Couple renovate hilltop home from diameter to circumference
Deborah Lessard specializes in assessing risk. So she and her husband, Brent Stapleton, didn't hesitate to offer to buy their hilltop house the first time they viewed it.
Stapleton replaced lattice along the railing with aircraft cable to open the view.
But it wasn't a snap decision. Deborah estimated she looked at 30 houses a month over a six-month period. "I had built up quite a database as far as comparing housing costs," she said.
Deborah Lessard moved to the Kanawha Valley to take a position as vice president of claims and risk management with West Virginia Mutual Insurance. The former pediatrics nurse has a law degree and will finish her master's in organizational communications in August.
For those first few months, her husband and son, Dolan, now 7, stayed behind in their 1747 farmhouse on 52 acres in Pennsylvania.
They wanted something similar here.
"When we couldn't find the house we wanted, we started looking for land," she said. "We wanted something different."
They knew they had found it on their first visit to the two round houses on 11 acres on DuPont Road near Poca.
And they knew at first sight that they would gut the 1,200-square-foot main floor of the larger house.
That wasn't too risky either. Stapleton is an electrician who had a home improvement business in Mechanicsburg, Pa.
"That's how we met," said Deborah.
Stapleton came to install a stove in the old farmhouse she bought and was renovating. "That was a 10-year project," he said. This one took about two years to complete.
The two Deltec houses were built in 1983. Each wall panel is 8 feet by 8 feet. In the larger house, there are 15 wall sections, creating 1,200 square feet on the main floor and 1,200 square feet on the lower level.
Originally, the living room took about a third of the main level floor plan. There was also a kitchen, bedroom, bath, closet and small laundry area. Downstairs was a garage and utility room.
The smaller house, which was a mother-in-law suite, has 12 wall sections with 800 square feet on one level. An entryway connects the two houses.
One of the first things Stapleton did was to call Deltec in Asheville, N.C., to make sure the walls could come out. He was assured the roof was self-supporting with no load-bearing walls.
The family lived in the smaller house while Stapleton worked to create a great room in the main house.
Deborah wanted four distinct areas in the open room: cooking space, a dining area, a place to watch television, and a reading corner. She didn't work it out on paper. "I have to visually see it."
She found rugs she liked at ESC in Charleston and brought them home on trial. "I put carpet around and these defined the spaces."
In the kitchen, she used large pieces of cardboard and photographs of what she liked to map out space requirements.
There, of course, they encountered the problem of fitting square cabinets on curved walls. With stock cabinets, they would lose too much space. So they turned to Williams Cabinetry in South Charleston, which made the cabinets for much less than other quotes, they said.
Deborah Lessard specializes in assessing risk.
So she and her husband, Brent Stapleton, didn't hesitate to offer to buy their hilltop house the first time they viewed it.
But it wasn't a snap decision. Deborah estimated she looked at 30 houses a month over a six-month period. "I had built up quite a database as far as comparing housing costs," she said.
Deborah Lessard moved to the Kanawha Valley to take a position as vice president of claims and risk management with West Virginia Mutual Insurance. The former pediatrics nurse has a law degree and will finish her master's in organizational communications in August.
For those first few months, her husband and son, Dolan, now 7, stayed behind in their 1747 farmhouse on 52 acres in Pennsylvania.
They wanted something similar here.
"When we couldn't find the house we wanted, we started looking for land," she said. "We wanted something different."
They knew they had found it on their first visit to the two round houses on 11 acres on DuPont Road near Poca.
And they knew at first sight that they would gut the 1,200-square-foot main floor of the larger house.
That wasn't too risky either. Stapleton is an electrician who had a home improvement business in Mechanicsburg, Pa.
"That's how we met," said Deborah.
Stapleton came to install a stove in the old farmhouse she bought and was renovating. "That was a 10-year project," he said. This one took about two years to complete.
The two Deltec houses were built in 1983. Each wall panel is 8 feet by 8 feet. In the larger house, there are 15 wall sections, creating 1,200 square feet on the main floor and 1,200 square feet on the lower level.
