Abode | Spring 2022

PROS WEIGH IN How to mix modern with traditional OPEN HOUSE Giving a kitchen some breathing room BIG UPS Inside the city’s flashy new downtown high-rise

Inside.

Outside.

Home.

WINTER/SPRING 2022

Second chances

A new construction on an old footprint brings big opportunities

It's your journey. I'm here to help OWN YOUR DREAM HOME

Janice Kavanagh Associate Broker 434.760.0739 Janice@nestrealty.com www.livecharlottesville.com Nest Realty| 126 Garrett St, Ste D, Charlottesville, VA 22902

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C-VILLE ABODE

VERULAM

W I LE Y P R O P E RT Y. C O M

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CHAR LOTTE SVI LLE , VA

Nestled in the Blue Ridge foothills is one of Virginia’s preeminent estates, conveniently located

Tree lined drive and 20’ boxwood, a peaceful and private yet distinguished setting minutes from town.

just 4 miles from UVA and modern amenities of Charlottesville. The Classical Revival manor offers an easy elegance with both formal and informal spaces that flow seamlessly to bucolic grounds with

Additional amenities on 503-acre estate include a charming guest house and restored dairy barn turned grand event venue. The farm abuts 2,000 additional acres of protected land including the

beautiful views, formal Charles Gillette designed gardens and handsome pool complex. Elegant proportions (10’ ceilings), fine architectural details

1,000-acre Ragged Mountain Reservoir Natural Area.

Nearby access to major travel thoroughfares and airports with direct flights to most major US cities.

and sophisticated craftsmanship are complimented by a modern kitchen and five en-suite bedrooms.

PROSPECT HILL

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$ 13, 90 0, 0 0 0 | J U STIN WILEY | 43 4 981 5 5 28 | ML S 6 2 2 8 4 4

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

LO U I SA , VA

|

C HAR LOTTE SV ILLE, VA

16.5 ACRES • FOSTERS BRANCH ROAD

18th century Virginia living at its finest. Historic main residence with 5 bedrooms, 5 baths, 2 half on main floor. Eight additional bedroom suites in the dependencies, rich with character and historical charm—all with fireplaces, modern baths and current mechanical systems. Green Springs Historic District, 20 minutes east of Charlottesville, 40 from Richmond.

Two exceptional parcels with beautiful views over Charlottesville and Blue Ridge Mountains. Privately perched on the western slope of the Southwest Mountains. Only 15 minutes from downtown Charlottesville and UVA. Perfect as a family compound or build on one and sell the other.

$ 1 , 95 0, 000 | P E T E R W I L E Y | 4 3 4 4 2 2 2 0 9 0 | M L S 6 1 8 1 6 6

$ 67 5 , 0 0 0 | P ETER WILEY | 43 4 422 2090 | MLS 623 681

1 3 2 E M A I N ST S U I T E A , O R A N G E , V I R G I N I A 2 2 9 6 0

C-VILLE ABODE

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C-VILLE ABODE

I N

T H I S

I S S U E

Second life 24

KIP DAWKINS

When the Stalfort family decided to renovate their existing Blue Springs Farm home, they ran into a few roadblocks. But, when life hands you lemons, you make an entirely new house. At least, that’s what the Stalforts did. And they dreamed big: 14,000-squarefeet big. With the help of architect Roger Birle, they got the home they’d always wanted.

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. ABODE Editor Caite Hamilton. Copy Editor Susan Sorensen.

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

Designer Tracy Federico.

Art Director Max March. Graphic

Account Executives Chloe Heimer, Lisa C. Hurdle, Gabby Kirk, Stephanie Vogtman,

Beth Wood. Production Coordinator Faith Gibson.

Publisher Anna Harrison. Chief Financial Officer

Debbie Miller. A/R Specialist Nanci Winter. Circulation Manager Billy Dempsey. ©2022 C-VILLE Weekly.

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BUY AND SELL CVILLE

BUY AND SELL CVILLE

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A PROFESSIONAL REALTOR The Buy and Sell Cville Team Seller'sGuide REPRESENT A shows PROFESSIONAL you THE MOST REALTOR IMPORTANT aspects REPRESENT YOU! YOU! of a successful sale BLUEPRINT 11

Unlocking the CODE A peek inside the city’s newest construction.

Row house hot spot 14 Buy Creating and Sell Cville Team with a kitchen Nominees: Candice & Bert

all the fixin’s.

CALL CANDICE TODAY FOR A CONSULTATION! Candice van der Linde, Realtor 8 ABODE

@Candice_Realtor

11 Mix and match 15 Experts share how they blend old and modern.

A better builder 17 Steven Nicholson makes cool places.

