PHOTOS BY KAITLYN HUGHES

After Leanne and her family viewed a stately, eight-bedroom brick home along East Crafton Avenue during the 2022 Christmas in Crafton House Tour, they promptly fell in love. 

The only problem? The house wasn’t for sale. 

Leanne, who asked that her last name not be used, began to write letters to the then-owner after hearing through the grapevine that he was planning to downsize.  

“It’s sort of a romantic story,” she says.

After communicating back and forth, the owner agreed to sell the sprawling, century-old house that contained both an opulent music room and a chapel with stained-glass windows to Leanne in May 2024.

Built in 1898, the 7,475-square-foot home was structurally in good condition, although the bathrooms, electrical and plumbing all needed to be updated. Two years after they purchased the property, Leanne and her family are still taking their time to thoughtfully revitalize the home for modern living. 

Upon entering through the columned front porch, guests are greeted by an entryway with high ceilings featuring a jeweled chandelier with dark wood on the support beams and the stairs. The walls, which were once covered in wallpaper, are being painted a soft beige with green and gray undertones that will provide an elegant backdrop for art and photos, Leanne says.

“[The previous wallpaper] was yellow and very busy with a Victorian flare,” she adds.

To the left is the former owner’s music room, which has decorative ceilings covered in rich blue-and-gold accents. In honor of the former tenants, Leanne is hoping to add a grand piano to the space. 

The music room leads to an in-home chapel that was added by the previous owners in 2005. Equipped with a loft, organ, pews, stained-glass windows and altar, the chapel has statues of religious figures lining the walls. If churches were closing or downsizing, the former owner would rescue any items from the parish, Leanne says. 

Another standout feature is the library. Like the music room, it has an ornate ceiling, but this one has portraits of famed writers William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, Alfred Tennyson and Robert Louis Stevenson painted across the ceiling.

“I think the house tells a story,” Leanne says. “I want to be the caretaker and presenter of the story.”

Moving to the back of the home, a large island, green cabinets and tall windows were added to the kitchen, giving a more modern style to the space while keeping elements of its Victorian roots.

Covered by the same blue-and-gold accent marks as the music room, the dining room has a fireplace surrounded by dark green tiles that inspired the renovated kitchen’s color scheme. Off of it is a hallway where Leanne hopes to add a small art gallery that shares the long history of the home. 

A winding staircase leads to two more levels of the three-story home. Leanne says rooms on these floors were once rented out to tenants. Her plan is to convert the eight-bedroom, seven-bathroom home into a six-bedroom home with four bathrooms. 

Thanks to the plethora of lighting and view of the backyard, the homeowners are making no changes to the primary bedroom, which includes three curved windows. Although they replaced many windows throughout the home, it was almost impossible to find curved replacement windows, Leanne says.  Because none of the bedrooms had closets, the family also added a walk-in closet to the primary suite.

In the future, what once was two bathrooms for two separate rented rooms will be combined into one primary bathroom with a stand-alone bathtub and a steam shower with a heated bench. 

The third-floor apartment will be reconfigured into two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchenette and an entertainment room that includes the pool table left behind by the previous owners. 

Although an ongoing renovation of this scale has been challenging, Leanne says it will be worth it in the end.

“We just felt like we were called to move here,” she says.