ELKHART Walk down Strong Avenue in Elkhart and its hard to miss the beautiful Strong-Conn mansion.

The historical fixture built in 1884 has been home to Samuel Strong and later C.G. Conn. It was Conn who commissioned architect A.H. Ellwood, after he bought the mansion in 1890, to update it from its Italianate origins to its current Neoclassical design with large 26-foot fluted columns, hand-turned balustrade and a two-story wraparound porch.

We use to live on Riverside Drive and when we took walks we would always admire this house, current owner Tim Shelly said.

In 1992, he and his wife, Meg, turned their dream of owning the home into a reality.

The first thing you notice walking into the entrance on the east side of the house is a narrow walnut staircase that spirals to the second floor.

Light streams in from tall, narrow windows onto a small space under the stairs with a bench seat. Bright-colored paper in purples, greens, pinks and golds decorates the walls and ceilings of the parlor and library on either side of the foyer. Its a drastic difference from the dark burgundy that had covered the rooms when they moved in.

There was a lot of old paper on the walls, old carpets, Shelly said. The first year here was a lot of cleaning things up. The couple worked on the upstairs bedrooms first so they could move in with their two sons, 4-year-old Michael and 9-month-old Andrew.

Then the real work began.

Five of the 4-foot capitals above the columns were missing when they moved in and had to be replaced. A new roof was put on. Several trees were removed from the surrounding yard. One side of the large house needed some foundation work.

And that was just the outside.

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Inside restoration of historical home

Bamber Gascoigne, 80, has been left a 50-room stately home by his aunt Ex-University Challenge host says he inherited the property 'by accident' West Horsley Place near Leatherhead in Surrey could be worth 10million Property has its roots in 11th century and has been visited by royalty

By David Wilkes for the Daily Mail

Published: 17:52 EST, 22 March 2015 | Updated: 05:48 EST, 23 March 2015

Whem he hosted University Challenge, his catchphrase was Your starter for ten.

But the stakes have suddenly become higher for Bamber Gascoigne after he unexpectedly inherited an historic mansion from an elderly aunt.

He was stunned to be left 50-bedroom West Horsley Place in Surrey by the Duchess of Roxburghe, one-time society beauty and a goddaughter of George Vs wife Queen Mary.

Bamber Gascoigne, seen in a library at West Horsely house, has embarked on a mission to save the crumbling estate, which could be worth 10million once the restoration has been completed

The Duchess Lady Mary Evelyn Hungerford Crewe-Milnes was also Mr Gascoignes godmother and had no children of her own. She died last year aged 99.

The grand country house dates from the 11th century, although most of it was built between the 15th and 18th centuries.

It had many visits from royalty, including one by Henry VIII, during which he enjoyed a 35-course lunch.

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Bamber Gascoigne inherits 50-bed home from his elderly aunt

3/19/2015 - South Side Leader

GREEN The City of Green is partnering with the Cleveland Restoration Societys (CRS) Heritage Home Program to offer free technical advice and low-interest loans to homeowners in Green looking to make renovations and repairs to older homes.

City officials will host an informational meeting to present more details about the Heritage Home Program March 26 at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Administration Building, 1755 Town Park Blvd.

According to city officials, through the CRS, the Heritage Home Program offers free technical assistance and advice to homeowners whose homes are more than 40 years old. CRS officials will evaluate any home that qualifies, offer suggestions on which repairs should be made and answer questions about home repair concerns.

According to city officials, in addition to the free evaluations, the Heritage Home Program also offers low-interest loans through KeyBank. The interest rate on these loans is a fixed rate of 2 percent for up to 10 years. Loans are available for interior as well as exterior repairs, maintenance, additions and modernizations. The Heritage Home Loan Program is based on the equity in the home. An After-Rehabilitation Loan product also is available. There are no out-of-pocket costs for the loan, no closing cost and no points, and interest paid from the loan is tax deductible, according to city officials.

The City of Green is one of only two cities in Summit County to offer the Heritage Home Program to its residents, according to city of officials.

For more information about Greens Heritage Home Program and the criteria, visit http://www.cityofgreen.org or call 330-896-6614.

To learn more about CRS, visit http://www.clevelandrestoration.org.

GREEN The City of Green Parks and Recreation Division and the Green Arts Council are accepting applications from artists wishing to participate in art-A-palooza, which will take place Aug. 22 at Boettler Park, 5300 Massillon Road.

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Green partnering with Cleveland Restoration Society to offer information on home loans

As a home ages, successive owners put their imprints on it. And after time, the house evolves into a structure that only hints at the original.

This circa 1790 brick townhouse in Old Town Alexandria was built by a shipping merchant, sold to the owner of one of the citys oldest continuously run businesses, transformed into barracks during the Civil War, nearly destroyed by a devastating fire, turned into a multifamily dwelling and restored to a single-family home. Along the way, the Federal-style house acquired an archeological designation from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources.

Denys Peter Myers perhaps put it best when writing an architectural history of the home in 1996: The house is now, after all, a palimpsest so to speak a fascinating record of successive tastes. (Myers, an architectural historian who died in 2003, was one of the Monuments Men who rescued art stolen by the Nazis during World War II.)

The homes original owner was Benjamin Shreve, a shipping merchant who sold exotic goods out of his warehouse on Prince Street. He eventually moved to Salem, Mass., and his son sold the house to Edward Stabler.

Besides being a prominent member of the Quaker community and an avid abolitionist, Stabler founded the Stabler-Leadbeater Apothecary in 1792.

The shop has been preserved as a museum on Fairfax Street.

Stablers son-in-law, Richard Huck, expanded the home in 1854. Eight years later, the home served as barracks for Union forces during the Civil War and quarters for escaped slaves.

During this time, a fire on the second floor nearly destroyed the home. The burnt building was auctioned off and eventually divided into five apartments.

In 1959, Charles and Lucy Woods bought the home and spent a year returning it to its former glory. For their efforts, they were awarded the Alexandria Associations award of merit for architectural restoration.

Wilfred Smith, the founding president of the Alexandria Historical Society, and his wife, Elizabeth, moved into the home after the Woods and continued the restoration, adding the Georgian moldings and cornices

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Federal style townhouse in Old Town Alexandria for $3.995M

A DERELICT stately home steeped in history and set in one of the most romantic corners of the North-East is for sale for more than half-a-million pounds.

Sockburn Hall comes complete with a ruined Saxon church, and a wonderful legend about a dragon being slain nearby.

The hall, in a secluded loop of the River Tees near Neasham, was built in 1834 on the site of a medieval manor house which was once reputedly the home of Sir John Conyers, the knight who killed the Sockburn Worm.

The Grade II* listed hall has been in poor repair for decades, although in recent years volunteers have cleared the overgrown grounds and English Heritage has provided a grant to make the roof watertight.

We are given to understand that the structure of the building is pretty sound but it needs a complete makeover, said Sarah Geary, of the Sockburn Hall Project. It has not really been modernised since it was built, and has still got most of its original features. It is essentially 1834, so theres huge potential.

It is being sold by the Gatheral family which have owned it since the mid-1950s.

It is no secret that it has fallen into disrepair for all sorts of reasons and action needed to be taken, said Mrs Geary. The grounds had become completely overgrown and almost sinister so in 2007, my daughter, Laura, started the project and with some absolutely amazing volunteers, they have transformed the site, giving back to us the skeleton of what it used to be like.

We have now taken it as far as we can. We are not in a position to fund the restoration and repairs, and we would hate to see it fall into disrepair again.

The hall with the Grade I listed church and Grade II listed stableblock, or coach-house, is being marketed by Jackston-Stops and Staff of York, with offers in excess of 500,000 being invited. The brochure says: Both the hall and the coach house are in a very poor condition and require extensive works to bring them back to their former glory.

Nick Talbot, of the agents, said: We are marketing it as a residential property, for someone wanting the most fantastic private country house in a wonderful spot, with a stable block with great potential and an old church which is a historic building.

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For sale: Sockburn Hall the home of a dragon-slayer

Flames destroyed a Stony Point home on Lakeshore Dr. and damaged two others early Thursday morning, March 19, 2015. (Monroe News Photo/Danielle Portteus)

FRENCHTOWN TOWNSHIP Flames destroyed a Stony Point home and damaged two others early this morning.

The fire broke out around 5 a.m. in the 3700 block of Lakeshore Dr. When fire crews arrived, the home was fully engulfed, said Frenchtown Township Fire Chief Mark Nicholai.

Chief Nicholai said the gas meter was on fire, but firefighters are unsure if that sparked the blaze or if it was a result of the fire. The vacant home is believed to be a single-story ranch house, however, the chief said because of the extensive damage by the time fire personnel arrived, it was not determined.

The fire had a good start for sure, the chief said before crews arrived. This area is pretty isolated, so it was going good.

The wind caused the fire to spread to the attic of a second home to the north, which is a two-story house. The homeowner was at home and she was not injured.

There is significant damage to the second house, he said. The roof is a tin roof and all the support structures are damaged. The only thing left is the tin.

The siding on the third home was damaged and had melted off nearly all of one side. That home, the chief said, is livable. No one was home at the time of the fires.

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Stony Point home destroyed in Thursday morning fire

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Qwik Response Reviews | Santa Barbara Restoration and Construction - (805) 962-6626 - Video

Minneapolis, Minnesota (PRWEB) March 17, 2015

Homes in St. Pauls historic Summit Hill and Crocus Hill neighborhoods offer a unique set of landscaping challenges for even the most experienced landscape designers at Southview Design.

Award-winning landscape designer Tim Johnson rose to the challenge of restoring the backyard and reflecting pool for a late 19th century home on Summit Ave., while Matt Burton is currently creating a landscape design for a new home in the Crocus Hill neighborhood for the spring Luxury Home Tour.

