About catherine
Catherine is a CPA-turned-creative entrepreneur. She is the founder of Beginning in the Middle. an interior designer, photographer, writer, and business schemer.  She loves being cozy at home, miniature everything, and has a not-so-secret dream of living on an island one day.
SEARCH the blog
CATEGORIES
Before & After
DIY
Airbnb
Kitchen
Bathroom

New Property: The Blonde Vic

The Blonde Vic

Happy 2017 everyone!

Over the past month, Bryan and I have been fielding client inquiries (did you know we now offer services?) and spending lots of time planning for THIS.

Say hello to our newest home.  It was built in 1900 in the King Lincoln District, a neighborhood known for it’s historic homes and rich jazz history.  The home is 3000 sq ft and has 3 stories, 4 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms.  It’s going to be our biggest renovation so far, and we can’t wait to get started.

Having an opportunity to renovate this home brings things full circle for us.  Before we moved to Columbus, we were living in NYC.  I’m from NJ, but Bryan has spent most of his life in Columbus and never stopped paying attention to what was going on here.  He’d check websites like Columbus Underground to stay on top of the latest developments, new restaurants, and neighborhood updates, and never failed to get excited about them.  I admittedly didn’t think too much of it, because I didn’t think it could get better than NY.  One weekend we were back in Columbus visiting Bryan’s family and decided to drive through some of the neighborhoods surrounding Downtown.  We saw people restaurant hopping in the Short North and strolling through Schiller Park in German Village, but what really intrigued us was seeing people renovating boarded up homes in neighborhoods like Olde Towne East and King Lincoln District.  There was an energy and sense of community that neither of us had experienced before.  I started dreaming about living here and bringing an old house back to life.  It felt like it could be a new adventure.  Intentionally or unintentionally, Bryan convinced me that I wanted to be a part of it.

Although we didn’t end up starting our real estate journey in that neighborhood, we’ve kept a close eye on it over the years.   Before selling our Chesterfield Cottage, we decided it was about time to do a project in this neighborhood.  We made an offer on a property and were set to close, but had to back out at the last minute because our Chesterfield sale fell through at the last minute (that was a fun day).  We were really, really bummed about losing that house.

We ended up selling Chesterfield a month later to a different buyer, and a few days later, we received an email from the owners of this house.  They had seen our work on Instagram and wanted it to go to someone who would give it the love it deserved.  It felt like it was meant to be – the house, the timing, everything.  I forwarded the email to Bryan that day with a lot of !!!’s, and we set up a meeting with the seller to see it in person.  He told us a little about how the previous occupants stole a lot of the old doors and banister and other features in the house (sidenote: who steals doors?).  The house was in really bad shape, but had good bones.  We could tell it was a special one and saw so much potential.  We decided to go for it after running some numbers, agreed on a purchase price, and just a few days ago signed papers to make it official!

We’re almost done with our plans and hope to get the ball rolling on the renovation soon.  We’re looking forward to sharing it all with you!  It’s going to be a fun one.

Psst.  There’s more!

+ show Comments

- Hide Comments

Add a comment

  1. bekahbeks says:

    what kind of crazy person steals doors?!

  2. Betty says:

    I can’t wait to see what you do with this gorgeous house!

  3. d. says:

    Oh!
    I’m so excited for you…and this beautiful old gem. Can’t wait to see the journey because you do beautiful work. Do you plan to live there??

  4. Amber says:

    I am really excited to see the progress on this one! This house seems like it has great bones and your designs are amazing. A perfect match!

  5. Robin says:

    Oh this is going to be GOOD!!! ????????????????

  6. Jacqueline says:

    I love the story and the passion. I am SO excited for you both!!

  7. kristin says:

    Love hearing the story behind how you moved to Columbus. You have such clever ideas I figured it was time to follow along and get the details on your blog as well as Instagram.

  8. I got goosebumps reading how this all fell into place! That house is lucky to have you guys. This reno will be one for the books, fo sho 😉

  9. Linda says:

    I just found your blog. I have house envy for sure! I have always wanted to restore a Victorian.

  10. […] And at our Pearl duplex, before we converted this space into a bedroom, we had a Crate twin sleeper sofa in here as well as a wool pouf (which we brought with us to The Vic). […]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About BEGINNING IN THE MIDDLE

Catherine & Bryan Williamson moved from NYC to Columbus, OH in 2013.  Beginning in the Middle is a journal of the couple's design and renovation projects, real estate investment and Airbnb hosting journey, travel, and other life happenings.

SEARCH

CATEGORIES

Gift Guides

Kitchen

Bathroom

DIY

Seasonal

I grew up in New Jersey and always had a dream of living in New York.  There was something about the energy of the city that drew me inOur journey started unexpectedly in 2012, when we decided to make a big move from New York to Columbus. The glamour of climbing the corporate ladder was wearing off, and we knew that renting an expensive small apartment and dealing with crowded subways everyday was not going to work forever. We wanted to start creating something for ourselves, and although we didn’t know exactly what that something was, we knew NYC wasn’t the place for it.

We decided on Columbus because Bryan grew up here, and we were intrigued by all of the development going on in the downtown area at the time. We drove through many of the neighborhoods and admired the boarded up old houses, most of which were built in the early 1900s, and started dreaming about the things we could do here.

I'm Catherine, and I'm the founder of Beginning in the Middle.

read the whole story

READER

favorites

join our email list

Let's Stay in Touch

We send out a monthly newsletter and other occasional updates exclusively to our email pals. 

sign up

Home

About

Objects

Portfolio

Blog

© Beginning in the Middle | All rights reserved | Legal | TONIC

Stay