SUMMER 2014 1

1201Summer 2014 $2.75

THE HOME ISSUE

Log cabin to luxuryA makeover for a Farmington farmhouse

War storiesAthens Bed & Breakfast recalls a European chateau

Surrounded by soundLiving in a recording

studio

Creating happiness

Inside the home of Red

Dress Boutique CEO Diana

Harbour

NEw bOOkS aNd MUSIc | REcIpES | cOOL FINdS aT VIc'S VINTagE | THE MaYOR OF baRbER STREET

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SUMMER 2014 7

InsideT h e h O M e i S S u e

The BuZZ

Upcoming events.9

New books to guide décor, garden and DIY projects.12

Let these local records be your summer soundtrack.14

Three unique new items to find at local shops.16

STYLe

Brent Swanson crafts sturdy wooden furniture for any room.18By KriSten MoraLeS

Designer Jade O'Connor upcycles five great finds.22By CaroLyn CriSt

Meet metal art crafted by Harold Rittenberry.26By CaroLyn CriSt

TASTe

Heirloom Café and Fresh Market shares summertime recipes.30

PeOPLe

After saving so many houses, he's the unofficial mayor of Barber Street.32By ChriS StarrS

Victor Peel has inherited his father's eye for great vintage furniture.34By aLLie JaCKSon

FeATuReS

Joel Hatstat is surrounded by music in his home recording studio.39By andré GaLLant

Why Zack and Sarah Brendel took a gamble on a home with good bones.42By KriSten MoraLeS

Red Dress Boutique CEO Diana Harbour creates a home of happiness.46By andrea Griffith-Girtz

Guests to this Athens B&B are surrounded by old-world antiques and hospitality.52By KriSten MoraLeS

An abandoned North Georgia mill is a blank canvas for reuse and restoration.58By CaroLyn CriSt

Photo by richard hamm / Staff

Athens Magazine (USPS 005803, ISSN# 1053–623 is published quarterly for cover price of $2.75 by Athens Newspapers Company, LLC, trading as Athens Magazine, One Press Place, Athens Georgia 30601. Periodicals postage paid at Athens, Georgia 30601. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Athens Magazine, P.O. Box 912 Athens, Georgia 30603–0912. The cover and contents are fully protected and may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without the written consent of Athens Magazine. We are not responsible for loss of unsolicited inquiries, manuscripts, photographs, transparencies or other materials. They will not be returned unless accompanied by return postage. Address letters and editorial contributions to Athens Magazine, P.O. Box 912, Athens, Georgia 30603–0912. All rights reserved.

The kitchen inside Zack and Sarah Brendel's Farmington home.

Cover photo by Blane marable

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publisherScot Morrissey

vice president of audienceChris White

vice president of salesJordan Magness

Creative directorKristen Morales

Contributing WritersCarolyn CristAndré Gallant

Andrea Griffith-GirtzAllie Jackson

Kristen MoralesChris Starrs

Copy editors Donnie FetterEd Morales

Contributing photographersRichard HammBlane MarableKristen Morales

AJ Reynolds

Community engagement editor Andrea Griffith-Girtz

account executivesAlicia Goss

Christa MurphyJena Wages

Laura JacksonTom Bennewitz

Tracy Traylor

advertising support/Workflow Manager

Ashley Catoe

advertising support CoordinatorClaire Artelt

athens magazine1 Press Place

Athens, Georgia 30601;(mailing) P.O. Box 912Athens, Georgia 30601

(706) 208-2282 advertising

(706) 208-2378 Customer service

(706) 208-2245 editorial

athens Magazine is a registered trademark and a publication of the Magazine division of Morris publishing group, LLc.

SUMMER 2014 9

AthensBuzzAthensBuzz

Put it on yourCAlendArUpcoming events in the Athens area

Joshua Bell with the Atlanta symphony OrchestraAtlanta Symphony Orchestra music director Robert Spano will conduct the program, which will include the Brahms Violin Concerto, Paul Hindesmith’s Symphony Mathis der Haler (Matthias the Painter) and a new work by Charles Zoll commissioned by the ASO.When: 3 p.m. June 1Where: Hugh Hodgson Concert Hall in the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center, 230 River Road, AthensCost: $49-$69details: 706-542-4400 or pac.uga.edu

snake dayLearn about snakes through live snake exhibits, games, crafts, reptile hikes, exhibits, guest speakers, and a snake-themed photo booth. When: Noon-4 p.m., June 1Where: Sandy Creek Nature Center, 205 Old Commerce Road, AthensCost: $3 for Athens-Clarke County residents, $5 for non-county residents. Children 3 and younger free.details: 706-613-3615

‘steel magnolias’Presented by Town & Gown PlayersWhen: 8 p.m. June 6-7 and 12-14; 2 p.m. June 8 and 15Where: Athens Community Theatre, 115 Grady Ave., Athensdetails: 706-548-3854 or www.townandgownplayers.org

‘Twelfth Night’The sixth annual Shakespeare on the Lawn event presented by Rose of Athens Theatre.When: June 11-15Where: Ashford Manor, 5 Harden Hill Road, Watkinsvilledetails: For ticket prices, call 706-769-2633

athFestSee 200 bands on outdoor stages and in Athens’ clubs, plus handmade art, local film screenings and KidsFest kids activities.When: June 18-22Where: Downtown Athens Cost: Outdoor stages free; all-venue weekend wristbands available for saledetails: athfest.com

star spangled ClassicAn Independence Day celebration and fireworks display with family activities, food and music. When: Event begins 6 p.m.; fireworks at 9:30 p.m. July 4Where: Georgia Square Mall, 3700 Atlanta Highway, AthensCost: Freedetails: 706-543-7908, ext. 227

sprockets music video FestivalThe ninth annual event presented by Film Athens features music videos from around the world. When and where: Georgia Music Video Show: July 18 at Ciné, 234 W. Hancock Ave. Athens; Sprockets Music Video Show: July 19, The 40 Watt Club, 285 W. Washington St., Athensdetails: 706-372-3052.

Classic City rollergirlsCompeting against Vette CityWhen: 7 p.m., July 19Where: The Classic Center, 300 N. Thomas St., AthensCost: $12 in advance, $14 at the doordetails: www.classiccityrollergirls.com

Classic City international Film FestivalFeaturing features, shorts, music videos and documentaries.When: July 19Where: Morton Theatre, 195 W. Washington St., AthensCost: $25 for general-admission one-day pass ($12.50 for students); tickets are $10 to a single feature or short film blockdetails: 706-613-3771 or www.mortontheatre.com

athens Farmers marketWhen: Saturdays through NovemberWhere: 8 a.m.-noon Saturdays at Bishop Park, 5-7 p.m. Wednesdays at City Hall, AthensCost: Parking and admission is freedetails: Athensfarmersmarket.com

West Broad Farmers marketEach week includes educational events along with locally grown food and prepared items.When: 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays and 5-7 p.m. TuesdaysWhere: 1573 W. Broad St., AthensCost: Parking and admission is freedetails: athenslandtrust.org

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First Friday HackathonThe rules are simple: Bring tools for something that can be made in four hours. At the end of the event the group does a “show and tell” to show off what they created. When: 6-10 p.m. on the first Friday of the monthWhere: Four Athens, 165 E. Dough-erty St., AthensHow much: Freemore info: hatchathens.com

