you’ve not used it, I would say, in the past year ... let it go.” She tells her clients that by donating items they no longer use, they are blessing someone else in need. That perspective can sometimes stop hoarding tendencies. Set a date for when you want your spring cleaning to be finished by, but set your deadline two weeks in advance since “life happens.” Give yourself some wiggle room. Once you have finished spring cleaning, don’t forget to celebrate what you’ve accomplished. “Be proud of what you’ve done. Reward yourself,” McMillan said. “Don’t forget to reward people that have helped you. It could be pizza, could be lunch, whatever you want. But they were important to you in the process of getting it done, so make sure you thank them in some way.” If you find yourself becoming distracted, overwhelmed or slipping back into your messy ways, don’t give up.
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as a reminder,” she said. “Labels are just training tools for you to get used to where something is going. They don’t have to stay there forever.” When thinking of new ways to organize, McMillan said to take advantage of wall space and consider installing hooks in your garage. Tasteful shelving can be built, and Pinterest or other sites are great resources for inspiration. There are also inexpensive storage products out there that attach to the ceiling of your garage or shed. “The ultimate goal is that you don’t want anything sitting on the floor,” McMillan said. When shopping for new furniture, look for something that has dual purpose storage space, too. The biggest mistake people make during spring cleaning, McMillan said, is not being honest with themselves about what they really need. She calls it the “I might need it someday” syndrome. “When you’re going through the cleaning process, you do need to be extremely honest with yourself and ruthless,” she said. “There are some things
“You will fall off the [wagon], but the key to success is getting back on the [wagon] and starting the process over again until it becomes a habit,” McMillan said. s
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