Our fairy-tale (like most) had a sad beginning, but a happy ending. Read on here if you want the full post run-down of why in spring 2019, we moved from our perfectly manicured urban farmhouse in midtown Atlanta where we had just finished the last bathroom, and moved up to Philadelphia less than two months later. In short, due to the death of my father, a new baby and a unexpected career change, we massively re-shuffled our life priorities to position family above careers and property. We both come from distant, independent families but nature was taking its course, and we listened.

Furthermore, read on to our second blog post all about finding this magical home and the emotional exchanging of keys / closing we had with the prior owner. We had been on the hunt around 30 or so miles of the Philadelphia suburbs, seeing over 60+ houses in person and researching many hundreds more over the course of 5 months of house-hunting. We knew the minute we saw this one it was love at first sight and we hoped our fairy-tale ending would occur. We haven’t even moved in yet, and we know that this will be our forever HOME. We are only the 3rd owners of this house, which has been stewarded through the last century magnificently with very little renovation done. This means the vast majority of quality workmanship and incredible historical details are all fully intact, which for the most part we intend to keep as is, or restore as much as possible. We will modernize where necessary, but want to do so in a way that honours how and when the house was originally built.

In 1929, our Tudor revival home was brought to life, nestled in a small Quaker town in the Philadelphia suburbs. The town itself is like walking into a hidden bubble of England, as if crossing Baltimore Pike were like the mythical rocks at “Craigh Na Dun” in Outlander, into a completely different world and time. Most houses are stone farmhouses or Tudor revivals, and almost 90% of the town’s structures were built prior to 1930 - something almost unheard of in today’s ever-changing world. In fact, the biggest change to date(!) is the addition of pavements/sidewalks in the late 30s / early 40s. Neighbours regularly chat and check in, people have lived in their houses for 40+ years, and there is an overwhelming sense of community we just haven’t seen elsewhere.

The house itself was constructed by someone who wasn’t a qualified architect, which makes it all the more amazing with the resulting work of art, but he was known for revivals in the Tudor, Pennsylvania farmhouse and Country French styles. According to our neighbour across the street, their more cottage-like house was modeled after this man’s childhood home, while ours was his ‘pièce de résistance’. Stone, half-timbering with real stucco, and multi patterned brick in-lay make up the exterior’s most notable features, with a quaint built-in fountain by the garage, copper-roofed bay window, and 6 inch thick paneled oak doors grounding each “side” of the house. Meanwhile inside, we have gorgeous oak paneled fireplace, two stone fireplaces, dormer and casement windows, slanted ceilings, cast iron lights, true square subway tile and so much more! The pictures speak for themselves with features you just don’t see in homes anymore. Check out the ‘before’ pictures below! We can’t wait to bring them to life even more as we progress through each room.

We plan to fully restore the house, refinishing hardwoods that haven’t been touched in decades, bringing the attic and basement to life, modernising the house where necessary (full re-wire and some plumbing, like lead-pipe removal), and potentially adding an extension on the corner to enable a larger kitchen / dining / family room, with a more standard American sized master suite above. We do as much of the work ourselves as possible, but pull in contractors when we feel it necessary for speed purposes.

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