By Tanya J. Tyler
HomeSeller staff writer
Sharon Rayburn swears the house called out to her. One day, on her way to Lake Cumberland, Rayburn passed an abandoned house at
5196 Jacks Creek Road. "Something told me to stop," she said. "This (house) was sitting here and it looked so lonesome and sad. I knew it its day it had to be this beautiful home that was full of activity. I just wanted to come out here and sit with it."
She broached the idea of buying and restoring the old house to Peyton Roberts, her partner in Sawhorse Construction, a Richmond-based remodeling company. Prefacing her request with the ominous words, "Don't say no until you hear me out," Rayburn told Roberts all about the house and how it had touched her. Roberts, however, had to see it for himself. It was quite a site, to say the least. |
"It was the sorriest-looking thing you ever saw," Roberts said. "It was pitiful. But underneath it there must have been a heart beating somewhere." Rayburn and Roberts ended up buying the house.
Blending past and present
Still under the house's spell, Rayburn wrote her vision of its promise, both past and present:
"At one time this home was beautiful. … The rooms were filled with the love, laughter and tears of its family. Today this majestic piece of architecture and history sits abandoned. The paint is peeling, windows are broken and boarded up; the fireplaces are cold …
"Sawhorse Construction will bring back the beauty of this home…by giving (it) the care and attention it deserves, using our experience to renovate it and restore its majesty and dignity of long ago years." |
"That just came from my heart from being out here at this house," Rayburn
said. "That's how deeply it touched me."
This is a special project, one on which both Roberts and Rayburn enjoy working.
"Soon a new family will fill the rooms with their love and laughter," Rayburn's vision for Fairview continues. "The kitchen will fill the entire home with the smells of Sunday dinner. Children will warm themselves in front of the fireplaces after playing in the snow on the front lawn."
It's a dream that is quickly becoming a beautiful reality. |
