$600,000 renovation updates ’90s-era Fredericksburg home

But the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house had two things that money can’t buy: great bones and a 360-degree hilltop view of the surrounding countryside.

“You can’t take a view and move it somewhere else,” said O’Brien, owner of Fredericksburg-based Agave Custom Homes. “Everywhere you look there’s a view, so I said to myself, I can make this house work.” 

After eight months and about $600,000 in renovation work, the house is now a charming, Hill Country-style home. The house features a large, open living area, a majestic kitchen and plenty of separate spaces, inside and out, where O’Brien, who is 42 and single, can entertain.

Still, while he built it for himself, O’Brien, who moved into the house in February, supervised the redo with an eye toward its possible resale value.

“People say you build a home to create memories,” he said. “Yes, but in my profession, I also build them to eventually sell and make money.”

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The home’s entryway leads into a living area with a vaulted ceiling of stained yellow pine bisected by a rough-hewn cedar beam that runs the length of the room. That, along with a stone fireplace angled in one corner, are two of only a few of the home’s original features O’Brien kept.

Among his many additions to the living area were the cabinets with cross-hatched doors he built next to the fireplace to make up for a lack of storage and the engineered white oak flooring made up of surprisingly thin planks.

“For a while people were doing 5-inch, even 7-inch planking,” he said. “We went back to the 3-inch. It’s kind of old school but the thin look is starting to become a trend again.” 

Among the things he didn’t like about the home’s ’90s style was how the bedrooms were right off the main living area. He built a pocket door between the two so now, if someone is sleeping, they won’t be disturbed if the TV in the living room is on.

O’Brien made all the design and decorating decisions himself. His bold tastes are apparent in the colorful, often textured wallpaper used in several of the rooms (and on one of the ceilings), the wide trim he added to many of the doorways and windows, even the classic transom window he built above that pocket door. 

While he purchased much of the artwork and other décor items specifically for this house, a number of pieces were things he used to stage previous homes he’d built.

“A lot of these pieces helped me sell the houses I placed them in,” he said. “But if the new owners don’t want them, I take them.”

O’Brien took design inspiration for the seashore when decorating the owner’s suite located at the opposite end of the house from the guest bedrooms. The walls are painted a seafoam green, portholes serve as windows and clocks and one wall is dominated by a large nighttime photograph of the iconic pier in Islamorada in the Florida Keys.

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“I love Florida and I’m inspired by the beach; it’s my happy place,” he explained. “I call the look I created, Coastal meets Hill Country.”

He also raised the bedroom’s 9-foot ceiling to create a vaulted ceiling that echoes the one in the living room.

The bathroom was almost completely reworked, with almost every surface having a different surface or texture. The bathroom floor and shower ceiling are both done in white and gray hexagonal-shaped Carrara marble tile, the cabinet doors are louvered and the walls behind the built-in shelving are wallpapered. 

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Adjacent to the living room, what had been a dark, claustrophobic kitchen was opened up and transformed into a handsome, colorful room with Saltillo tile floor, a beamed ceiling and a long, narrow, white quartz island measuring 7½ feet by about 3½ feet.

“I didn’t have much depth to work with in the kitchen,” he said. “So I decided to make the island longer instead of wider. There’s still room for guests to sit and eat while I cook and prep.”

With plenty of friends and family in the area, O’Brien said he’s already thrown Fourth of July and Labor Day parties and is now gearing up for the holiday season.

Instead of continuing the quartz to the perimeter, however, he installed walnut countertops.

“I like having a bunch of different textures,” he said. “The walnut warms things up.”

He removed one wall of cabinets opposite the sink, connecting the room to an adjacent den and bar area and opening up the views out to the back patio.

“If you’re entertaining and you’re in the kitchen, you can still see people sitting in here and here,” he said, gesturing to the den and living rooms. “And you can see out the window to the back porch.”

That’s where you’ll find a full outdoor kitchen, several covered seating areas, one with a TV, a wood-burning firepit and a built-in swimming pool with a tanning ledge at one end and a hot tub at the other.

Due to supply chain issues that have roiled the entire construction industry, the renovation took longer than it might have otherwise. Still, O’Brien had one nonnegotiable demand he was willing to wait on: he wanted matte white appliances with rose gold hardware from GE’s Cafe line.

“I ordered them in August of 2021 and we didn’t get them until this past September,” he said. “But look of the matte white against the teal cabinets was something I knew I just had to have.”

He also liked the matte white because it doesn’t show fingerprints like stainless steel while also looking more elegant than the bright white that’s been so popular in appliances since the ’90s. 

The pantry is nothing less than showplace, with individual, hand-labeled baskets holding crackers, tuna, macaroni and other foodstuffs neatly lined up on shelves alongside small appliances.

“I’m very Type A,” he said with a laugh.

The garage is another showplace; it’s so neat and tidy he even installed a glass door leading to it so it’s visible from inside the house.

“I don’t like seeing junk in my garage,” he said. “Even the paint buckets I keep for touch ups I put in a nice cabinet.”

[email protected] | Twitter: @RichardMarini