Martinsburg CKC

Despite the cooler Fall weather upon us, the progress on our 1849 Greek Revival property is heating up!  Join us in this episode of Destination Classic Restoration, where we share some of the progress we have made this Fall.  Check out the completion of one porch, and the beginning restoration of another porch.  We also highlight some of the finishing touches in the common areas of the residence side of the property.  We have uncovered some beautiful aspects of the home.  I can now imagine how excited the first homeowners were when their hardwood floors were completed and the beauty of the original wood floors was unveiled.

It is hard to believe that we purchased the property over a year ago now.  It has been one heck of an adventure with unexpected twists and turns.  Ultimately, watching this historic gem be returned to its previous glory has kept our team focused on reaching the finish line. Thank you for staying with us as we continue on this journey.

We hope that you will join us again for the next episode where we share some of the progress on the outside of the property.  Don’t miss it because some exciting new updates are coming…

Also, don’t forget to check out the newest wedding and special events venue in downtown Martinsburg –  1902 on Queen (www.1902onqueen.com) at the corner of Queen and Martin Streets, just 2 blocks from the MARC train station.  It is another example of a visionary that saw a beautiful historic gem and brought it back to be a key piece of the downtown landscape.  The views from the upstairs ballroom are spectacular!

Thank you for hanging in there with us for the latest installment of Destination Classic Restoration.  We hope you have had a wonderful summer and are looking forward to some cooler weather and all the great things that come with the Fall season.  We have been working hard all summer to finish up the residence side of the property.  As you will see, we are down to painting, floors, and finishing touches.  The black walnut kitchen countertops turned out better than we could have ever imagined.  Before and in-progress views of the downstairs porch and guest bath are included in this episode.  We also show you the upstairs guest bedrooms that are ready for floor refinishing.  Come outside with us to see the new and improved staircase in the back of the property.  The apartment/commercial side renovations renovations are in full swing.  Check out the next episode to see some of the destruction phases of those renovations, along with some progress of finishing touches on the residence side.  Is it time for Pumpkin Spice Lattes already???

Thank you for joining us for the latest episode of Destination Classic Restoration.  In this episode, we will highlight some strides made in the bathrooms and the kitchen.  Now that most of the electrical, plumbing and HVAC are securely in the walls, the rooms are taking on their own character with design elements that are returning them to a historic gem with antique fixtures and even a clawfoot tub.  This is where the fun begins!

We hope you enjoy watching the progress of our restoration project as much as we have enjoyed doing it.  Don’t forget to follow us to keep up with the progress as we start into the finishing touches of the residence side of the property.  Once finished, we will be moving into the commercial and apartment side of the building to start all over again with upgrading all the internal systems that will ensure it is safe for the next 170 years.

Also, next time you are in Downtown Martinsburg, stop in and see our friends Anthony and Mark at Flowers Unlimited (flowersunlimitedwv.com) at 144 North Queen Street, Martinsburg.  Their storefront displays are one of a kind, and make their store a destination in and of itself.  Not to mention, their friendly service and creative floral design will make you want to come back over and over again.

Check out this episode of Destination Classic Restoration, where we unveil the very first rewarding ‘before and after’ photos of the upstairs porch, along with sharing some updates on the master bathroom, and the HVAC system we installed.

Working so closely through the process over the last 6 months, it is hard to see the total transformation of each room.  When you see something happening little by little, step by step, the leap from dilapidation to destruction, to construction, to the finished project is hard to recollect.  That is why we are so lucky that we decided to do this video blog of the restoration progress.  We hope you will enjoy the first true before and after photos of a room that went from a water-damaged room, with almost totally destroyed wood floors, to a treasure in the property. It includes a beautifully restored floor, and a new ceiling, HVAC and electrical, to make it a truly enjoyable space for looking out over the streetscape of our historic downtown Martinsburg.

Don’t forget to follow us so you will be notified of our next episode.  In Episode 9, you will see that after a lot of hard work, the transformation is becoming more visible every day.  The key is embracing the old and finding creative ways to keep it intact so we can restore the charm of this historic gem.

Don’t forget to stop by our fine friends at DeFluri’s Fine Chocolates at 130 N. Queen Street in the heart of downtown Martinsburg.  Their delicious chocolate treats are made on site in a historically renovated space that houses their chocolate production facility.  If you can’t make it into their store, but want to taste their chocolates, check out their website and order something delicious online.  DeFluri’s is just one more reason to make a trip to downtown Martinsburg and see everything sweet it has to offer.

Join us for this next episode of Destination Classic Restoration, where we go from wood to walls, and realize that restoration projects like this one require a village of contractors, inspectors, friends and family to make it a reality.  The process of going from open space to re-purposed space takes many steps with lots of hands.  We want to thank all the inspectors that helped us through this part of the process.  The City of Martinsburg has been incredibly supportive of our project and we are lucky to have their advice and guidance throughout the unknown.