Reduce, reuse, refinish 22 Taylor Ahn brings furniture back to life.

HOME SWEET HOME 30

Keeping it cozy in Forest Lakes.

Passionate about Helping People SELL & BUY Residential Real Estate in the Cover photo Kip Dawkins. Comments? E-mail us at editor@c-ville.com.

Charlottesville Area.by We can’t wait to connect with you & Share Some of our Best Adventures!

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C-VILLE ABODE

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Blueprint

STEPHEN BARLING

Design in all its many forms

Cracking the CODE

A look inside Charlottesville’s new techie tower By Ben Hitchcock 11

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equipment installed 3highlights Certification report that

rom the seventh-floor balcony of the CODE Building, downtown Charlottesville stretches out in front of you, misty blue mountains visible in the distance. Up here, North Downtown’s brick buildings, with their shingled roofs and quaint steeples, look like Monopoly pieces. And the seventh floor isn’t even the top of the office tower—two more floors of shimmering windows and black concrete rise above.

After years of construction, the place is just about open for business. Tenants are arranging their desk chairs, and the lobby’s coffee shop— Millisecond, an offshoot of Milli Coffee Roasters—is already pouring joe (and wine). The caramel-hued foyer looks like the lobby of a high-end boutique hotel, with Bauhaus-style lamps hanging over leather couches. Before long, anywhere from 400 to 600 finance and tech workers will move in.

“The idea is that you have food, and sources of good energy, in the courtyard and also interior to the space,” says Rob Archer, who’s in charge of the co-working area on the building’s two bottom floors. The building itself—the Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, CODE for short—is the brainchild of mega-rich hedge fund manager and UVA alum Jaffray Woodriff.

(The building’s general manager, Bill Chapman, is a co-owner of C-VILLE Weekly, publisher of Abode.) The complex aims to “become the nexus of commercial and social enterprise activity in central Virginia,” according to the building’s website.

CODE sits at the end of the Downtown Mall, where the ice rink and Ante Room music venue used to be. The building’s floor plan is an irregular A-shape, drawn so that the tall office tower would be situated on Water Street. A triangular courtyard opens on to the mall. The architects went to great lengths to keep the original brick façade of the Carytown Tobacco building in place at the courtyard’s corner, though they painted the old bricks white with black trim, a sleek scheme to match the rest of the complex.

The new tech hub has aesthetic pedigree.

Thomasin Foshay, who coordinated the building’s interior design, points out the courtyard fountain, designed by a member of the team that built the memorial at Ground Zero in New York; the rooftop garden terraces were installed with consultation from someone who designed the High Line in Manhattan. A dangling 21-foot interior sculpture, designed by an apprentice of Frank Gehry, lights up at night, offering passersby a glimpse of luminous floating polyhedrons through the window.

In the building’s red-carpeted, 200-seat theater, more bells and whistles become apparent.

STEPHEN BARLING

BLUEPRINT

The chairs are “slim profile jump seats,” says Foshay. At first glance, each seat looks impossibly thin, but unfolds to create a two-part chair.

When it’s time to divide the theater from the entryway, a partition appears from behind a hidden panel in the wooden-slatted wall.

“This is an amenity for tenants, co-working members, and also the community,” Archer says of the theater, which at the end of 2021 hosted a holiday party for CAV Angels, a UVA alumni group of angel investors.

The building’s first two levels are dedicated to Codebase, the open-concept office space that allows members to buy access at a variety of tiers. At midday on a Monday, three or four people with computers sit here and there, plugging away. “What we’ve seen so far is that people are here, and they’re being extremely productive,” says Archer, a tech entrepreneur, UVA lecturer, and owner of Arch’s Frozen Yogurt. “That’s the whole point.”

Meeting spaces of various sizes are accessible from the co-working floor. “We call this a huddle

room,” Archer says, opening the door to a greenwalled space with a table and chairs. “But it’s really a conference room.”

The higher floors, four through nine, are designed as more standard office space for large companies. So far, three of the six floors are leased, with Woodriff ’s firm, Quantitative Investment Management, taking floor four.

Investure, a local financial planning and investment company, is fully moved in to floor five. Floors six through eight remain unclaimed, though Boninti says at least one more deal is imminent.

Down at the bottom of the building, in the underground parking lot, 10 glowing green electric car chargers hang in front of the rows of spaces. (None of the 15 or so cars parked at the moment are plugged in.) Other environmentally conscious features include a rainwater collection system that catches water and pumps it back to the plants on the terraces. An elaborate air filtration network ensures that fresh air is always being blown in to every space—an expensive feature,

but one Woodriff insisted on, citing research that fresh air boosts cognitive function.

