Written By Anne Blue
In a way, Marty P. Hill had been planning for his dream home since his boyhood. Back then, he began working with his father doing demolition and construction work. Whenever Hill came across materials he liked — stones, barn siding and beams, wooden spindles, door knobs, old-style radiators, bolts, bricks and more — he saved them, knowing that one day he would use them.
And he did.
“I’m a pack rat,” said Hill. But when he finally purchased his dream house, an old farm, he was able to go to his warehouse of saved materials again and again to renovate the building just the way he wanted.
The wooden spindles he had rescued and saved since boyhood now line the stairs and balcony of the four-bedroom, two-and-a-half bath home. Stones he hauled out of a barn he was tearing down now form the hearth of the living room fireplace. Wormy chestnut also pulled from a demolition job of long ago frames each window in the family room.
The light-filled kitchen features gleaming oversized stainless appliances, granite countertops, and white cabinetry. The walls show off the original brick and original ceiling beams are exposed overhead.
Warm ceramic tile seamlessly joins the kitchen to the family room. The room used to be a small sun porch. Hill tore it down and expanded the space. Windows open two walls to the patio and garden. Radiant floor heat, skylights and ceiling fans give a nod to practical modern comfort. An entertainment center with a large screen television anchors one wall and a comfortable brown leather sectional and a large dining table complete the family gathering-place.
In other areas of the house, Hill continued his theme of combining restoration with modern design. He exposed original wood floors and reused the original doors from the old home, but joined three small bedrooms to create a master suite that includes a bedroom, a large bathroom with a glass and granite-walled shower and Jacuzzi tub and a large dressing room with modern closet storage design.
“Renovating this house was a real project, and you always need a project,” said Hill. “My plan for this house was to put ideas from this and other old homes I’d seen together with new ideas. It is really a marrying of old and new.”
Hill kept a flexible attitude during his renovations and took time to get it right. In doing so, he created a warm, light-filled home with beautiful antiques and the accouterments of an older home while embracing the practicalities of modern design.
The main farm house, originally built in 1820 by Conrad Kerlinger, sits on 146 acres and is surrounded by two barns, a spring house, a carriage house, and other outbuildings.
Hill bought Twin Springs in September of 1999 and spent three and a half years cleaning and renovating the main house inside and out while he lived in the carriage house.
He was able to move into the main house in March of 2003. His new wife, Michelle, joined him with her two children, Meghan and Reece, ages 9 and 6, that November. Baby sister Kortney Paxton Hill was born a little more than a year ago.
Now the rejuvenated farm house resounds with the active life of a young family.
“We’ve gotten a lot of compliments on this house,” said Hill. “But I didn’t renovate it to be a show piece; I did it for the enjoyment of myself and my family.”
