THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, July 27, 1996 TAG: 9607260390
SECTION: REAL ESTATE WEEKLY PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY KATHLEEN BUTLER, SPECIAL TO REAL ESTATE WEEKLY
LENGTH: 119 lines
For Pat Crew there's nothing like coming home to her barn in the woods.
``The countryside and the time driving . . . going home gives me time to unwind.'' she says.
Crew lives in a converted tobacco barn just outside the South Boston town limits in Halifax County, Va, about three hours east of Hampton Roads on U.S. Route 58.
To reach her house, you drive down a winding country road past corn fields and farmhouses - one advertises ``notary'' services on a hand-stenciled sign - to a long gravel driveway.
The barn is one of a handful on a property owned by Halifax resident Virginia ``Poo'' Roberts. Each barn has been meticulously restored to show off its unique character.
Originally from Alabama, Crew has lived and run a dance studio in the South Boston area for 22 years. Three years ago she moved from a house into the tobacco barn.
``I just wanted something different, something that wasn't a normal house,'' Crew says of the barn, which she rents from Roberts. ``I like the rustic-ness of it.''
In fact, Crew says she is so delighted with her current home that someday she hopes to give up renting and buy one of her own.
The barns may appear rustic, but inside they have all the amenities of home, right down to central air-conditioning, gas heat . . . even a satellite television dish.
The openness of the barns makes them appear to be bigger than they are, says Crew, who used to live in a larger house.
``Because they're so open, I found I can do with less,'' she says. ``It doesn't feel confining or closed in, even though it's not real big,''
When Roberts, a South Boston developer, bought the 175-year-old farm in the 1970s, the land was barren, except for an old tobacco barn. Initially, Roberts says she planned to develop the property, but, when her sons expressed an interest in hunting on the land, she changed her mind - and decided to develop the old tobacco barn instead.
``Originally it was in bad shape.'' Roberts recalls. ``I said, `Well, if we're going to keep this farm, we're going to clean it up.' ''
She began by moving four tobacco barns to the property from other farmland she owned. She replanted pine trees where they had once stood. And she slowly began taking apart and rebuilding each barn.
``It's like a jigsaw puzzle putting them all together,'' she says.
Barns built for storing tobacco were made using a process known as chinking. A mixture of mud and grasses was laid between the logs. To convert the barns to residences, the chink had to be removed and replaced with a layer of chicken wire, a layer of insulation, another lawyer of chicken wire, and finally, a layer of mortar.
A wooden kitchen was added on all but the largest barn. Hardwood pine planks of varying widths were brought from old houses throughout the county to be used as flooring.
The result, after several months of work, Roberts says, was a cluster of well-insulated, 1,000-square-foot log barns that people love to call home.
``When we first came out here and looked, it was amazing,'' says Catherine Glass, who rents one of the barns with her husband, Paul. ``We couldn't believe the detail.''
When the Glasses began their house hunt, they wanted to move out of the city, says Catherine Glass, a kindergarten teacher raised in South Boston. Although they initially wanted to buy a house, Catherine Glass says when they saw the inside of the rental tobacco barn last summer, they fell in love.
Decorative baskets hang from the oak beams - single logs that run the length of the house - in the Glass' ceiling. The open downstairs features wooden kitchen cabinets and a breakfast bar molded from a panel of hardwood floor.
Unlike the other barns that have only a single room on each floor, the Glass' second floor is divided in two. The smaller room is used for storage. A high-pitched roof means low eves in the bathroom, But Catherine Glass says her husband - who stands 6-feet-4 - has learned to avoid bumping his head.
Across the county, Halifax resident Biggy Hunt has also converted tobacco barns into homes - including a duplex made of three barns snuggled side-by-side and a large model that he built for himself about 15 years ago.
``I like them better than a typical log kit because these things have been there for God knows how many years,'' Hunt says. ``They have all the more character.''
Like Roberts, Hunt started with a single barn on a tract of land about a mile off a road in rural Halifax County. He moved three barns from other areas and completely renovated them, adding such features as heart pine flooring made from rafters in 19th-century tobacco warehouses.
Hunt's own house, he says, has six-foot-high windows for added light, a deck that runs the length of the barn and a gazebo with a hot tub.
``Just because it's a long barn, don't think it's not convenient,'' he says. ``It's the most comfortable house I've ever lived in. It's easier to maintain. You can cool it and heat it much easier than a regular house.''
Glass says the barn she rents from Roberts is also well insulated; her utility bills have remained low - even through the unusually cold winter.
But the real draw of living in the tobacco barn was being in the country. Catherine Glass says her husband is a nature buff who loves watching the birds that make their home in the woods outside the couple's barn.
In the fall, after the ticks have died, the'll begin taking walks through the woods to the Dan River, which runs along the edge of the property.
Sometimes in the evening, they sit on the porch to watch - and listen to - the other residents: deer, rabbits and even a bobcat.
``The other night we saw a family of wild turkeys,'' Glass says. ``There were 11 babies.''
Away from the lights of the city, even the stars are brighter, Crew says.
``Most of the time I like just having the windows and doors open and listening to the sounds,'' Crew says. ``It's just so much peaceful out here.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Cover, Color photo]
BARN RAISING
KATHLEEN BUTLER
Photos by KATHLEEN BUTLER
The rustic barn home has such amenities as air-conditioning, central
heat and a TV dish.
Catherine Glass says she ``couldn't believe the detail'' in the
design of the converted tobacco barn when she and her husband moved
in.
The rustic barn home has such amenities as air-conditioning, central
heat and a TV dish. by CNB