Initially, Woodriff didn’t want to install a parking lot at all, says Boninti—“He thinks the future is going to be less cars, public transportation, and Ubers and everything else”—but the building has room for 74 cars, enough for the tenants’ bigwigs. “We have secured a lot of offsite parking,” says Boninti. “We have 100 spots at the Water Street garage, we have spots at the Omni, we have spots across the street at Staples.”

Most people, however, will encounter the building on foot, as they stroll down the mall.

Amid two-story, red-brick storefronts filled with boutiques, restaurants, and used bookstores, the shiny, black, angular CODE building sticks out.

When Archer learns that C-VILLE Weekly asked about the building in its question of the week, and one of the respondents said it reminded them of the Death Star, he says: “How do you respond to that? You don’t. You just say ‘Hey, you’re entitled to your opinion. We love you, come check us out if you get a chance, the coffee’s good.’”

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BLUEPRINT

New house, new look

At C&O Row, homeowners contemporize a kitchen By Carol Diggs

W

STEPHEN BARLING

hen David and Nancy Hughes retired in 2017, they needed a big change.

“We had lived in Delaplane on 21 acres,” says Nancy. While they loved the place, the couple decided they wanted a smaller, newer home and an urban vibe—so they moved to Charlottesville. “We were looking forward to travel, lots of dinner parties,” says Nancy.

The Hugheses rented in City Walk to get to know their new hometown, then in 2019 purchased a detached C&O Row brownstone. They liked that the development was close to downtown—and that Evergreen Builders was open to customizing its basic floor plans.

After living for years in a renovated farmhouse, the couple wanted a clean and modern look. But there were certain elements of their former home they didn’t want to give up—especially in the kitchen. “We’d had a kitchen/great room that was a real gathering place,” Nancy recalls.

Designing the brownstone’s main floor as a kitchen/dining/living space began with the

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couples’ request for a kitchen island “long enough to seat four.” Then they commissioned master woodworker Craig Dubose to design and build a custom oak dining table; it’s longer than most, to fit the room, and narrower than usual to allow space between the diners and the island bar seating. The linear pendant above the table (a model called Parallax made by Tech Lighting) was picked to fit the table—and getting it placed perfectly before the table was delivered, David recalls, was an electrician’s challenge.

Making sure they got the kitchen details right was a big focus for David: “Everybody wants to be in the kitchen,” he says, “and I’m usually the one cooking.” That meant not only a clean look, but also a handy place for everything. The couple turned to Evergreen’s interior design contractor, Dovetail Design & Cabinetry.

Nancy recalls that Amy Hart, owner and principal designer with Dovetail, “really lit up when we said contemporary.” And Hart says, “Nancy loves the design process—she was very involved

and specific in what she wanted. David’s the cook, but Nancy’s the stylist.” (In fact, Hart says, Nancy selected and purchased most of the new home’s furnishings, many from The Artful Lodger; a large portion of the furniture the couple had purchased over the years for the Delaplane house had been sold to its new owner.)

To unify the elements of the kitchen, Hart recommended using a light beige veined quartz (specifically, Cambria’s Brittanicca Warm) as countertops on both the cabinets and the island. “[Using the same material] helps the eye to flow from place to place without distraction,” she says.

But for variety, the Italian-made Wellborn laminate cabinets under the counter are a textured woodgrain, while the ones on the island have a glossy finish that’s directional, so the color changes slightly depending on viewpoint.

Nancy didn’t want the visual clutter of wall cabinets, and Hart agreed: “It’s a more modern feel” to leave the wall space open. With less cabinet space (and thus less storage), Hart had to get creative.

Short floating shelves on one wall of the corner fit with the kitchen’s open look, and keeping dishes or vases there adds a spot of color. A built-in silverware drawer right above the dishwasher makes it a cinch to unload the clean utensils.

Hart is proudest of her solution for the microwave: “You want it at the right level and easy to reach, not too high, or under the counter. So we put it on its own little tower, with several drawers under it.”

One nifty touch that David appreciates is the under-counter corner cabinet. In most kitchens, this space is either useless or really difficult to access. But Hart recommended a two-shelf unit that rotates completely out of the cabinet. “It’s a mechanical unit, so it’s not cheap,” she notes, “but we use it a lot.”

A big part of the couple’s design program was focused on entertaining in their new home. Although there’s a wine storage area on the lower floor (taking up an entire wall—“we like wine,” Nancy notes with a smile), they also wanted to have wine on hand to serve their guests. So, in consultation with Hart, they designed a wet bar at the end of the dining table, along the wall between the kitchen and the living area.

