Renovations

Tobacco Pack House

An old, rustic red barn with a large overhanging tree in front, situated on a lush green field with two smaller structures in the background.

One of the many selling points of the farm was the historical (likely pre-1900) two-story tobacco pack house that stands near the farmhouse. Even before purchasing the farm in fall 2021, Rebecca had visions of how to use it! Then reality hit and the amount of work and money needed to make it safe for use made us hit pause...until we found the right contractors to help us renovate it. While biding our time we did have some minimal work done on the tobacco pack house to help prevent further deterioration: its north-side sill plate, connecting floor joists, main roof, and east-side shed roof were replaced and a gutter was added. In addition, Rebecca cleaned out the incredible amount of junk that was left on the second floor, letting the pack house breathe again. We were overjoyed to find the right contractor in fall 2024 who literally laid the foundation for the rest of our renovation work. Shortly thereafter, Rebecca started on repairing the window and doors and repairing and replacing the wood siding. She left as many original boards as possible, replacing only what was necessary (which, in some cases, was a whole lot). She completed the south side in 2024, then completed the other sides in 2025. The remaining single-hung window and Greek Revival style door (probably original to the house but retrofitted to the pack house) each took days of intricate work and Rebecca’s quite proud of the final useable products, quirky though they still are.

Two men working on a wooden house under construction, with exposed framing, a red painted exterior, and a small door on the second floor. Construction tools and materials are scattered around at the ground level.
A red wooden barn under construction with a partly built roof, surrounded by leafless trees on a clear, sunny day.
Disorganized pile of discarded empty cardboard boxes, scattered magazines, and debris on the ground outside, viewed through a wooden frame.
View inside a crawl space with dirt floor, wooden beams, and cinder block support columns.
A person working on the upper exterior of a house under construction, holding a ladder in a grassy yard with trees and a vehicle in the background.
A wooden window frame with multiple glass panes resting on a blue tarp outdoors, with dirt and plants in the background.
Wooden house siding with an unfinished doorway, surrounded by wooden framing and leaning wooden planks.

Tobacco Drying Barn

An old, weathered wooden barn in a dense forest with tall trees and green foliage. The barn appears to be dilapidated with blackened and rotting wood, and has a rusted metal barrel in front.

An old ax-cut log tobacco-drying barn stands in the farm's woods. This structure has native clay chinking, v-notch log joints, and incredibly tight rings in its oak and pine logs. V-notching is one of the oldest forms of notching used in this region. Our current working hypothesis is that this barn dates to the 1880s, but it could potentially be older and there's a slight chance it was a residential cabin prior to being a tobacco drying barn. We plan to count log rings at some point to get a better idea of its age...In the 1950s, Mr. Hill grew tobacco and retrofitted this old drying barn with oil-fed heaters and wood tobacco-hanging frames. Our neighbor remembers climbing up in this barn to hang tobacco leaves as a teen, and also helping Mr. Hill prepare tobacco in the pack house!

The lower logs and much of the north side of the barn have rotted despite the addition of tar paper (probably in the 1950s) to try to protect the logs, and the building was twisted and leaning. In late winter 2026, Lynco Restoration and Design helped us stabilize this important piece of the farm's early history! We bolted cleats to sturdy logs in each corner then jacked up each corner in turn and removed the lower rotted logs. Now the building is level and can sit for some months before we build new stone foundation pillars and insert new logs. What an interesting process to be part of!

An old, dilapidated wooden barn with damaged metallic siding and missing planks, surrounded by leafless trees in a forest, with rusted barrels in the foreground and a cloudy sky overhead.
A stack of cut logs and rocks on the ground.
A man restoring a wooden barn in a wooded area, kneeling and working near the foundation.
An old wooden barn being restored in a forest, with its exterior partially covered in black tar paper. The barn is elevated on wooden blocks, with some missing logs.