First tuesdayA series of small mixers aimed at business owners and young profes-sionals that’s different from your typical night out at the local bar.When: 9 p.m. on the first Tuesday of the monthWhere: New Earth Music Hall, 227 W. Dougherty St., AthensCost: Free admissiondetails: 706-372-5375

High tea tuesdayA weekly event featuring traditional English teas and nibbles.When: TuesdaysWhere: Dondero’s, 590 N. Milledge Ave., AthensCost: Free admission with food/drink available for purchasedetails: DonderosKitchen.com

artifacts rock athens: relics from the athens music scene, 1975-1985A collection of clothes, concert tickets and other items on display as part of the Athens Art Rocks ongo-ing events. Items are from personal collections along with items from the Brown Media Archives and the Peabody Awards Collections at the Special Collections Library.When: Through Dec. 31Where: UGA Special Collections Libraries, 300 S. Hull St., AthensCost: Freedetails: www.libs.uga.edu/russell

exhibits at the Georgia museum of artCurrent exhibits going on through the summer include Quayola “Strata 4," an ongoing exhibit of a computer-driven pen-and-ink drawing on a wall at the museum; "Selections in the Decorative Arts," which features new acquisitions of furniture; and “Shapes that Talk to Me: The Athens Scene,” which highlights artists who helped shape the local art scene between 1975 and 1985.When: Quayola runs through June 15; "Selections in the Decorative Arts" runs through June 28; "Shapes that Talk to Me" runs through Sept. 28Where: Georgia Museum of Art, 90 Carlton St., AthensCost: Freedetails: georgiamuseum.org

Find locally grown food all summer long at farmers markets throughout the week — Tuesdays and Saturdays at the West Broad Market Garden, and Wednesdays and Saturdays in downtown Athens and at Bishop Park. Kristen Morales/Staff

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AthensBuzzAthensBuzz

Citizen FarmersDaron “Farmer D” Joffe with Susan Puckett, pho-tos by Rinne Allen (Stewart, Tabori, and Chang, $24.95)

Athenian Rinne Allen’s photographs accent this forward-thinking book about biodynamic farming, organic gardening and becoming more conscien-tious about our food and where it comes from.

Gardening in miniatureJanit Calvo, photos by Kate Baldwin (Timber Press, $19.95)

This book is a treat. Whether you want to just look at the numer-ous photos of charming projects or tackle a few of them on your own, it’s a great choice for people who love plants or funky little crafts.

remix: decorating With Culture, Objects, and soulJeanine Hays and Bryan Mason (Potter Style, $30)

The warmer seasons put us in a mood to jazz up our houses. Remix gives you great ideas on how to make your home more stylish and comfortable using found objects, rel-ics from your travels and bold decorating ideas.

Hellstrip GardeningEvelyn Hadden and Joshua McCullough (Timber Press, $24.95)

You know that patch of grass between the sidewalk and the road? Its nickname is the “hellstrip” since it’s hard to know what to do with it. Use this book to beautify your street or an underappreci-ated patch in your town.

the Backyard Homestead Book of Building projectsSpike Carlsen (Storey Pub-lishing, $24.95)

Homesteaders as well as those who love being outdoors will find so many handy projects in this book. Each is out-lined simply enough for a novice to understand, but the results are wonderful.

salvage secrets design & décor: transform Your Home with Reclaimed materialsJoanne Palmisano

In recent years, using salvaged materials has gone from a money saver’s pastime to a well-respected technique for building and decorating sustainably. Get a copy of this book, swing by the Athens Habitat ReStore, and learn how to do a variety of projects whose end results are just gor-geous (and affordable).

On theBOOKSHelFNew reads for home, style and DIY projectsFrom Janet Geddis, owner, Avid Bookshop

All of these titles (and many more) are available at Avid Bookshop (493 Prince Ave in Athens, 706-352-2060; avidbookshop.com)

the Garden primerBarbara Damrosch, Linda Heppes Funk and Ray Maher (Workman, $18.95)

This is an indispensable volume for gardeners who are just starting out as well as folks whose thumbs are quite green. From different soil types to what to plant when, this is an important book for any gardener to have in her library.

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‘Good Luck Charm’ The MastersonsOut on June 17 (New West Records)

The husband-wife duo have a home base of Nashville, Tenn., but their label New West is from Athens so it has its local connection. Good Luck Charm is their second album expand-ing on their doomed love songs mixing Nashville twang over the top of Emmylou Harris-esque vocals. The duo spent time as part of Steve Earle’s group “The Dukes and Duch-esses” through most of 2011 before recording their debut album “Birds Fly South.” Their new album will be available on vinyl LP, CD and digital download.

AthensBuzzAthensBuzz

On theTUrnTABleLocal records to listen for this summerFrom Mike Turner, Wuxtry Records

‘Crunch’ Eureka CaliforniaOut on May 27 (HHBTM Records)

This Athens skuzzy-pop indie-rock duo somehow ups the intensity even though they dropped the bass and slimmed down from three to two members. The record clocks in just shy of 26 minutes with 11 tracks that fire off like the Jam as played by Superchunk through a Guided by Voices filter. One of those records that is all thriller and no filler. This album will be avail-able on vinyl LP, CD, cassette and digital download.

‘Mosaics within Mosaics’ Circulatory SystemOut on June 24 (Cloud Recordings)

Made up of members of the Elephant Six Collective, you know it’s going to have multiple layers of percussive guitars over vocal har-monies over motorik rhythms over keyboard melodies and the occasional Salvation Army horns and sound collages. If I listed the bands each member of this band played in or has played in, just in Athens alone, it would fill multiple pages. The album will be released on vinyl LP, CD and digital down-load.

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AthensBuzzAthensBuzz

Check it outWe asked, and two Athenians told us what they think of these local finds

Compiled by Kristen Morales / Product photos by Richard Hamm

Georgia state tieSold exclusively at Onward Reserve (146 E. Clayton St., Athens), this 100 percent silk tie by Southern Proper is part of its State Traditions line. The pattern is one of several Southern state-themed ties available at the downtown store. Price: $75.

tHe prOdUCts

tin Cup all-purpose sprayMade by Amanda Kapousouz and sold at Community (119 N. Jackson St.), her Tin Cup line includes gentle cleaners and room sprays. All-Purpose Spray includes Borax, distilled white vinegar and rose castile soap, along with essential oils. The spray comes in a reusable glass container with a detachable spray top. Price: $10.

Beautiful Briny sea saltAmong the seasonings sold at Shiraz Fine Wine and Gourmet (675 Pulaski St., No. 400) is this new line from Atlanta called Beautiful Briny Sea. French Picnic is one of five flavors available at the store, and includes mustard, garlic, thyme, lavender and pink peppercorns mixed with pure ocean salt (other flavors include Friends Forever, Magic Unicorn, Lavender and Truffle). Price: $6.99 ($15.99 for the truffle).

airee EdwardsOwner, Agora and Agora Vintage in downtown Athens

“My husband is a lawyer, and he’s a Georgia law-yer, which is so cool. I think it’s hip and it’s nice to represent our state and my husband would wear it. He likes to wear unique ties.”