With the bar right there, everything needed (refrigerator, racks, glassware, etc.) is conveniently placed while Nancy and David are cooking, chatting, and dining with their guests. The nine-foot-long table, its eye-catching chandelier, and the bar—backed by a wall of 4-inch by 12inch mirrored tiles from Glass Works that play back the light—defines the dining area as the center of the open floor plan. It makes a lovely place to entertain...once we can gather again.

BLUEPRINT

Courageously contemporary

Can hyper-modern additions enhance old-school structures? By Shea Gibbs

D

subtly different? Or go extreme and produce an extension that demands attention?

Dan Zimmerman of Alloy Workshop says existing architecture should drive the decision-making.

“For us, it’s like, let’s figure out the scale and rhythm and find a way to put this thing on so it looks right and feels right, rather than like a spaceship landed.”

Dave Ackerman

TOM DALY

ave Ackerman and his architecture and design firm, Wolf Ackerman, have been making modern additions to traditional homes for at least a decade, and he thinks the trend is definitely catching on.

“We’ve done a lot of older houses, specifically in and around Belmont, that just don’t suit the way people live today,” Ackerman says. “They are 75 to 100 years old, and the owners want more light and more space.”

So what exactly is the traditional homeowner who wants more space to do? Try to copy the home’s original styling? Make an addition that’s

In Belmont, this addition by Wolf Ackerman melds modern with traditional.

“If the two structures were dancing, one wants to lead and the other wants to follow,” he says.

Existing buildings that are leads—those with striking features like high-design mid-century modern houses, Zimmerman suggests—might step on the toes of hyper-modern additions that would also like to lead. But a simpler farmhouse or gabled roof design, for example, might be willing to follow bolder add-ons.

Once the decision to go the hyper-modern direction is made, Ackerman says homeowners must strike a balance. “It wants to be distinct and different, but it also needs to play nicely with the existing house,” he says. “For us, it’s like, let’s figure out the scale and rhythm and find a way to put this thing on so it looks right and feels right, rather than like a spaceship landed.”

And where should the audacious additions go? Often, they work best off the back of homes, where they can do what modern designs do best—open the interior space and work seamlessly with exterior space.

“Generally what happens is the kitchens, living, and dining rooms, that is where the expansion wants to happen, so you open it up and create a better connection to the yard,” Ackerman says.

“That’s where people are living these days.”

Exceptions exist, Ackerman says. His firm has done modern front porches and standout second stories and side yards. But there, too, it’s all about opening up space and meeting the old and new in the middle.

Zimmerman isn’t as keen on hyper-modern additions to old homes in general, but he agrees it’s all about finding that middle ground.

“I like our architecture to relate in some way to the building,” he says. “I might take an approach where I match the form of the addition to the building but may deviate with materials or color. Or we can do the opposite, deviating in form and matching materials and colors.

Whenever I talk to potential clients and they are looking for people to work with, I talk about finding a balance.”

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401 Park Street Charlottesville, VA 22902

(434) 977-4005 lwoodriff@loringwoodriff.com

EXCEPTIONAL LOCATION, HISTORIC PROPERTY, MULTI-USE ZONING

LAST PARCEL IN IVY CREEK

115 east high street $750,000 A true gem of Charlottesville history with extraordinary potential. First time offered for sale in over 80 years, this mid-19th century Federal style, two story, five bay, with Flemish bond brick building is ideally located and suitable for multiple uses. Located on the corner of E. High and 2nd NE Streets, the highly sought after off street parking is on the 2nd Street entrance. A garage dependency is currently used for storage. Only two blocks from the City and County Courthouses, and walking distance to the Downtown Mall. Punkie Feil (434) 962-5222 or Elizabeth Feil Matthews (434) 284-2105.

0 PALLAS HILL LANE • $1,495,000 This idyllic 5 acre parcel w/ strong Blue Ridge view potential plus frontage on a bold creek offers the opportunity to build a country estate tucked away on Nature’s doorstep yet adjacent to Farmington, moments to UVA & Downtown. No road noise here... truly, tranquility reigns at Ivy Creek. Neighbors besides nature incl’ only other remarkable estates. Ivy Creek’s trail system winds through hundreds of acres of park-like land. MLS# 604575

GOLF FRONT GLENMORE HOME

UNDER 7 MINS TO WESTERN SCHOOLS

LIGHT DRENCHED 5 BEDROOM

1358 HUNTERSFIELD CLOSE • $832,000 Located on a quiet cul-de-sac, this Shelter Associates home has easy 1-level living w/ owner’s suite & private screened porch on the main level. Expansive, light-filled living spaces incl’ stunning fieldstone fireplace, open kitchen & oversized dining area overlooking backyard & golf course beyond.

