Koontz, L.V., House, 301 Koontz Avenue, 1911, C. Regarded as
the finest residence in Clendenin at the time of construction,
the house is a 2-1/2 story Foursquare brick with heavy Craftsman
elements. Two outbuildings, a garage and carriage house, are
contributing elements on the property.
The last day of our awesome trip home, we traveled to one of our cousins, Forrest Aker’s house which was previously the mayor of Clendenin L.V. Koontz’s home back at the turn of the 19th century. As you can read above, it has been placed on the National Register of Historic Place and is jaw dropping. It’s present name is “The Hedges” and Matt and I kinda looked at each other with a crooked face thinking, “who names their house"?” Until of course we got there! Again, it was one of the MOST beautiful homes I have ever seen!
A little background on Forrest. He is a very talented chef and worked at many awesome places including the Greenbrier, the Biltmore, and the Daniel Boone Hotel and of course, we got to reap the benefits! His idea is/was when he bought the home to turn the carriage home into a bed and breakfast and have the main home as his own. He has done ALL of the renovations himself and not to sound uncouth, but he is a man of his 70’s+. I just cannot describe how beautiful he has made this home! So, instead of immediately narrating into the reunion, I first want to focus on this piece of art:
The back of the home…
The coolest climbing tree ever! The Elk River is to the left over the hill
Right side of home…
The left side of the home…
Here were the carriage house and garage…I just love the carriage house!
More carriage house…
The river…
My favorite part? The dream garden Forrest uses to create all of his fabulous meals!
Now those are some serious pole beans!
And to beat it all…the composter I want!
The man has many more hours in his day than Matt and I!
The outside was just the beginning, as Forrest is an avid antique collector, I don’t think there was a piece in the home younger than 100years old.
The coolest…this 400y/o candle stick from China…and we had tons of kids…scary!
Quite impressive…and here we were, the entire Gillispie / VanCamp clan with kids in tow revved up on lots of yummy desserts from the reunion…
…Lois and Forrest did such a nice job decorating for the event in the courtyard…if it were on pinterest, I would pin it for my dream yard!
The ferns on each table had been dug up from the farm back in May by Lois and planted for each of us to take home…I thought that was the greatest touch!
And then, WE ATE!
A couple of weeks earlier, all the Mommies and kids from the GA families made tie dye shirts for the occasion…the boys had been begging to wear them all week, and finally they could show off their own creations!
Lily LOVED the corn souffle!
And of course we even got Forrest, with his refined taste to rock the tie dye!
We visited…
Erica and Lily
Mikey and Andrew
Ricardo, Erica, and their adopted child for the week…
…sorry Ricardo, but I think Andrew and Erica’s tie dyes are much cooler!
Madeline and Ryan
Mommy and her baby…
The Bobbitts
The Gillispies
Front porch chatting…a little boys worst nightmare!
Susan and Havier…I was flower girl in their wedding.
The random dog that smelled the food cooking and fun being had and had to come and visit…the entire day! He even insisted on being in some of the family group pictures! He knows an awesome set of folks when he meets them.
Ryan and his Ditty!
And finally, we played…first at the Hedges, then back at the cabin!
Aunt Lisa and cousin Cathy
And of course, here we are breaking State Park Rules with the fireworks…it had rained the ENTIRE time there, so we were safe!
I may have a point and click, but I got it to catch some pretty cool shots!
And then we had a final kid visit and headed home the next day…
Lily was our navigator and we still made it home!
Fun was had by all and we thank Lois most of all for all the planning. She is so creative and thinks of every little detail! We may not have made it to the beach for vacation this summer, and we may not be big “campers” but as the boys have said…it was the best vacation EVER! We love you all and can’t wait to do it again!
By the way, if we were in the house naming business, ours would be, “The Zoo”
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