For 146-year-old Victorian home in Danville, a remodel 20 years in the making - GoDanRiver.com - Home Builder Developer, Interior Renovation and Design Home Builder Developer, Interior Renovation and Design

Home » Room Remodeling » For 146-year-old Victorian home in Danville, a remodel 20 years in the making – GoDanRiver.com

Its love for Danville that keeps Carla Minosh and Tom Belles going on a 20-year journey of refurbishing their Victorian home on Millionaires Row.

Insanity? Minosh quips when asked what compels them to continue on their never-ending quest to make the perfect work of art.

The four-story, 146-year-old home sits at 878 Main St.

Depending on your imagination or mood, visiting the High Victorian, Gothic-style home can bring to mind the Addams Family or have you looking for Oscar Wilde to make an appearance.

High Victorian Gothic architecture features include towers, turrets, arched windows and a dark, heavy, brooding look about it, Minosh, a nurse practitioner, said.

Boasting about 20 rooms and more than 140 windows, the home was built in 1874 by Charles Sublett, who died in the 1880s.

The second owner, E.H. Miller, was a tobacconist and dry-goods merchant who married Subletts widow, Jennie. The home that Jennie also owned with E.H. Miller remained in the Miller family until Minosh and Belles bought it in 2000.

The couples priority at the time was to remove all the white paint.

It was painted white inside and out, Minosh said.

Getting rid of the white paint took years and entailed using a heat gun and dental tools, she said.

To step inside the stately red-brick home is to experience sensory overload, an elegant feast for the eyes.

The entrance includes a vestibule and stained-glass doors leading into a wide hallway with chandeliers, antique oriental rugs and stained-glass windows at the end.

An 1890s grandfather clock an original the couple bought from the Miller family stands against the wall to the left. An 1880s wooden credenza is on the other side of the hallway.

Its just pretty much for show, Minosh said.

Blue-green fabric walls with honeysuckle designs adorn the music room, which also contains furniture by Luigi Frullini, Minoshs favorite Italian furniture maker.

The room features a glass and crystal chandelier and a taupe and faded-green Russian-style Oriental rug.

In one corner, theres a rotating statue of Esmeralda with her goat, Djali, from Victor Hugos The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The couple got the object from the Troy Public Library in Troy, New York.

One of the homes nine bathrooms has Turkish themes, with Turkish-patterned tiles that are diamond-shaped with squares in the middle. Black, dark green, brown, red, gold and white make up the color scheme.

The bathroom was pink, Minosh said, referring to yet another instance of taking a part of the house and making it their own.

Mark Joyner, president of the Danville Historical Society, praised Minoshs and Belles preservation efforts.

It adds to the commerce and history of downtown Danville, Joyner said. For every home that gets restored, it saves the beauty of what Danville originally was.

The couple simply adores the home and the community, said Belles, an attorney.

We love the house, the architecture, the area, Belles said between pauses during his work on the home. We have great neighbors and friends.

Belles and Minosh typically hold parties three or four times per year, which provide an opportunity for others to enjoy the home.

Lincrusta wallpaper, paper pulp made with linseed oil and pressed into a pattern, covers the walls of the dining room. The stenciled, hand-painted ceiling holds a 19th-century bronze chandelier from Henry N. Hooper & Co. in Boston.

A glass china cabinet holds Jennie Subletts china from the 1870s.

Minosh and Belles gutted the kitchen, which is done in a reformed Gothic style including the refrigerator doors.

We didnt want it to look too kitcheny, Minosh said.

They added a sunroom next to the kitchen in an area that used to be a porch. The red-bricked room has an object that was esoteric even during the 19th century a radiator cabinet used to keep food and plates warm.

Its an old-fashioned plate warmer, Minosh said.

The cast-iron, gun-metal gray item dates to 1874. The couple found it in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A second-floor bedroom carpet dates to the 1870s and has a burgundy, cream-colored and faded-green design. A bronze chandelier is decorated with Roman armor and buffalo figures cast into the object.

The bedroom also has a bookcase with books owned by the houses past residents old hardbacks of The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne, Lady Chatterleys Lover by D.H. Lawrence and other works.

When asked why they would spend so much money and time working on the home, Minosh answered with a question: Why not?

Its just a spectacular house, she added. It really deserves to have the spa treatment.

They have done a lot of the remodeling themselves, but hired contractors for work on plumbing, electrical and the etched glass, Minosh said.

Though theyve been working on the home for two decades now, there is still work to be done. They dont plan to stop anytime soon.

We hope to inspire people to do this because there are so many spectacular houses in this town that just deserve the same treatment, she said.

Tom Belles (left) and Carla Minosh have been refurbishing their home at 878 Main St. since 2000. The Sublett-Miller house was built in 1874.

Carla Minosh leads a tour of the Victorian home she and her husband, Tom Belles, are refurbishing at 878 Main St. They bought the home in 2000 and have been working on it ever since.