Terrace level incl’ game room, half bath, classic bar, pool table, French doors that open to the patio, plus large den, bed & full bath. Jamie Waller (407) 694-8988. MLS# 623476

12 HANDLEY WAY • $549,000 Last lot available in Handley Farm Estates! Lot 12’s charms incl’ breathtaking views from the open, level ground at the front of the parcel & mountainous topography with mature hardwoods to the back of the property for hikes & wildlife. Private trout pond with trails around it! This 23 acre tract backs to land in conservation easement, thus ensuring privacy & tranquility in perpetuity. Comcast high speed internet! MLS# 588916

1035 OLD GARTH ROAD • $2,145,000 Set well off of Old Garth Rd, this classic 5 bed, 5.5 bath home offers a quiet, private setting super close to everything, plenty of level rear lawn, classic architecture w/ great light & high ceilings. Large sunny kitchen/family room space, a luxurious, spacious 1st fl master suite & 10ft ceilings. Upstairs are 4 more bedrooms & baths plus 2nd laundry room. Located just behind Farmington, moments to STAB & mins to UVA venues. MLS# 625451

SECLUDED BUNDORAN PARCEL w/ VIEWS

RANDY RINEHEART CLASSIC ON 21 ACRES

795 Frays riDge roaD $1,595,000

H12 HIGHTOP DRIVE • $775,000 The home site of this parcel is secluded yet provides sweeping, panoramic views of nearby hillsides & distant pastures rolling on to the mountains beyond.

The wooded portion of the acreage incl’ many massive hardwoods & provides a privacy-protecting backdrop to take in the views. Electric & fiber optic internet to the lot.

Access 14 miles of hiking trails across Bundoran Farm.

15 mins from Charlottesville & UVA. MLS# 610554

This 5-6 bedroom, Randy Rinehart classic is sited on 21 totally private acres about 15 minutes northwest of town, in a neighborhood of other distinguished homes on large parcels. A lovely pool area with slate surround, hot tub, & trex deck overlooking a fire pit welcome you outdoors. The acreage includes mountain views and expansive stretches of both level and rolling lawns. The chef ’s kitchen opens out to a sunny eat-in area overlooking the parcel, as well as to the family room with deck access.

10ft ceilings, 3 gas fireplaces, all brick construction, 50 year roof, 4 HVAC zones, pre-wired for an elevator, front and rear staircases, family and guest powder rooms- the list continues. MLS# 622244

A Selection of our Early Winter 2021 Sales REPRESENTED SELLER

REPRESENTED BUYER AND SELLER

3024 MechuM Banks Drive Ivy REPRESENTED SELLER

680 Ivy Lane Farmington

3100 B erry hiLL roaD Nellysford Country Retreat

REPRESENTED SELLER

REPRESENTED BUYER AND SELLER

910 oLD FarM roaD Near UVA REPRESENTED SELLER

2033 Hessian Road Farmington

1025 Locust avenue Locust Grove

R E P R E S E N T I N G D I S T I N C T I V E P RO PE RT I E S I N C H A R LOT T E S V I L L E & T H E S U R RO U N D I N G C O U N T RY S I D E

W W W. L O R I N G W O O D R I F F. C O M

On the money

BLUEPRINT

Steve Nicholson Construction drops dime with new Belmont build By Shea Gibbs

C O N T I N U E D O N PAGE 2 1

STEPHEN BARLING

I

f you had your eye on the more than $1 million new construction home at 802 Hinton Ave., bad news. Someone beat you to it.

But also good news. The builder, Steve Nicholson Construction, is still out there doing HGTVworthy work on spec and for specific homeowners with style—not to mention substance.

For context, consider the Hinton spot. How did a Belmont neighborhood home, which is only 19 feet across in the interior, eclipse the $1 million threshold? According to Nicholson, it’s a combination of material, design detail, and building science.

“Say you are going to go out on the town tonight, and you’re going to decide what to wear,” Nicholson says. “Whether it be a black-tie tuxedo or jeans and a T-shirt, there is a difference in the cost.”

Nicholson thinks of 802 Hinton Ave. as a tux.

The mid-century modern structure includes concrete and steel building materials, warm and cool colors, white trim, glass banisters and stairways, and high-end hardware and finishes. All of it comes together to give the impression of luxury—and more space than you’d expect from the outside.

The Hinton home was built on spec—a phrase typically synonymous with cutting corners—but Nicholson says corner-cutting isn’t in his playbook.

He points to the Hinton house’s front entryway. Concrete retaining walls lead up to the home; treated boards of ipe, also known as Brazilian walnut, form the porch floor and ceiling; painted steel girders and modern light fixtures complete the high-end effect.

Inside the home, a white oak stairwell, lined in glass, immediately greets the homeowner. “To my mind, you deserve that at this price point,” Nicholson says. “When you have width challenges, you have to be cognizant of them, and it has to drive your architecture and fit and finish—what the living experience is going to be in that house.”

