ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, September 22, 1996 TAG: 9609240089
SECTION: HOMES PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN SNIDER STAFF WRITER
WHEN Benny and Carole Firestone discovered the Victorian houses of Old Southwest Roanoke, they weren't exactly looking for love - or a home - but they found both.
The couple owned a town house in a comfortable Roanoke County neighborhood, and they weren't planning a move to the inner city. But, Benny Firestone is a real estate broker, and he enjoys checking out houses that are up for sale.
Hence, he and his wife walked through a number of homes in the neighborhood.
The more time the couple, both in their early 50s, spent in Old Southwest the more seriously they considered buying a home there.
One afternoon the Firestones put a contract on a house Carole expected they would buy, but Benny talked her into looking at one more house that day.
When Carole Firestone first saw the turn-of-the-century Victorian perched on the corner of Albemarle Avenue and Fourth Street Southwest, she was underwhelmed.
"Ohhhh, I don't think so," she told her husband.
From the street, the house looked every bit of its almost 100 years. The exterior had been neglected for years.
It didn't take long to change her mind.
"We stepped inside, and I just loved it," Carole Firestone said. "Sometimes you step into a place and get the feeling it's home."
The home's owner, a contractor, had started renovations, and his efforts to maintain the home's historical integrity persuaded the Firestones to buy it. That was 18 months ago.
Since then, the house's appearance and the Firestones' lives have been transformed.
The house came first.
The Firestones sold their town house almost immediately, which was great but also meant they needed a place to stay. The Albemarle house wasn't ready, so they stored most of their furniture and rented a duplex on nearby Highland Avenue for a month.
After that, they decided to move into the already finished family room of the Victorian. They spent six weeks sleeping on a pullout sofa while the renovation work continued.
"Everything was a cloud of smoke," Carole Firestone remembered. Most of the work was going on upstairs because the previous owner had redone the first-floor living, dining and family rooms.
Three of the four bedrooms upstairs and one bathroom had to be redone. The previous owner also replaced the outdated plumbing and wiring.
The house's exterior turned out to be the biggest job. The house, probably built sometime between 1895 and 1906, had not been painted in many years. It soaked up lots of paint.
The painters emptied 144 gallons of paint - a combination of royal and navy blue, white, plum and a grassy green. Before they painted, workers pressure- treated the exterior then scraped the boards and replaced a few rotten ones.
To find just the right colors, the Firestones paged through books and magazines and took trips to cities known for their Victorian districts such as Charleston, S.C., and Wilmington, N.C.
A bed and breakfast the couple saw on one of their trips inspired the bold blue that covers most of the exterior. It was painted navy blue with white trim, but Carole decided to add plum and green as well.
"I just had to have more than two colors," she said.
Carole wanted their house's blue to be a little different, so she mixed navy and royal blue paints together until she got the shade she was looking for.
The trial and error method meant several trips to the paint store. She painted small sections of the exterior with the varying mixtures until she found the right color. She did the same to get the green, which started out as more of a hunter green. The plum came straight out of the can.
She is pleased with the results.
"We didn't want it to look like a clown," Carole said. "We wanted it to look classic."
Benny Firestone encourages others to follow their lead.
"You can be bold if you have the interest and the flair for this kind of architecture. With the exterior coming together, the Firestones set out to bring back the yard, which had turned to dirt.
Carole said she was surprised at how well flowers grew in the long-untended soil.
One day a neighbor told her how good it was to see flowers flourishing around the house again. A previous owner had had a talent for growing flowers.
As the house slowly came back to life, the Firestones found they loved their new neighborhood.
They relish the vibrancy of the neighborhood, which includes a mixture of incomes, ages and ethnic backgrounds.
"It doesn't matter if you're an attorney on Walnut or if you're working at McDonald's and living in an apartment," Carole said.
It's the little things that the Firestones enjoy the most. "It's young folks strolling babies, walking dogs in the park," Carole said.
With Highland Park just a block away, the Firestones take advantage of the grounds to walk their dogs - two Great Danes named Apollo and Ty.
Benny and Carole both went to Roanoke College where they were acquaintances but never dated. In fact, they both married their college sweethearts.
At a college reunion several years ago, they became reacquainted. Both were divorced with two children. Carole eventually moved to Roanoke from Pennsylvania, and they got married.
Old Southwest reminds her of the neighborhood she grew up in with its "sidewalks and children and people out."
Living in the neighborhood has brought them out more, they said. They walk at least a couple of miles each day and in the process have met a lot of their neighbors. It's not hard to strike up a conversation.
"It's an old neighborhood, so everybody is working on their house," Carole said. Sometimes they pass on what they have learned to others, and sometimes others give them advice.
The Firestones said they plan to live in Old Southwest for a while. The area is convenient to downtown and Carole's job at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. She could walk to work but admits she never does. Being that close to work is good enough.
While the house will never be "finished," the Firestones said they look forward to next summer when they will be able to enjoy it more.
The couple could probably sell the house and make a substantial profit, but they aren't considering the possibility.
"We did not buy this for speculation," Benny said. "This is our home."
LENGTH: Long : 129 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Carole and Benny Firestone and their pets, Apolloby CNBand Ty, sit in the living room of their home in Old Southwest
Roanoke. Living close to Highland Park means the dogs get plenty of
exercise. ERIC BRADY STAFF color
2. The Firestones lived in the family room for six weeks before the
house was finished. They furnished the home with antiques and
reproductions - whatever they liked. color
3. Double pedestal sinks grace the bathroom of the master bedroom.
color
4. & 5. Before and After photos of the house. color
6. ``This house gives you a good feeling. It's a friendly house,''
Benny Firestone said. The kitchen is open and airy.