The home at 807 Summit Ave., built in 1898 by the architect Cass Gilbert, is a great example of how an historic home and its landscaping work together in concert. Restoring the homes gardens and landscaping to the way it may have looked over 100 years ago was not an easy task, requiring Johnson to play history detective as well as creative landscape designer.

Commissioned by Jacob Dittenhofer, a partner in the Golden Rule department store in downtown St. Paul, the home housed Dittenhofers son and 17-year-old bride, who hosted dinner parties with guests like F. Scott Fitzgerald. Constructed of Mankato-Kasota stone, the 9,000 square foot mansion used to loom over a reflecting pool in the backyard, which is documented in photos dating back to 1906.

The reflecting pool was filled in by the monks who lived there after Madeline Dittenhofer donated the home to the Christian Brothers. Since it had been buried beneath soil and sod for decades, restoring the pool wasnt an option. So Johnson and his team set out to recreate the pool.

The pools original walls and steps were still visible, but the original pavers were buried under mounds of dirt. During excavation, Johnson and his team uncovered the old pavers, which enabled them to custom match their color and design. The old photos also helped guide them through a maze of other design decisions for the pool and backyard.

The biggest challenge was staying true to the original backyard while using modern-day materials and taking the current homeowners lifestyle into consideration, Johnson said. A lot of work went into making everything look authentic, he said, adding that the Southview Design team worked closely with the Minnesota Historical Society. Johnsons design incorporated hydrangeas, roses, evergreens and colorful perennials and annuals, which were popular in gardens at that time and remain popular today.

For photos of the historic backyard and reflecting pool, go to: http://southviewdesign.com/newsroom/press/summit-avenue-landscape-restoration.html.

While most homes in St. Pauls historic neighborhoods have been carefully renovated, the area is also witnessing new home construction thats congruent with the areas history and character. Working together with Detail Homes, Southview Design landscape designer Matt Burton is currently designing the landscape for the new construction at 700 Osceola Ave., which will be on the spring Luxury Home Tour, taking place June 5-7, 12-14 and 19-21.

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Southview Design's Landscape Design for St. Paul Home to be Featured in the June Luxury Home Tour

By Kim Cook The Associated Press

This photo provided by Restoration Hardware shows a ping pong table that is a new spring addition to their outdoor collection. Concrete has appeal as both an old-world and contemporary material.

The Pantheon. The Panama Canal. The Hoover Dam.When you think of concrete, you might imagine great feats of engineering, or at least highway overpasses and other sturdy, stolid structures.

But concrete has become a stylish medium in the home, thanks to interior designers and artisans.

Concrete is such an amazing and cheap material. I can get an 80-pound bag from Home Depot and turn it into tables, vases and planters without using power tools, says Boston-based designer Ben Oyeda, who offers instructions for several projects on his website, http://www.homemade-modern.com.

Oyeda uses Lego blocks to make the moulds for his tables; his pendant fixtures start with plastic bottles.

Working with concrete has changed the way I see waste, he says. Every plastic bottle or box has the potential to be used as a mould for making a concrete object.

Eric Boyd of Charlotte, North Carolina, makes creative countertops by mixing concrete with other materials. Aggregate additions such as recycled glass or semi-precious stones give the concrete a terrazzo look, and he hones the slabs to emphasize their geologic characteristics. He has used shells, mother of pearl, tigers eye or bands of copper to create one-of-a-kind slabs for homes and stores.

For one client, his team took inspiration from the homes location: The (kitchen) island has a topographic feature which was taken from a map of their property. There are also various pebbles from the property, and a few fossils that were inlaid as well, he says.

Danish designer Doreen Westphal uses fine Belgian lace to make patterns and moulds for concrete curtains, vases and tables. Theres a yin-yang tension that emerges from the interplay of the delicate lace motifs and the sturdy concrete.

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Home trends: Concrete gains ground as decorative material

STEVENSVILLE It would be hard to imagine that retired Indian agent Peter Whaley had 130 years of longevity on his mind when he laid that first 12-inch-squared log onto the rubble foundation that would hold his new home back in 1885.

More likely, he wanted to make sure his wife, Hannah, and their nine children had a little bit of room to spread out after living in a nearby small log cabin for nearly six years.

Whaley had claimed 160 acres under the federal Desert Land Act.

On that land, his family built a two-story home from stout, square-hewn logs and then covered the outside with pine clapboard siding that was painted white.

For more than a century, that house was home to several families who raised horses, apples, corn, hogs, dairy cows and potatoes in order to survive.

In the early 1970s, the Hagen family sold the house and their land to Ravalli National Wildlife Refuge, which is now called the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge. The Hagens only stipulation was that their son, Harold, could live there as long as he wanted. Harold left in 1988.

Ever since then, the house has remained empty.

But this last remaining remnant of the homesteading era hasnt been forgotten.

Recently, Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge manager Tom Reed learned that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has set aside $200,000 to refurbish the historic building.

Our vision is that after its been refurbished, we would allow it to be open to the public from spring to fall as a site used to interpret the history of this landscape, Reed said.

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Homestead restoration: Lee Metcalf Wildlife Refuges historic Whaley house to become interpretive display