Elizabeth Jennings of Small House Design served as architect on the project, and Nicholson says she grasped what needed to be done immediately.

“I’m not a good salesman, but I think we nailed it,” he says. “When my wife Lori started

Steve Nicholson's spec house on Hinton Avenue is only 19 feet across—and crested $1M when it sold last year.

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Bundoran Farm

Kings Grant

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BLUEPRINT

“The whole reason I became a builder was because of my fascination with architecture.” STEVE NICHOLSON

Take three The Maple Ridge Group, doing business as Steve Nicholson Construction, has been building around Charlottesville and beyond since 2003. The following is a look at three of owner Steve Nicholson’s favorite projects.

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Structure: Wildlife viewing platform and recreational pavilion Location: Woodlands Road in Albemarle County Size: 42-foot tall, 784 squarefoot viewing platform, 1,238 square-foot pavilion Style: Rustic

Nicholson’s take: “The owners had been to the Amazon and spent the night in some aboriginal treehouses in the canopy of the trees. It was an ecstatic experience for them, and they said, ‘We want to replicate that experience.’”

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to market Hinton and the price was big, one of the first things that always came out of her mouth was, ‘Have you seen the house?’ Every person that I have spoken with directly was amazed.”

Nicholson got into the building biz in 2003, founding the Maple Ridge Group with a close friend. The partner has since exited, and Nicholson has mostly rebranded. Over the years, he’s done some striking work under the Steve Nicholson Construction name: Italian-style farmhouses, homes with Japanese-style baths, even treehouses.

But according to Nicholson, good homebuilding isn’t about flashy projects. It’s about making

the right choices when it comes to structural materials, details like insulation, and merging form and function.

“Being a good builder is much more than knowing how to nail a couple two-by-fours together,” he says. “The whole reason I became a builder was because of my fascination with architecture.”

To Nicholson, that means extreme attention to detail, making decisions that hopefully yield efficient, long-lasting homes, and making some decisions that end up pushing prices up.

“Is Steve Nicholson a risk taker in the real estate market?” he asks. His answer? “I believe in what we are doing here.”

Structure: Seven-bedroom home and guest cottage Location: North Garden Size: 9,071 square feet finished, 2,893 square feet unfinished, 1,219 square feet covered outdoor area Style: Classic American vernacular

Nicholson’s take: “This is not necessarily a compound, but it is a family project. It has a main house and guest house, with a detached garage and offices. The attention to detail there is just beautiful, with huge opening doors that create a beautiful stone hall dining room. It’s probably one of my favorite projects ever.”

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Structure: Five-bedroom home Location: Central Albemarle County Size: 7,918 square feet Style: Italianate

Nicholson’s take: “The Italianate house was created inside a factory and brought over.

Not only the wall panels, but all the details were pre-fabricated and shipped to us on trucks, and we put it together like a puzzle.”

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ANNA KARIEL

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Hard (wood)work

BLUEPRINT

Taylor Ahn gives furniture a new life By Caite Hamilton

Abode: How did you get into woodworking?

Taylor Ahn: I learned the basics from shadowing my husband (and, honestly, YouTube). Our “workshop” was a friend’s garage they graciously let us use in exchange for free rein of our tools.

Like many people who get interested in furniture, my motivation was that my IKEA dresser disintegrated in my hands during a move. I was tired of spending money on short-term pieces made of MDF and particle board. I started visiting local lumber yards and asking a lot of questions, and from there I learned how to plane rough lumber and work with slabs so we could build our own furniture. It wasn’t until a few years later that I started getting into refinishing existing furniture. That part of my hobby took off after we moved into our first house. Not only did we have an empty house to fill, but we had a garage big enough to store the furniture I wanted to work on. I already had most of the tools and background knowledge I needed to start refinishing, so I just dove in head first.

How would you describe what you do? It seems like kind of a mix.

I have always been teetering at the intersection of woodworking, restoring, and refinishing. I do

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f you’ve been following Taylor Ahn on Instagram (@new_iterations), like I have for a while, you’re at once impressed, inspired, and...a little grossed out. Her current project, an antique card catalog, started as a grimy habitat for a colony of stink bugs. She spent hours ridding the piece of its occupants and rebuilding the frame. When she finishes, she expects it will be her favorite project to date.

“I call it my passion project, because the amount of damage it had required me to tear it down to the studs and basically rebuild it from scratch,” Ahn says. “But the piece is so cool and has so much potential. It just needed somebody to invest the time and work to get it back to its former glory.”

Investing time and work is the name of the game and Ahn, who is a full-time graphic designer and woodworking hobbyist, has spent the last six years honing her skills (and 70+ hours fixing up that card catalog). We asked her to tell us more about her work, the industry, and her biggest success story to date.

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feel like lately I have been gravitating more towards refinishing. Especially with custom pieces, when people are given the choice, they would rather make a piece their own style and aesthetic rather than completely restore the existing look. I think there is a balance of preserving the charm of an older piece while giving it new life.

I have painted as many pieces as I have restored to natural wood; it all comes down to personal preference and the sentimental value of a piece.

How does your commission work...work?

Quick fire Greatest challenge: An antique oak dresser with a lot of curves that I had to re-veneer. It had seven drawers and a hat cabinet door (different sizes and shapes), all of which I had to remove the original veneer and re-veneer without any “professional” tools like a press.

Biggest blunder: I paid $175 and drove two hours for a dresser I had high hopes for (based on a grainy picture on Facebook Marketplace), just to bring it home to realize it was MDF under veneer and reeked of cigarettes. I ended up giving it away for free, lesson learned.

Greatest success: An Instagram reel I made about a recent project went viral. I didn’t think it was an impressive video at all—it was like five seconds long and showed me prepping and painting an oak dresser. But I guess short and sweet is what the people want.

Honestly, I’m still figuring that part out. I’m very lucky to have had a lot of requests come in for custom pieces. Currently, I’m focused on refinishing and clearing out the inventory I’ve collected thus far. However, once I finish that I’d definitely be happy to sprinkle in custom or commissioned pieces. So far, any commissioned pieces I’ve done were from my own inventory.

What I usually do is post a “before” of a piece I just picked up, and if I don’t have a specific vision for it I’ll say it is “available for customization,” so at that point whoever messages me first has dibs. I’ve had great luck with clients thus far when it comes to giving me creative freedom.

What’s it like to be a female woodworker?

While woodworking is considered a male-dominated space, I have found that the refinishing community (at least on Instagram) is predominately women, and it has been really awesome to see the amount of empowerment in that community. I’d love to see more female refinishers transition into the woodworking space too. There is just so much talent there. I know for myself, it makes a huge difference when I see another woman doing something I’ve always been nervous to try. I would love to be that person for someone else, to demystify a certain project or skill and encourage other people to try it themselves. Even though I am working alone, it never feels that way because I always have people responding to the stories I post and asking questions. That is my favorite part, interacting with other people and sharing what I know. We all start somewhere, so I’m more than happy to pass that knowledge along and build other people’s confidence to try refinishing their own pieces.

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The next

Making a new home for an evolving family 24

STAGE

Story by Carol Diggs | Photography by Kip Dawkins 25

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The house has the massing of a Georgian building, with a two-story center block and one-story wings on either side.

Several doors open to the outdoor dining area, fireplace, and saltwater pool.

hen the kids leave home, what are the choices: Rent out the basement? Move? Retire to a warmer climate? Sean and Gineane Stalfort rejected all those options. “We thought about downsizing,” says Gineane. “But we do a lot of entertaining, we host family holidays, and we wanted to have our sons come back here.”

The couple loved their hilltop site in Blue Springs Farm, west of Charlottesville—their three sons all attend UVA, and the family is big Hoos sports fans and active in the Charlottesville community. So in 2017 the Stalforts decided to renovate the home where they had raised their family.

At least, that was the plan.

They asked architect Roger Birle of DPG Architects to design a more open, contemporary home where they could host social events, family gatherings, their sons’ college activities, and eventually their sons’ families. But the architects found serious—and expensive—structural issues with the existing house, built in the 1990s.

So the Stalforts chose to raze it, and build a completely new house on the site.

“Once they had made that decision,” recalls Birle, “the design of the new home could be much more cohesive.” Or, as Gineane says, “a million good things were possible.”

Among those good things: re-orienting the house to take advantage of the spectacular views, laying out a new drive up the hillside, and creating an outdoor courtyard with a dining area and fireplace, saltwater pool, and freestanding “party barn” all connected by loggias.

Birle describes the design as a modern interpretation of the Georgian architecture that’s part of Virginia’s heritage: a central door/hallway through the house, with four major rooms/ areas on each side. “The Stalforts didn’t want a [traditional] brick house,” he says, “and we

didn’t want to design a [ultramodern] white house with a shiny roof.”

The resulting house has the massing of a Georgian building—a two-story center block with one-story wings on either side. But its sandcolored stucco exterior, steeply pitched synthetic slate roof, and multitude of large windows make the 14,000-square-foot house look contemporary, open, and compact at the same time.

Inside, the marriage of formal layout and contemporary style helps make the house both spacious and human-scale. The center hall forms one strong axis, from the entry through to the living room, while the cross-hall that leads to the master suite on the right and the kitchen/family dining area to the left helps both define the spaces and connect them.

Birle used openings and windows to create visual axes through the house as well. In the foyer, a floating stair passing up along a twostory window leads the eye upward. Ahead, a wall of windows in the living area draws you into the space and then out towards the dramatic mountain views (and literally out, to several CON TIN U E D ON PA G E 2 9

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Gineane Stalfort chose steel gray for the walls throughout the house to help the spaces flow together. But to break up the gray, she added plenty of sparkle with wall décor, light fixtures, and upholstery.

C O N T IN U E D F R OM PAGE 27

seating areas on the covered porch). A seethrough fireplace serves as a partial wall to both separate and link the living room and kitchen.

This “kitchen” typifies the Stalforts’ lifestyle.

The cooking/food preparation area is a large island parallel to the countertop and cabinets along the south wall. In the center is a casual family dining space (the formal dining room is across the hall, just off the foyer). Then there’s a seating area, complete with wet bar, for anyone hanging out while Gineane is cooking. Several doors open on the outdoor dining area, fireplace, and pool—more room to socialize. “Our first Thanksgiving here,” she recalls, “we had 23 people, and this space worked beautifully.”

The first floor also has home offices for Sean and Gineane, and a mudroom complete with washer and dryer, lots of cubbies, and a dog door.

Upstairs are four bedrooms, each with its own bath; downstairs are the play spaces—gym, home movie theater, rec room with a golf simulator—as well as a wine closet and the shelf-lined storage room every home has to have.

Then there are the personal “want-to-haves” possible in a custom home. The master suite’s bathroom has two cabinet sinks, a stall shower and a steam room with shower, a soaking tub, and killer views. The room-sized closet/dressing room for two has three walls of floor-to-ceiling hanging space, built-in drawers, and storage.

Truly one-of-a-kind is the closet/tunnel/ hideout—complete with toss pillows and stuffed animals—behind the wall of the lower floor stairwell. This space was salvaged from their old house, where the Stalfort boys grew up, and re-installed exactly as it was...waiting for the grandkids.

Gineane has happily taken on the role of interior designer. She chose steel gray for the walls throughout the house; using a darker neutral keeps the light streaming through so many windows from bouncing around too much, and having one continuous color helps the spaces flow.

But all gray can be too...neutral, so Gineane added sparkle by using a silver-and-gilt theme throughout: wall décor, light fixtures, uphol-

stery, even the place settings in the formal dining room. A wall of small mirrored tiles surrounds the kitchen’s large south-facing window; the first-floor powder room combines silver textured wallpaper with a marbleand-gold chevron-pattern tiled floor. The striking silver-and-gold foyer chandelier was custom-made by Ilanel, an Australian firm, based on one of its models Gineane saw on Pinterest. “I love lights,” she says.

The Stalforts have been in their new home almost a year, and it’s still a work in progress.

Gineane is almost finished decorating the party barn—a combination game room/sports bar for adults, similar in design and décor to the main house. They plan to finish off the guest quarters above the garage, and build a casita next to the pool. But their beautiful new house is already the gathering place the Stalforts envisioned.

“That first year [once the house was finished], my sons would come home with their friends,” Gineane says. “I’d wake up in the morning and there would be four cars parked out back, and I’d think, ‘My plan is working!’”

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Home Sweet Home

ANNA KARIEL

For all seasons

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hen you move during a pandemic, you get acquainted with your new home pretty fast. Such was the case for Edward and Gary Warwick White, who took up residence in their three bedroom, three bath Cape Cod in May of 2020. Luckily, the very things that drew them to the house—a large screened-in porch with a vaulted ceiling, a fenced backyard for their beloved pup, Gatsby, a wood-burning fireplace— were also the things that helped them weather the ups and downs of the pandemic. They spent win30

ter in the family room curled up by the fire, and warmer-weather days on the porch or adjacent stone patio. The outdoor spaces were especially useful when it came to entertaining safely during the pandemic’s early months. For two people who love to entertain (both are on Four County Players’ Board of Directors), that was a point in favor of the Steeplechase neighborhood property, too.

The couple has plans to make a few changes— renovating the primary bedroom’s en suite bathroom, redesigning the kitchen—and in August

of 2020 completed a full re-plumb (“nothing like a big renovation you can’t see!” Edward says), but in the meantime, they’re just having fun making it feel like home. And it’s working.

“We had a couple dear friends stay with us one weekend, and our friend Kevin commented that he felt like he was staying at a boutique hotel,” Edward says. “That just felt like the greatest compliment. We want friends and family to feel like they are somewhere really special. We want them to feel like they’re home.”

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