Originally, the living room took about a third of the main level floor plan. There was also a kitchen, bedroom, bath, closet and small laundry area. Downstairs was a garage and utility room.
The smaller house, which was a mother-in-law suite, has 12 wall sections with 800 square feet on one level. An entryway connects the two houses.
One of the first things Stapleton did was to call Deltec in Asheville, N.C., to make sure the walls could come out. He was assured the roof was self-supporting with no load-bearing walls.
The family lived in the smaller house while Stapleton worked to create a great room in the main house.
Deborah wanted four distinct areas in the open room: cooking space, a dining area, a place to watch television, and a reading corner. She didn't work it out on paper. "I have to visually see it."
She found rugs she liked at ESC in Charleston and brought them home on trial. "I put carpet around and these defined the spaces."
In the kitchen, she used large pieces of cardboard and photographs of what she liked to map out space requirements.
There, of course, they encountered the problem of fitting square cabinets on curved walls. With stock cabinets, they would lose too much space. So they turned to Williams Cabinetry in South Charleston, which made the cabinets for much less than other quotes, they said.
Then they realized they needed more space in the kitchen area. "We're both big cooks and we do a lot of canning," Deborah said.
So the kitchen island had to move out several feet and become longer to stay in proportion. The result is a 13.6-foot-long granite top kitchen island that weighs probably 1,200 pounds.
"I made sure the floor was well shored up," said Stapleton, who installed the plumbing and lighting, laid the wood floor and finished the walls and ceiling.
He added a few bells and whistles. He electrified one of the kitchen drawers to charge all electronic equipment. The lighting in the glass-front cabinets and all counter undermount lights can be turned on and off by tapping on a cabinet door hinge.
Recently, he solved a problem that is not uncommon where windows are large and decks are added to enjoy the scenery. The view, in this case of farmland and forest, is beautiful - when a person is standing.
When a person is seated, the lattice railing around the deck blocked the view. Stapleton removed the lattice and strung aircraft cable through the railing posts for safety with an unobstructed view.
In the smaller house, no walls were taken down, although a door or two was removed. What once was a small living room and full kitchen was converted to a sitting area for the master bedroom suite with a niche for a refrigerator and counter space to fix morning coffee or a late-night snack.
In showing the bath that they share with Dolan, who also has his bedroom in the smaller section, Deborah explained, "I didn't want it to scream 'bathroom.'"
For one thing, she asked her husband to build a "barn door" to the room. The sliding door saves space and is a reminder of their farmhouse.
A small linen closet was replaced with shelves to enlarge the bathroom. For a vanity, they bought a decoratively painted low chest and topped it with a bowl found at Home Goods.
Deborah said she brought several vessels home to try them out on the chest before settling on the deep bowl made from a root. Stapleton waterproofed it with 50 Coats, an epoxy.
The 1,200 square feet on the lower level is accessed from inside by a spiral staircase in the great room or from the driveway through the French doors that replaced a garage door.
There is a room for exercise equipment and a wet bar, plus a room that serves as Deborah's office and a guest room. Dolan even has a room where he can keep his electric train set up on the floor.
The downstairs utility room has a motion-detector light, another Stapleton touch, "so when you enter the room carrying a laundry basket, you don't have to fumble or put down the basket to find the light switch," Deborah noted.
Stapleton laid the tile in all the baths, a job made more difficult "because everything you buy is made for a square house ... everything takes longer."
The projects he chose to undertake were those that would increase the value of the house. From her extensive house-hunting search, Deborah said, "We learned what to do and not to do."
So selling now may not be too risky, as they are considering moving again, perhaps back to Pennsylvania, where they've rented out their farmhouse.
Deborah took another risk in March 2007 when she left Mutual Insurance to return to school for a master's degree from West Virginia University. She formed Lessard and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in risk management and communication solutions.
Although the new venture requires traveling, she can be based anywhere. And that may be their hardest decision.
To contact staff writer Rosalie Earle, use e-mail or call 348-5115.
