Heaberlin House
In the early 1900s, Route 2, now known as Ohio River Road, was called “Millionaire’s Row.” Six large houses graced the stretch of land, a road separating what many would call mansions from the farmlands where the owners made their fortunes. Over the years, house number 5767, the fourth of the six large homes on “Millionaire’s Row,” has seen many occupants and owners, but none with the heart and love of Bill and Debby Heaberlin.
The couple only had to climb the front stone steps of the four-story brick house, a Georgian Federal design whose construction dates back to 1905-1906, to know that this house was their destiny.
Recently married and new to the empty nest scene, the happy couple was looking to downsize from a four-bedroom home in a development to a two-bedroom home with a small yard. What they found instead was a labor of love that they wouldn’t trade for anything.
Eleven layers of wallpaper covered many of the walls. The ceiling of the family room on the first floor was cracked and one wall was crooked. The basement resembled more of a dark dungeon than a large space with laundry hookups and great potential. The gas and water lines had to be replaced. The yard had to be leveled with countless tons of dirt. All of the bricks on the exterior of the house had to be repointed, a costly endeavor that took years from the appearance of the house. The kitchen was remodeled, the basement was gutted and the paintbrushes came out. After three years of tough love, the Heaberlin home has regained its turn of the century charm with Tuscany-themed paintings, black wrought iron accessories, tranquil wall colors, beautiful furniture and a green couch on which Bill watches the Marshall ballgames. Of the journey, Bill says, “Every room has been its own adventure.”
As the layers of time were peeled back one by one, Debby and Bill found more booboos that they needed to fix. When the new grass and soil was put down in the yard, low water pressure led to a new water line. As the layers of wallpaper came off in the family room, a crooked wall was discovered that had to be fixed. One of the windows in the family room had leaked at one point and the owner at that time had “fixed” it by breaking a piece of plywood over his knee, affixing the jagged piece of material to the wall with duct tape and putting wallpaper over it.
Number 5767 sits on the side of Ohio River Road, an expansive yard surrounding the old house like protective arms. A circular drive loops in front of the brick steps of the house and the steps lead up to the wide brick porch. From the road, the years seem to slip away as visitors can imagine the house as it must have looked in its early days—a classic mansion fit for royalty. Charming old trees shade the yard, telling tales of their own history and a classic white gazebo in the backyard hints at lazy summers spent sipping tea and enjoying the mountain climate.
“We knew it was going to be a big project, but it was a project we could do together and something that we could really put ourselves into,” Bill says. “The purpose of this home is to share.” And share they do, from Christmas parties to church services to family meals. Last year they even entertained the king and queen of a Nigerian province, and on November 11, Bill and Debby renewed their wedding vows by the fireplace on their 11th anniversary.
The house has 5,400 square feet and sits on 6.83 acres of land. With 21 rooms, rive bathrooms and four floors, this 100 year-old home has 10 foot ceilings, spacious bedrooms, four fireplaces, a wooden staircase and a beautiful widow’s walk that looks out over a balcony on the front of the house into the lush yard below. It’s hard to imagine the home being able to get any better. The Heaberlins did so, however, by adding a work-out room, a bar area, a cozy TV room and a custom designed gift wrapping room—just in the basement.
Creativity has not run short in this home. Bill and Debby used a wooden crate that part of their dining room table came in to build a beautiful wine cabinet for the basement. “Being able to do a beautiful wine rack out of what were basically throwaway parts—that had a wow power to it,” Bill says, proud of his castle. The idea for the gift wrapping room comes from their love of Christmas and the fact that they shop for gifts all year long because the end of the year is so busy. They also buy wrapping paper and bows on clearance every year and stock it in this room that contains labeled shelves, drawers and tins and a large table area to wrap the presents.
The house has come together through persistence, dedication and the help of friends like carpenter Stan Wilson and brick specialist Ed Spencer of Spencer For Hire in Ohio. “We’ve been very lucky,” Debby says, “with the people we’ve had working on the house. When something comes up that they think we need to address, they would tell us and either do it for us or they would have someone that they knew that would be able to help us with it.” With both working full-time jobs—Bill owning his own entertainment business called MPE Entertainment and Debby working as an officer manager for a computer software company and as a consultant for a home decorating company, it’s hard to imagine having the time to peel layers of wallpaper off of walls and remodel a kitchen and bathrooms. “Debby is very blessed because her day consists of 72 hours while the average person only has 24 hours,” Bill teases his wife. “Somehow she manages to get it done. It amazes me.”
Bill hopes they are never satisfied with the house. “The idea is that just like Debby and me, the house is evolving and it’s always a work in progress. I’m not naïve enough to think we’ll ever finish.”
