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Rural luxury: Room to roam inside and out
Luxurious house in Spotsylvania with a different sort of history is awaiting new owners
Date published: 3/7/2008
BY RICHARD AMRHINE
Houses in this area often come with some history, maybe a role in the Civil War, or a historic figure listed in the chain of ownership.
The house at 11300 Astarita Ave. in Spotsylvania County has more recent history of a different sort, and it's because of that history that it's now being transformed into the luxury property it was always supposed to be.
The grand, 12,000-square-foot house sits on 30 acres and was built in 2001, suitable for someone of wealth seeking plenty of privacy. Astarita Avenue is located in Whelan Ridge subdivision, a large-lot community about 12 miles southwest of Spotsylvania Courthouse in an area of the county that residents would fondly describe as the middle of nowhere. It's probably closer to Partlow than anything else.
The company doing the transforming is Old Town Builders, which has been renovating and building area houses since 1994. Its agent, Danielle Davis, is listing the property at $2.225 million.
She said plumbers, electricians, climate-control contractors and structural engineers had deemed the house and its systems in excellent shape.
"This house isn't going anywhere. Someone is going to love it just for the solitude," Davis said.
SHORT-TERM HISTORY
It was the acreage and the remote location that made the home just the place for the prior owners. On Oct. 21, 2004, Spotsylvania sheriff's deputies, joined by agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, raided the house. The raid was based on a tip that a number of high-powered weapons were inside the house.
The officers seized 26 high-caliber weapons. They included a Tech-9, an AK-47 and a fully automatic M-203 military rifle with a 40 mm grenade launcher attached to it, Sheriff Howard Smith said at the time.
Also found were 60 Rott-weilers in what was determined to be a legal dog-breeding operation.
The dogs were apparently allowed throughout the house. Davis recalled that when Old Town Builders first took on the rehabilitation project, the stench in the house was unbearable.
"The guys had to wear respirators when they first went in," she said. "Then we started noticing all of the oddities."
There were many features of the house that were first-rate. The kitchen was done in a handsome brown granite with top-of-the-line stainless steel appliances and a tile floor.
"We've decided that the kitchen was just fine, so we're leaving it alone," she said.
| The house at 11300 Astarita Ave. is of thoroughly modern construction, but the design seems to be a combination of styles, at least one of which qualifies as historic.
The beige-brick house has a formal Federal style that borrows a classic in antis facade. That describes the inset entrance with a balcony directly above. It's a style shared, for example, with the 1812 mansion St. Julien near Post Oak in Spotsylvania. There are also pediment exterior windows, arched on the main level.
On the other hand, the steep, double-hip room with protruding, ornate dormers suggests French Provincial style.
The front columns on the house provide a bold look but stray from the classic architectural style.
--Richard Amrhine |
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Date published: 3/7/2008
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