Watch for the next episode where we show you the first shocking ‘before and after’ photos.  It is amazing how much difference a few months and a lot of TLC can make to bring back the charm of a historic property.

Don’t forget to check out the local businesses downtown.  We are happy to highlight our friend Jason Romage’s throwback Uncle Joe’s Barber Shop on Queen Street.  If you haven’t already had the privilege to meet Jason, stop in and see all the great work that was done to restore this beautiful historic gem in the heart of downtown Martinsburg.  Don’t forget to get a shave and a haircut from Jason or Chad too. Although I think it might be a little more than 2 bits…

Who knew we would have a Water Command Center in our 1849 property?  First of all, who knew what a water command center was?  Not us, that’s for sure.  In this episode of Destination Classic Restoration, we catch you up on all the plumbing advancements since the last episode.  Our plumber, Chuck Clark from C3 Plumbing explains how to install brand-new plumbing in a not-so-brand-new property without tearing out the foundation and starting over.  Hint: think napkin rings…  Then, Mark unveils our very cool, very new Water Command Center.  It is massive, with mini water meters for each of our sections:  office, apartment and residential.  By the looks of this thing, we are ready to take over the City of Martinsburg’s water operations.  Okay, not really, but it is pretty cool.  Hope you enjoy this episode and stay tuned for the next one, where we build the walls to protect all the newly installed water and electric, not to mention, make it pretty.

Also, check out the Main Street Martinsburg website to see some of the great events happening this Spring in downtown.  If you like Chocolate, you definitely want to catch the Chocolate Fest & Book Faire April 26-27.  You can run the Truffle Shuffle 5K on Saturday morning and not feel guilty for eating any of the chocolate treats the rest of the weekend.  Pretty sweet!

Join us in this episode where we show you how we are expanding and improving our beautiful Greek Revival property.  You will see how the apartment bathroom is getting a lot bigger by utilizing dead space in the current floor plan to add laundry and a more functional bathroom.  Next, you will catch up with our contractor Glenn Leonard as he shares how an unexpected wall to fix structural issues is actually protecting some of the original structure from being disturbed by our electrical and HVAC upgrades.  Lastly, Mark will show how we were able to make our 9 bay garage into more protected and usable space.  Now that we are leaving the destruction phase of this project and moving into the construction phase, we are looking forward to Bigger and/or Better things.  Thanks for joining us again.

P.S.  If you are having as much fun with this as we are, don’t forget to sign up to get an email each time we upload an episode by clicking the ‘Follow’ button.

Check out our next episode of Destination Classic Restoration where we explain how we will fix the porch ceiling with the blessing of our helpful City of Martinsburg Planning Inspector.  We are going to try to use our fix to add a design element that will help to bring the property back to its initial Greek Revival roots.  In addition, we are showing the kitchen in its destruction stage to update the electric, plumbing and add in the HVAC, before we can work towards the construction phase of our dream ‘heart of the home’ kitchen.  Lastly, see how we stopped the non-stop rain this year from creating more damage to our beautiful property.  There is water water everywhere this year, but no more drops on our porches!  This was incredibly important before we rebuilt many parts of the house affected by the previous water damage.  So, having lived in the desert for the majority of his life, Mark can appreciate the water water everywhere, just as long as it stays on the outside of the porches.  Enjoy the episode and thanks for joining us through our journey!

Let us start by saying everything ends up being The Good when you have great partners to work with that are committed to making your project amazing.  In this episode, you will see ‘The Good’ of how we are able to make some small modifications to the kitchen in order to convert it into the ‘heart of our home’.  In addition, we uncovered an ‘Ugly’ problem when we started updating one of the porches.  The Good news is that we are working with the City of Martinsburg Planning Department to get a quick resolution to the problem so we can keep the project moving forward.  We are so fortunate to have everyone involved working towards making this Classic Restoration an interesting and fun journey.  Enjoy this stop along the way and stay tuned for the next episode when we share the solution for the porch, along with a kitchen update, and how we finally found a resolution for the leaking gutters (which was incredibly important in this year of record-breaking rainfall).  Thanks for hanging in there with us as we uncover The Good, The Bad, and The Not-So-Ugly as it turns out…

In this next episode of Destination Classic Restoration, we explore one of the great things about restoring an old property-the unexpected.  Despite having a pretty in-depth budget for this project with some contingency funds built in, we ran into 2 unexpected items pretty early on in the restoration – our garages and oil tank.  Tune in to see how we resolved those issues and see the beginnings of our custom master bathroom.  We have a feeling that we will be saying ‘What do you mean it isn’t in the budget?’ a whole lot more during this project.  The major lesson for us is to be flexible and creative in figuring out what will have to be reconfigured for us to stay within our budget and still accomplish everything that needs to be done for our construction loan.  We couldn’t do it without the help of our experienced contractors and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking!