Nate Berkus: House Proud: Virginia Restoration

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House Proud

House Proud: Virginia Restoration

See how couple Phyllis and Tom of Virginia rehabilitated an abandoned 18th century house into a beautiful home.

Love at First Sight
Tom Glass and his wife, Phyllis, purchased a piece of land in Virigina where they wanted to put an old house. After asking around about the owners of abandonded houses in the area, he found a house in Appomatox county built in 1797. "I fell in love with it," recalls Tom. "It was this class American house with clean lines, it was just amazing."
Renovating and...Reassembling?
The home Tom found had no plumbing or electricity - it had been abandonded since 1930. After purchasing the home, Tom did tons of detailed drawings and took videos of the original structure, and then proceeded to take the home apart to relocate it. "It was the perfect house to take apart," says Tome. "Everything was like puzzle pieces. We took it all apart, loaded it up in two tractor trailers, drove 165 miles to my land, and we put it back together."
21st Century Upgrade
Tom gave the 18th century home a 21st century update, adding heating, cooling, bathrooms, and a kitchen.
Kitchen Proud
"I love all the rooms in the house," says Phyillis, "but I particularly love the kitchen, because Tom design it with me in mind. We'll sit in front of the fireplace in these two club chairs and hold our plates in our laps - it's not just a kitchen, it's this really warm room."
Continuing Home Traditions
"Tom and I actually got married on the back porch of the house in May, the house has such a history of births and birthdays and weddings that have marked the house for 200 years, and we’re continuing it," says Phyllis. "It makes you realize that a house is so much more than bricks or mortar."
Home with a View
Original Fireplace
Pre-Renovation Work
Original Woodwork
"One of the things that I really love about the house is that Tom didn’t strip all of the worn parts of the house," says Phyllis. "In 211 years, parts of it had been painted, and it sat empty for years and people carved their initials in the wood and everything. And he left that. He cleaned and sealed it and left it as it is."
Kitchen Fireplace Pre-Renovation
"We couldn’t move the fireplaces, so the chimneys and fireplaces are replicas of what they had – they’re done in a Rumsford style," says Tom. "The bricks on the hearth of the fireplaces are actually sidewalk bricks from Georgetown – they were tearing up the streets to re-pave them and so they were just throwing out and abandoning them, so we just took them all for free and used them to keep the look authentic in the house. Those bricks are probably from the early 1800s in Georgetown. They’re worn and they’re patina-ed."
Original Fireplace
Home Symmetry
"When this house was built they were very interested in symmetry – the way it looked from the exterior was more important than on the inside," says Tom.
Chimney Brick
"The style of bricklaying at that time was a whole brick and a half brick every other one – it makes a cool brick surface," says Tom.
Eclectic Mix
"There’s an eclectic mix of furniture from our houses, and eclectic mix of artwork," says Tom.
Natural Light

"One of the great things about the house is that it has these huge windows everywhere so there’s a ton of natural light everywhere," says Tom.
Cozy Kitchen Knick Knacks
The kitchen holds some of Phyllis and Tom's most treasured items. "It has one of Tom’s paintings, and a piece of textile that I brought back from Peru when I went to Machu Pichu, and also a Ganesh, who’s the remover of all obstacles," says Phyllis.
Perfectly Flawed
"I often tell people that it’s like living in a distressed piece of furniture," says Phyllis. "It’s not perfect, but that’s what I love. I think that a lot of people think things need to be perfect and pristine, but I love every single nick and details."
A Home with History
"So many people see these abandoned houses, and think it’s old and decrepit," says Phyllis. "Tom thinks of it as a piece of American history and of family history."