"I like that the bottle is reusable and there’s no chemicals. I try to stay away from chemicals, es-pecially having a newborn. But the fact that this is made locally, by someone I know, makes me want to buy it."

"I can definitely taste the different herbs. It tastes really natural. It’s very earthy, which I like. I would definitely season vegetables and meats with this. It tastes fresh, too."

Fenwick BroyardExecutive director, Community Connection

"I’m not sure I can get away with this. If I were involved with local gov-ernment, I could wear this tie. Until then, prob-ably not. This tie is for someone with political ambitions."

"I would just spritz this into the air in my office. If you just spray this it makes people think it’s clean."

"I usually make my own (seasonings), but the idea of pre-packaged ones is appealing to me — as long as you hide the jar before your guest comes. I would put it on chicken."

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By Kristen morales

You may have run into him at a holiday craft market, selling wood cutting boards made from slices of smooth oak, cherry or walnut.

But those kitchen ac-cessories, while works of art themselves, are simply slices of the larger work crated by Brent Swanson, owner of Normaltown Woodworks. The “drops” — odd-sized pieces cut from larger projects — get recycled into artistic cut-ting boards, while his larger pieces can easily be the focal point of an entire room.

Swanson says he’s always been building things, starting as a teenager grow-ing up in North Georgia making projects for his mom. Over time he taught himself more and more, one day finding himself making larger furniture pieces for friends. “Probably eight to 10 years ago some friends commis-sioned me to build a vanity. I didn’t have a place to work, so I started working out of a friend’s garage,” he says. From there his workshop became the second floor of a friend’s home that needed renovation work, so Swanson traded the use of the space for work on the house.

By then, it was only a matter of time before he realized his passion was in woodworking, not in his Oconee County government job.

“It’s definitely a pas-sion. I’m always driving to do something well. I quit a good job and decided to go out on a limb,” he says, noting that he decided to go full-time into custom woodworking just as the recent recession

AthensStyle

The storyof a tree

Brent Swanson crafts sturdy furniture by letting the wood do the talking

‘I’m definitely not a formal type.’

SPRING 2014 19

Brent Swanson sets the top on a vanity he is building for a customer. Swanson says his pieces reflect the style of the wood, preferring sturdy, slab pieces that show the grain and texture. Photos by Kristen Morales

hit. “I did a lot of home repair and a lot of stuff to stay in business, and learn how to run a business.”

The woodworking commissions picked up, though, and the past few years have seen consistent projects pass through his shop. Swanson does all types of furniture construction, recently finishing a custom corner bookshelf and mantelpiece for a pri-vate home, and is putting the finishing touches on a bathroom vanity made from locally reclaimed lumber. He also builds doors, entertainment centers and kitchen cabinets.

One piece in progress in his Winterville shop is a corner cabinet he started as a personal project some time ago, but the new owners of the piece want a drawer added to it. Swanson’s challenge was creating a drawer face with the same curve as the shelves, so he built a mold and set about shaping layers of veneer to fit the shape. It’s challenges like this that keep him passionate about his craft.

“Definitely at first I taught myself everything I could. I also learned a bit from oth-ers in the woodworking community. You learn from each other,” he says. “The more

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I’ve learned, I realized I’ll never know all there is to know about woodworking.”

Many clients know exactly what they want when they call. Sometimes, as in the case of work he recently did at Big City Bread, he’ll get a request for a general item — but have creative license to do what he wants. “Matthew (Scott, owner of Big City Bread) said, ‘I want a bar; build a bar.’ So I did.” Swanson also built the booths and tabletops at the downtown Athens restaurant, along with the furniture at Scott’s new restaurant, Little City, in Winterville.

Overall, Swanson says his style is “modern meets rustic.” “I’m definitely not a formal type,” he says, noting that he enjoys working with thick slabs of wood that tell the story of the tree. Occasionally he’ll get clients who have to remove a tree from their yard and want some-thing made from the wood, while other times it’s simply finding the best type of wood for the job at hand. He also uses reclaimed wood, taking care to thoroughly dry it to remove any possibility of pests before crafting it into furniture.

But that’s all part of the challenge, he says.‘There’s never really a day I don’t mind get-

ting up and going to work,” he says.

Brent Swanson shows the curve of the front of a drawer he is creating for a custom cabinet. Below, a few of the tools above the workbench in Swanson's Winterville shop.

Swanson points to wood borers’ holes in a piece of wood salvaged from a mill south of Athens.

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AthensStyle

Jade O’Connor, an interior designer and event stylist based in Athens, has spruced up homes and searched for unique designs for 12 years. Always on the hunt for a “good find,” she likes to search antique stores and incorporate vintage pieces into her designs as part of a client’s story. Upcycling, or reusing old items to create a new life or use for them in the home, isn’t always about old wooden doors and door frames, she said.

“I really like to provide clients with a home. I don’t walk in with a concept and look in mind,” O’Connor says. “Ultimately, it’s your home, and I want to help you find the pieces that will make it your own and be-come part of your story.”

Here are five upcycled items O’Connor created:

Something old to something newFind new, stylish uses for everyday items

By Carolyn Crist

A bright ideaA traditional Athens cli-ent who had a collection of vintage antique silver spoons wanted to display them in a modern way. Large collec-tions are fodder for clutter that take over the house, but the client also didn’t want to edit them to a bare minimum. O’Connor came up with the idea to drill holes in the spoons and hang them upside down as a chandelier tiered like a wedding cake. The design idea came from a lighting company that layered forks and knives as a lighting fixture in a dining room. By finding a modern and functional purpose for her collection, the client now regularly enjoys the spoons as a central feature in her breakfast nook.

A backup planA resident of Five Points had an old ar-moire originally owned by her grandmother. When she redesigned her home, she changed everything but didn’t want to lose this piece. O’Connor painted it and put wallpaper on the back to give it new life. Now it’s used as a modern and updated china cabinet.

Photos by Lindsay Cox / Letters + Light Design and Photo

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Heads upWith beds as the focal point and major finan-cial investment in bedrooms, headboards have become the hot items to upcycle and infuse per-sonality. O’Connor has used screens or mirrors in girls’ rooms and oars or surfboards in boys’ rooms to create a theme or tie the room together. Plus, incorporating the unexpected is simply more interesting. “Buy-ing a whole set of everything for the bedroom is out of style now,” she says.

Turn it aroundAnother client who enjoys sitting outside decided to update her screened-in porch and embrace it as a main living space. Though she and her husband invested in indoor/outdoor window treat-ments and new furniture, they wanted to add personality by upcycling an item for the cof-fee table. Knowing the couple sits outside every afternoon to enjoy a glass of wine, O’Connor suggested they turn wine crates upside down and put them on casters to create a table. “The room started to feel very new, and this gave age and great personality to the wine room because it had a story to it,” O’Connor says.

Make a noteFor a functional but fashionable addition to the kitchen or an office space, salvage the frame of an antique mirror (above left) or piece of art and replace the middle with chalkboard material. By combining history with the day-to-day, the chalkboard piece creates an electric appeal that works for your space. “Put your weekly menu on it and hang it in the kitchen, or put your to-do task list on it and hang it in your office,” O’Connor says. “Design should be functional.”

Photo by Jennifer Little

Lindsay Cox / Letters + Light Design and Photo

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In general, O’Connor recom-mends a sense of balance when it comes to upcycling items. If you have an older home, bring in new items to make the rooms brighter and fresher. If you have a newer home, incorporate his-tory and vintage items to give rooms some age rather than an “out-of-the-box, superstore-bought” look, she says.

In addition, balance the number of repurposed items in your home. One or two featured items per room can be unique and interesting. An entire house full of repurposed pieces can feel cluttered.

“Trying to make your entire home upcycled can be gimmicky, in a way,” O’Connor says. “You don’t want your home to be so full of antique signs that you can’t see the real personality of the home.”Lindsay Cox / Letters + Light Design and Photo

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AthensStyle

Steely strengthSculptor Harold Rittenberry believes every garden needs a message

His usually involve a bird

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By Carolyn Crist

On football game days in the fall, Harold Rittenberry Jr. is never sure how many people will stop by his yard to check out his art. His Colima Avenue home has become known over the years as the place to go to see interesting garden sculptures.

“One time, I was sitting outside with my friend when three big buses started coming down the street,” he said. “I commented that they were heading to church, but then they turned onto my street, parked, and tons of people poured out to come take a look.”

Rittenberry, 75, keeps a rotating collection of his steel sculpture in the yard as he gives them away to friends and prepares them for private collec-tors or public projects. The iconic pieces pull in themes from history, nature, the Civil Rights movement — usually based on the books he’s reading at the time.

“I get my inspiration from the things I read and the things I see,” Rit-tenberry says. “But they must have a symbolic meaning. You’ll notice many of my pieces have birds because birds are messengers that carry along a message.”

In a large rectangular sculpture that resembles a gate at the front of his yard, Rittenberry carved the words “the hunt is never over” above a nature scene with wolves and gazelles.

“Take that one, for example,” he says. “When we go through everyday life, we’re always looking for something else. We’re never satisfied.”

That’s why Rittenberry turns to books and art for answers. Satisfaction comes from continuing to learn throughout life, he said.

“Art inspires me to get up every morning and watch the sun rise,” he said. “Art is a great tool for life that helps you to appreciate the sun, clouds and trees you’re seeing.”

Rittenberry’s steel menagerie launched his reputation as a self-taught

Top, pieces of steel hang near Harold Rittenberry’s workspace at his Athens home. Above, Rittenberry cuts out sections of steel for a bench he is building for a retiring professor at the University of Georgia.Photos by AJ Reynolds/Staff

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folk artist in the early 1990s. Born and raised in Athens, he’s sculpted more than 15 commissioned pieces that are now featured in Athens and Atlanta, including Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, East Point Library, the gate of Atlanta City Court and the statue honoring mothers at the Oconee Cultural Arts Foundation’s sculpture garden on School Street. His works have been featured at the Georgia Museum of Art, Lyndon House Arts Center, the Mobile Museum of Art and the Harriet Tubman Museum in Macon. Last sum-mer, he created a bench and panel with sea creatures for the Rocksprings pool.

“Steel is a very forgiving medium, and you can mold it into anything,” he said. “If you think about it, steel plays a great part in our lives — it’s in ships, cars, coffee pots, elevators, springs in your mattress. Like nature, we encounter it all through our day.”

In January, he passed the torch, in a sense, on a larger work. He hired 3E Fabrication in Arnoldsville to construct a 12-foot metal sculpture of Georgia educator Selena S. Butler to stand in the park named after her in Atlanta. In the sculpture, Butler, founder of the first National Congress of Colored Parents and Teachers Association and co-founder of the National Parent-Teacher Association, reaches one arm toward a student with a ruler and book satchel and the other toward the sky, where a bird perches on her hand — a feature that Rittenberry insisted on completing himself.

“I’m still working on some custom pieces, like a bench I’m creating for a retired professor that will have the University of Georgia Arch in it,” he said. “But most people come to look rather than to buy.”

Rittenberry has “several things in mind” to create before football season rolls around again. Current visitor favorites include a Byzantine knight, which friends have nicknamed Iron Man, and a Viking funeral ship being followed to Valhalla by sea dragons. One of Rittenberry’s favorites, sitting at the corner of his yard where Co-lima Avenue and Rose Street meet, is a tall sculpture that reads “Love and Liberty” and features four birds fly-ing in each cardinal direction. It honors all soldiers who have fought for freedom, particularly African-American soldiers enlisted during the Civil War and World War I.

“People like to come by and bring their friends from out of town, and my neighbors will stroll by and say my pieces give them something to look forward to,” he said. “I just love that.”

Trees carved into a gate at the front entrance to Harold Rittenberry’s home in Athens. The sculp-tor says he has grown used to the visitors who drive by, especially during football season, to take a look at the myriad creatures in his yard. At right, Rittenberry lights a torch while working on a bench for a retiring professor.

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‘My neighbors will stroll by and say my pieces give them something to look forward to.’

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AthensTaste

Get freshSavor summer flavors with a new take on salad, or savory herbs in a cool dish

Recipes courtesy Sal Speights, Heirloom Café

WatermeLOn saLad (4 servings)

Citrus reduction6 oranges (juice and zest)2 tablespoons sherry vinegar4 teaspoons sugar1 tablespoon saltCombine all ingredients and reduce by half. Strain out zest, chill and reserve.

Goat cheese and buttermilk4 ounces chevre2 ounces buttermilk2 sprigs thyme (picked)Salt and pepper to tasteCombine all ingredients and reserve.

Basil oil½ lb fresh basil leaves1 pint olive oilBlanch basil leaves in boiling water, and plunge into ice water. Pat leaves dry, and combine with oil in a blender. Let oil set for a minimum of an hour, preferably overnight. Strain through a fine-mesh screen.

assembly1 seedless watermelonSaltBlack pepperTrim and cut watermelon into one inch thick slabs. Cut watermelon into round piece with either a biscuit cutter or by hand with a paring knife. Lightly salt the slices. Spread a spoonful of the goat cheese and buttermilk mixture onto a plate to secure watermelon in place. Alternate slices of watermelon with goat cheese mixture. Dress the plate with the citrus reduction and basil oil. Finish with black pepper.

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sHrimp pÂtÉ (4 servings)

Court bouillon1 cup white wine1 cup water5 whole coriander pods10 black peppercorns½ teaspoon cayenne2 tablespoons paprika1 star anise5 each whole allspice3 garlic cloves, crushed

To make the court bouillon combine all the ingredients in a pot and bring to a boil.

tarragon Pesto1 cup shelled pecan4 ounces fresh tarragon leaves½ cup olive oil2 tablespoons grated Grana Padano2 crushed garlic clovesSalt and pepper

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and pulse.

Photos by Sarah Laurentius Ellis

Shrimp Pâté

½ pound shrimp2 tablespoons mayonnaise½ teaspoon celery seed1/8 pound melted butterSalt and pepper (to taste)

Bring the court bouillon to a boil. Put all the shrimp into the court bouil-lon at once. When the liquid returns to a boil, remove the shrimp and let cool. Once cooled, peel shrimp (save shells for stock for future dishes) and place the shrimp meat in a food processor; run the processor until the shrimp are a smooth puree. Add the mayonnaise and celery seed, and while the machine is running add the butter. Check for seasoning and transfer to a Mason jar. Let rest in cooler for a hour to set. Serve with tarragon pesto and bread.

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By Chris starrsAlthough he could easily do so, Chris Peterson

does not drive around Athens admiring the renova-tion work he’s done on more than a dozen properties on Milledge Avenue, Hancock Street and Barber Street.

But he does see plenty of things he’d love to ap-ply his tools and talents to.

“Actually, I drive around town and say, ‘I wish I could do that one,’” Peterson, who owns Peterson Properties LLC, says. “I’m not saying I collect houses, but collectors have certain things they look for. And with historic housing a lot of times, it’s architectural features. I’ll see some houses where the features are so rare I’d love to work on them.”

The Watkinsville native, 36, who has his finger-print all over a number of corridors near downtown Athens, has long been an entrepreneur, starting with a lawn maintenance business he founded at the age of 12 and operated for nearly a decade. He’s also been an automobile broker and a commercial insur-ance producer, but he’s found his professional niche in restoration and renovation.

And breathing new life into dilapidated struc-tures has been his business for the last 15 years, beginning not long after he graduated from the University of Georgia in 2001.

“It was just one of these things,” he says. “When I graduated from college, what made sense, from the way I looked at it, was I could buy a house and have roommates help me pay for it. I purchased a horribly

dilapidated home on Cobb Street and spent a couple of years working on it, and that’s how I became inter-ested in renovation work and became interested in historic properties in general.”

Peterson has been recognized numerous times by the Athens-Clarke Heritage Foundation, most recently in 2013, when he received the Outstanding Rehabilitation Award for his work on a residence on Barber Street. He’s bought and restored four houses on Milledge and what he referred to as “a rather large number” of homes on Barber.

Where someone might see a house they think should be torn down and replaced, Peterson sees a challenge to help maintain Athens’ classic countenance.

“It’s very expensive to fix them, and a lot of people say you should tear them down,” Peterson, who with his wife Rebecca have two small children, says. “When I try to explain the situation to people, I say, ‘You can’t build an historic house. You either have one or you don’t.’”

Peterson also has done some impressive work in the commercial and industrial realm, bringing the Jittery Joe’s coffee roaster from East Broad to Bar-ber Street, creating a new home for Urban Sanctuary at the corner of Chase Street and Boulevard, and repurposing a 104,000-square-foot structure on Col-

AthensPeople

The

MAYOrof Barber StreetChris Peterson's collection of historic homes is a showpiece for the entire Athens community

SUMMER 2014 33

lins Industrial Boulevard – once a tuxedo manufacturing operation — to create working space for a host of small businesses.

But it’s clear that Peterson has a special place in his heart reserved for Barber Street.

“I’m a really big fan of Barber Street,” says Peterson, who’s been called “The Mayor of Barber Street” by many. “If you’re sight-seeing in Athens, you’re not going to want to miss going to Boulevard, a former trolley route with extra wide streets and beautiful historic homes. It dead-ends into Barber Street, so there you are. That’s your connector back in to downtown Athens. …And Barber Street is known in Athens’ music history for housing many iconic bands in the 1980s. It’s funny: we’ll be out cutting grass and somebody will drive by, stop and take pictures of the house.

“Some of the houses we worked on needed a helping hand. The great thing about putting a facelift on that street, or on the properties that we worked on, is that people who own things there have done the same, so it’s been a community effort. I’m not saying it’s consistent with Boulevard because the houses are different, but I would say there’s a mixture of everyone working together. And it’s turned out well. Saving these houses, or breath-ing fresh air into them, is not only good for the people that own them but it’s good for the community in general.”

Kristen Morales/Staff

Continued on page 35

34 ATHENS MAGAZINE

AthensPeople

In traveling across the country and dis-covering unique collectables, Victor Peel has turned his passion into a family business.

Peel and his son Chris, 28, run Vic's Vintage at 768 W. Broad St. in Athens. Peel also runs an eBay vintage shop and is hoping to work his way into the film arena, renting out vintage pieces for movie sets.

Navigating through rows of furniture, art and other collectibles stacked from floor to ceiling, the father-son duo have discovered that blood really is thicker than water.

“Historically in situations like the father-and-son business, it doesn’t work. It all falls apart,” Peel said. “But ours is working. We are going to make it happen. We keep it

By allie Jackson

www.facebook.com/AllieJacksonABH

twitter.com/AllieJackson

A rare findFamily collections and travel around the world led Victor Peel to a passion for all things vintage

Victor Peel and his son, Chris, run Vic's Vintage on West Broad Street in Athens. Richard Hamm/Staff

Continued on page 36

SUMMER 2014 35

At one time, Peterson did a limited amount of renovation work on other peoples' property, but he now limits his attention to houses and buildings he owns. Peterson and his crew are gener-ally working on more than one project at a time and he admits he can be demanding – though at times no more so than the folks he’s working with – to make sure everything is just right.

“To work with me, you don’t have to be a jack of all trades, but you do have to be a jack of at least a few trades,” he quips. “I might have a paint-er who’s also a carpenter who can also cut grass. I’ve got a wonderful master carpenter who is amazing and can re-ally do magical stuff when it comes to renovation work. He’s the most patient person I know because he can take the time to do all this intricate stuff and deal with me at the same time. I give him a lot of credit for that.”

When asked if there was enough in the way of needs-improvement hous-ing inventory to keep him active for the

long-term, Peterson said the diligence of renovators, investors and owner-occupants has reduced the number of structures that need attention, and he’s not at all distressed about it.

“Over the last five years, and this is not a bad thing, the volume of properties that need renovation work has dropped drastically,” he says. “There’s a lot of owner-occupants that have purchased houses, which I think is a great thing and I highly encourage it. There are also investors that have done the same thing.

“When things start getting picked clean in an area, it’s a compliment to the folks who are already there, wheth-er it’s owner-occupants or investors. It means that area is doing well and it’s a happy thing for everybody.”

But Peterson is confident he’ll always have plenty of work in the Clas-sic City. “As far as keeping me busy, the stuff we’ve got going on now will easily do that,” he says. “With historic properties and properties in general, there’s always something you could be doing to work on them. And with older properties, you’re more like a steward than an owner.”

petersOnContinued from Page 33

36 ATHENS MAGAZINE

positive and ... we have a tight-knit family.”

The Peel family moved from Japan to Athens permanently in 2008, bringing with them truck-loads of vintage items and col-lectibles. Peel said he started his business on eBay, where he still receives orders from across the world, but it was in December 2011 that he opened up shop and decided to stay a while.

“I was doing local consignment shops and a friend of mine saw the stuff I was bringing in was bigger items,” Peel said. “He found that this building was becoming avail-able ... and we officially opened on March 31 (2011).”

A couple of years later and his son got on board.

“I got started because he asked me to come help him out one day. I was working at Walmart and had just been promoted to a service shop manager,” Chris said. “But I like working with family much better than I thought I would. Of course, we have our moments, but I enjoy it.”

Peel said it was his world travels that got him started in the business.

“It was seeing different things during my travels. Things that aren’t available to people. When I travel, I usually want something from that environment,” Peel said. “Anything vintage, collectible, unique or oth-erwise desirable items that people might not have access to.”

The Peels' travels have taken them to destinations such as Ja-pan, Egypt and Spain.

“My dad was a collector back in the day,” said Peel. “He collected to keep. And before that, my grand-father was a collector.”

Peel took what his father and grandfather enjoyed as a hobby and turned it into a business.

“It’s still fun. I like to find a unique item someone else can’t find. I take it from there and bring it

to the rest of the world,” he said. “It doesn’t always make money, but it’s nice to find.”

Items like a 1958 Philco Predicta television set in work-ing condition, a rare painting from North Korea and a hiking stick from Mount Fuji sit among stacks of records, sculptures and pieces of furniture.

“It’s the students who come in for the records and stereo equip-ment, the hipster items if you will,” Chris said. “The parents or older crowd are usually buying tables, credenzas and dressers.”

Peel said items in the store come from various places if not from family travels, including sur-

plus auctions. Some is brought in from people coming to the store.

“I love Athens. You never know who's coming through your door,” said Peel. “Doctors, lawyers ... I once sold Larry Munson’s desk to a lawyer.”

Other customers to Vic's Vintage are TV and film producers and set designers. Fans of “Atlanta Housewives” may have seen a scene or two with the vintage store in the background, and also in the film “The Spectacular Now.”

Vic said he’s working to build a client base to rent items out to set designers and have more of his stuff in movies.

“We’re trying to discover what

Vic's Vintage is filled with home décor items, furniture and artwork. Richard Hamm/Staff

viCtOr peeLContinued from Page 34

SUMMER 2014 37

to rent and what to sell. I get to where I want to sell something, but I also know film producers may want to rent it,” he said. “I already rent some items where they can reserve it for 20 percent of value for up to six months.”

One such item is the solid oak bus station waiting benches he bought from the Athens Greyhound bus terminal before it closed.

“When they closed I bought every-thing in the building,” said Peel. “The benches are from the Civil Rights era. They were from the front of the sta-tion. Blacks could not sit on them, only white people. That’s one of the things I’m hoping to put in a movie.”

Victor Peel's eBay store: stores.ebay.com/vicsvintagefinds

Rental shop: athensprophouse.com

Details: 706-369-5900

Vic's Vintage is filled with home décor items, furniture and artwork. Richard Hamm/Staff

38 ATHENS MAGAZINE

www.facebook.com/GallantABH

twitter.com/andregallant

SUMMER 2014 39

story by andré Gallant | photos by richard Hamm

Joel Hatstat runs his audio recording, mixing and mas-tering studio out of his home. Bishop Park is a lofty tennis ball toss away, but still within sight. His neighbors are spaced only by driveway widths. Yet the noise produced by metal, punk and hip hop music-making in such close quarters hasn’t presented much of a problem.

“My next-door neighbor is deaf, so it works out,” Hatstat says.

Then there’s Earnhardt, a Nascar-loving across-the-street neighbor. (His given name is not actually that of the famous racing family. Just a nickname provided by Hatstat.) Mr. Earnhardt is prone to knocking on the portico of Joel Hatstat Audio, often during sessions with clients, and inquir-ing, “Hey, what y’all up to?” Mr. Earnhardt also is known to court Hatstat’s clients of the fairer sex — to no success.

During a recording session with Space Trucks, a new-ish Afro-pop-influenced psychedelic band, Hatstat noticed another neighbor standing in his yard and staring at the home studio. Worried, Hatstat walked outside. His neighbor screamed: “Play that last one again!”

Only in Athens, perhaps, but it works nonetheless, even though school bus air brakes often ruin vocal tracks.

Working out of a home studio was a conscious decision on Hatstat’s part. Looking to buy his own place in 2009, his current house popped up on the market. It was affordable, and the location couldn’t be beat.

The sounds of

HOMEDrywall, space for a couch

and nosy neighbors present their own issues when your house is a recording studio

Jeff Hatstat's living room-turned-studio.

40 ATHENS MAGAZINE

Though he admits his house is very much not his own, Hatstat couldn’t think of running a studio in any other environment, if only for to benefit the musicians he records. Not everyone wants to work in a studio, he said. In his home, sitting on his couch (where he eats most of his meals), his clients are comfortable. Most of his work is mixing or mastering, so it's usually just Hatstat and one or two musicians sitting at the control bay, debating over which knobs to twiddle.

“They kick back and put their beer in the fridge,” he said. “It’s essentially like bro-ing down.”

Recording actual instruments in the house presents its own set of problems, and it often works best when said instrument runs loud (amplified guitar) rather than quiet (flute). Mostly, though, it’s the vibrating drywall and a home’s hard corners that require feats of audio engineering magic.

“In a house, you have essentially two different sounds you can get, and neither are acoustically viable,” Hatstat said. Often, Hatstat finds warehouses, other studios or clubs to track live instruments, and mixes it all together from home. When the band is pres-ent for mixing, or is actually record-ing songs in a spare room, Hatstat said most bands just hang out in the backyard among his collection of mod-ernist sculpture. Wait, what? It’s hard to explain, but Hatstat somehow has connections to the New York art world, or at least a few of its cast-off pieces.

When it comes to his own com-fort, Hatstat gave up long ago. A baby grand piano, sitting in the same living room where his console resides, serves as a dining table when family visits. He goes through more toilet paper than the average bachelor. Speaking of, relationships are mostly off the table.

“This is all that I do,” he said, and purposefully so.

But there are distractions outside of work. There’s his dog. And he’s finding new hobbies: He joined a wine club.

SUMMER 2014 41

Joel Hatstat, above left, stands in his kitchen in his home, which doubles as a recording studio. While his living room seating is a piano bench rather than a couch, his home is nonetheless filled with modern art, reflecting his connections to the New York art world.

42 ATHENS MAGAZINE

Old SOUlSA home’s ‘good bones’ help

one couple make a leap of faith

story by Kristen morales | photos by richard Hamm

The floors were rotted. The entire house needed to be rewired, and the HVAC system needed to be completely redone. The roof was made of seven layers of shingles.

But none of that mattered to Zack and Sarah Brendel. What did matter, though, was what he saw under the original portion of the Farmington farmhouse, constructed in 1820: Beams that still held the bark from the tree they once were.

"I went under the log cabin portion and saw trees," says Zack. "We made an offer on the day we saw it."

Brendel, who owns Oneta Woodworks in Athens, is no stranger to working on historic buildings. Plus, his sawmill business involves using reclaimed wood for new projects. So when some potential buyers may have seen the 200-year-old farmhouse only for the land it was on, the family saw it for its potential. They took a gamble, and now they say it continues to pay off.

SUMMER 2014 43

Clockwise from top left: The kitchen in Zack and Sarah Brendel's pre-Civil War farmhouse was rebuilt, since the original home's kitchen was a separate building that was attached to the main house more than 100 years after it was built. The current kitchen was used as a bedroom, making for an awkward first-floor layout. Above, the home's living/dining room is one of the few rooms where the Brendels painted the original wood walls, lightening the room in the process. But all the wood is original to the home, with this portion built in the 1860s.

44 ATHENS MAGAZINE

Of course, it was rough in the beginning. No home renovation project goes as planned, especially when you don't necessarily know what you're getting into. Brendel says he went methodically through the house, removing more contemporary updates and "praying it's not a complete demo," he says. "But the important stuff was sound."

He constructed a rack in the front living/dining room to hold his scrap wood and began demolition, reusing every bit of wood he could along the way. Some rooms, like the former living quarters for the family's tutor near the back of the house, had floors that were completely rotted. Brendel salvaged heart pine from the attic, sanded it down and today the floors look like they were always there.

The original portion of the house he discovered was a log cabin. The walls had been covered with sheetrock at some point, and during demolition he realized the 16-inch-thick walls were holding a secret.

"The family didn't realize they were there," he says. They removed the sheetrock, "found the logs (underneath), sanded them down and redid the plaster (between the logs)." He hired local brickmaster Brent Kickbush to restore the chimney, which is made of "yard bricks" — bricks baked in a circle around a fire set up outside in the yard.

The home was mainly built in three sections between 1820 and 1855 by the Middlebrooks family of Watkinsville, Brendel says. Family members are still around, and those who aren't are buried down the street in a churchyard. The home has stayed in the family all these years, until it got to the point where it had fallen into a state of disrepair that was too much for the older family members.

The family's tutor, Lottie Moon, lived in the house with the family in the 1860s and is known for her accomplishments after leaving the family. She went on to spend 40 years as a missionary to China from the Baptist church. "A lot of people know this house as the Lottie Moon house," Brendel says.

As he worked his way through the renovations, which took a solid six months until the family could move in and begin living there, Brendel says he remained in awe of the heart pine used throughout and the post-and-beam

Clockwise from top left: The wood floors were either refinished or built from wood salvaged elsewhere in the home. Here, two variations of heart pine, one in the original log cabin and another made from thinner pieces. Above, the home sits in the middle of quiet Farmington, surrounded by pasture and artist studios. At left, the original log cabin walls were discovered under sheetrock and restored to their former glory.

SUMMER 2014 45

CUSTOM DESIGNREPAIRS AND APPRAISALS

PARKSIDE COMMONS AT LAKE OCONEE VILLAGE

706-454-0444DOwNTOwN AThENS

706-546-2286

Aurum Sparkles... in Silver or Diamonds!

construction. This old-world style of building — complete with hand-forged nails — is complemented by the mod-ern updates the Brendels made to the home to make it more energy efficient and bring it up to today's standards.

"That old way of building dovetails with super modern (conveniences), Brendel says. "It's such a good way of building that new things will work well with it. So we just updated it with all the best technology today." That includes PEX plumbing, which uses flexible pipes instead of the traditional connections, commercial-grade elec-tric, a geothermal heat and air system and spray foam insulation. The home

is even wired for a solar hot water heater — it's now just one of the things left on the couple's to-do list.

Despite living among a construction zone, the couple, who now have a 1-year-old daughter, are happy they made the gamble.

"It was a huge gamble," Brendel says. "We could have opened up this house and found termites and rot. We would have had to start over.

"The family was nervous that I was going to tear it down. But when I told them our intention was to salvage the house at any cost, they got behind us and would come by and give us pictures."

One of those old pictures revealed an old dogtrot-style barn behind the house. So with more scrap materials salvaged from the home and property, including some original cedar shakes found under the layers of roof, Brendel went on to re-create that barn as his woodshop. Today, he and his staff build furniture in the vein of the old-world craftsmanship used on his own home, just a few yards away.

Clockwise from top left: The wood floors were either refinished or built from wood salvaged elsewhere in the home. Here, two variations of heart pine, one in the original log cabin and another made from thinner pieces. Above, the home sits in the middle of quiet Farmington, surrounded by pasture and artist studios. At left, the original log cabin walls were discovered under sheetrock and restored to their former glory.

46 ATHENS MAGAZINE

Story by Andrea Griffith-Girtzphotos by Blane marable

Hanging above a repurposed cabinet in Diana Harbour’s breakfast nook is a sign that embodies the spirit of her home. Orange and light blue letters on a cream background read “Create happiness,” and it’s those colors, the palette for her entire home, that do just that.

“My favorite color is orange. It makes me the happiest of any color and I wanted it to be hugely present in the house,” says Harbour. “It’s a mood enhancer and definitely reflective of my personality.”

Her home, like the painted sign, is a reminder of the belief that we create the lives we’re meant to live. Harbour says she realized, from the moment she and her husband Josh took the property’s sweeping drive-way past acres of rolling hay fields, this would be the place where she would build her sanctuary. “When I saw it, I knew I was never going to leave this house. Ever.”

Empty for several years before the Harbours bought it, the home is now alive with color. Its drab tan and brown walls are replaced with tones both subtle and vibrant, and neutral shades brought to life with pops of color on the walls, drapes and pillows.

“At first I was overwhelmed,” says Harbour, explaining the amount of work needed to transform the home into her sanctuary. While the home’s footprint remains the same, rooms went through a makeover in terms of

Create your own

HAPPINESSRed Dress Boutique CEO Diana

Harbour expands her sense of style to her home, and the results lift spirits

Clockwise from top left: Curtain fabrics throughout the house, including the dining room (left) and living room, reflect bright, vibrant, happy graphic prints. Above, the breakfast nook is a sunny, welcoming spot for a family meal with a mixture of old and new pieces. The cabinet at left was repur-posed from Diana Harbour's previous home, and the high chair was her grandmother's. At right, the living room is awash in orange and blue on a sea of cream. Above, orange lamps and recovered chairs add a pop of color to a light blue wall.

SUMMER 2014 47

48 ATHENS MAGAZINE

The home's dining room is inspired by Harbour's green-hued vision. The turquoise chandelier was found, after an exhaustive Internet search, at an Athens furni-ture store. Artwork through-out the house is by local artists. The dining room table is adorned with peacock-feather place mats.

SUMMER 2014 49

color and feel. She brought in the help of designer and friend Jenna Buck Gross to tackle the redesign. “I brought her in and said, ‘What can you do? Let’s go.’”

Calling the duo the “dream team,” Har-bour says Gross pulled design inspiration from the colors in her closet and combined them with ideas from magazines and the Web.

Some rooms are pure inspiration. The living room, for example, sets the home’s orange and robin’s egg blue palette, for example. A cream couch sets the backdrop for orange pillows, and the curtains behind it have a bold orange-and-teal pattern. Ac-cents include rounded, bright orange lamps flanked by boldly striped chairs, while golden twig-shaped sculptures sit on the coffee table and serve as a fire screen.

The dining room, though, is a story of determination. Harbour says she saw a photo of a green dining room and knew that’s what she wanted, right down to the plush chairs and turquoise chandelier. She scoured Pinterest for the perfect materi-als, eventually finding the chandelier in an Athens furniture store and the geometric green-and-cream curtains from a de-signer’s resort collection. Peacock feathers add a touch of whimsy to the sturdy wood table, and the walls are papered with gold-infused grasscloth.

The overall effect as one moves from room to room is a calm, positive energy. “We went with something that reflects hap-piness,” she says looking back at the sign hanging near her kitchen. “You create it. It’s up to you.”

And when Diana isn’t creating happi-ness, she’s selling it. She serves as CEO of Red Dress Boutique, a retail clothing brand she built with her husband. Between its brick-and-mortar shop in downtown Athens and its growing online presence, Harbour says the company has become the fastest-growing juniors retailer in the nation. Red Dress just logged its first month of more than $1 million in sales and has a Facebook fan base of more than 1 million. Like her orange-and-eggshell-blue home, her company’s tagline reflects a similar sentiment: “We Sell Happiness.”

“Red Dress customers are avid, voracious and fiercely loyal,” she’s says when asked how she’s grown the mas-sive following. Social media has been the company’s primary source of advertising, and the success is credited to the fact she engages her young female audience, ask-

50 ATHENS MAGAZINE

Above, a life-size wooden toy train is the centerpiece of the backyard, made for Har-bour's son. At right, his room is a mix-ture of zoo animals and things that move, including giraffes, elephants, hot-air balloons and a propeller mounted over the bed. Below, the master bedroom has more subtle pops of color on a cream canvas.

SUMMER 2014 51

ing their opinions and showcasing photos of her own family and home. As a result, Harbour has become as much a part of the Red Dress brand as the designers she features.

“I just knew that I would put every-thing I had and knew into this business and make it succeed. Josh has said I would carry Red Dress on my back before I would let it fail.”

A decade ago, Diana and Josh were both working for a credit card company in Columbus. “The movie ‘Office Space’ is real,” she says, recalling her days sitting in a cubicle. “And it’s not funny.”

Miserable and uninspired by what they perceived their future to look like, the couple decided to sell their house, take out a loan for start-up costs and put their business plan for Red Dress to work in Athens where Josh went to school.

“My dad said you have two things in life, you have security or freedom. Sometimes you get both but most often you have to choose,” she says. “I wanted freedom to do what I wanted to do more than I wanted the security of that pay-check. I knew I could turn whatever I did

into something big.” Before leaving town, Harbour says

her father, a business owner himself, made an appointment with his accountant. For hours, she was grilled on her business model and by the time the couple pulled out of Columbus, they felt ready for what-ever they faced in the months ahead.

For the next year, the couple stayed with friends, living out of suitcases and sleeping on an air mattress. “We rented an air mattress," Harbour says, laughing. “So it wasn’t even our own air mattress, it was a rented air mattress!”

Harbour’s father died in October 2012, seven years after the launch of Red Dress. “He saw it grow, but not this big,” she says. In more recent years, Harbour also has welcomed a son, watched Josh graduate from law school and found the perfect house.

On a recent sunny afternoon in her living room, wearing a dress in her sig-nature orange color, Harbour says she’s proud of the happiness she’s created for herself. She hopes her father would be too. “A lot of this driving force is me, still trying to make him proud.”

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story by Kristen moralesphotos by aJ reynolds

They met in a remote hospital in Serbia. He speaks more languages than he can count after a career with NATO, the United Nations and as a diplomat, while she’s coordinated space shuttle landings and medevac trips in war-town countries. Both rose to the rank of colonel in the military — she for the U.S. Army, he for Belgium.

Now, after moving more than a dozen times, they are staying put and listening to the stories of complete strangers who come to stay in their home.

Actually, their home is a sprawling, historic house and farm on Athens’ east side. The Colonels Bed & Breakfast, the only B&B in Athens and one of just a handful in the area, is a way for the owners, Marc and Beth, to connect with the world they’ve traveled so extensively while still enjoying retirement. (Note: due to their military and diplomatic past, the couple prefers to keep their last name private.)

“Our guests come from everywhere,” says Marc, noting an uptick in reservations for the house’s seven guestrooms this time of year for graduations and wed-dings. “The university — whatever happens there hap-pens here. Also The Classic Center. It drives occupancy.”

A calculated decisionMarc and Beth say they always enjoyed hosting

friends and family, wherever they lived in the world. Along with the 30-acre grounds and adjacent horse farm, where the couple breeds and trains several warm-

Old-worldCHArM

Retirement launches new businesses for a pair of colonels

SUMMER 2014 53

Clockwise from top left: The Colonels Bed and Breakfast is the only B&B in Athens-Clarke County. Above, along with the inn, Marc and Beth run a stable where they breed and train warmbloods. At left, the home's antiques can be traced to a chateau in Belgium where the couple once lived, among their many military deployments.

54 ATHENS MAGAZINE

bloods for dressage, the house itself is a showplace for the family’s many antiques collected over the years. While working for NATO, Marc and Beth lived in Chateau Salmonsart in Belgium, a 16,000-square-foot estate. It was there that the couple acquired mighty armoires, carved wooden headboards and trunks that date back centuries.

After relocating to Greenwich, Conn., for work with the United Na-tions, the couple then headed south, interested in retirement and a time to focus on their love of horses. Hur-ricanes kept them away from the coast, which is what then led them, after looking at more than 50 proper-ties, to their current home and oppor-tunity to open a bed and breakfast.

The move may seem random, but after a career in the military, Marc says it was a calculated decision.

“We said, you make a rational calculation, and you make a conclu-sion. And we ended up here,” he says. “A bed and breakfast — that’s what we wanted to do for many years. We knew what pleasure that could provide. After 18 moves, you want to settle, but still not lose the social contact.”

The rooms are outfitted in the antiques brought over from the cha-teau. Marc notes that it’s a coinci-dence that the rooms in the Antebel-lum portion of the house — two front bedrooms that date to 1860, when the home was built — are furnished with items from the same time period. Only they were made in Europe. "Most of our furniture is from north-ern France or southern Belgium. It’s just a coincidence.”

In one bedroom sits a wood trunk with cut metal adornments, dat-ing back more than 300 years, Marc says. As the story goes, it was at one time owned by a sultan of Marrakech, Morocco, used to transport his sword and camel saddle. Other rooms hold antique oil paintings or ornately carved dressers or headboards. And with a nod to its Antebellum period, each guestroom is named after a Civil War soldier’s horse.

That is, some Southern horses and some Northern ones. This is a

SUMMER 2014 55

The guestrooms are outfitted with antiques from the 1860s or earlier. There are two rooms in the original portion of the house, which dates to around the time of the Civil War, and five in a portion of the house added on to the original struc-ture in 1911. The previous owners did major renovation work, updating air conditioning while also adding a modern apartment in the lower level and a terraced garden.

56 ATHENS MAGAZINE

diplomatic family, after all.The home itself has needed

little modifications since they moved in. The previous owners, professors at the University of Georgia, did extensive work up-dating the home’s HVAC system and added a modern basement living area. The home comprises several different eras — its original 1980s Georgian form of two rooms atop two others with a cen-tral stairway; a 1911-era addition behind the house that more than doubled its size; a 1970s porch on the back that has since been enclosed and is now an open kitchen and living room; and the basement addition and adjacent terraced garden from the previous owners.

It’s about hospitalityMarc and Beth could eas-

ily fill a book with their own stories. Each has experience on the battlefield, working in re-mote hospitals. Marc, who has a degree in economics, worked as a medical strategic planner and helped hospitals get the supplies they needed. He met Beth while working in Somalia as the deputy medical director for the United Nations. Beth was the executive officer at a field hospital, where they saw each other nearly every day in the course of their duties. But like most military relation-ships, much is decided by the next assignment.

“She left, and at a certain point, she thought that was it,” he says. “But I came back.”

Beth recalls feeling like that was the end of their relationship.

“When I left Somalia, I never thought I'd see him again. He got hurt in Somalia and I didn’t hear from him,” she says. “But then he got better and got back in touch.”

Marc traveled to the Cali-fornia base where Beth was stationed and asked her to marry him. “I said, ‘We have a lot to work out,’” she recalls, noting the distance that separated them at

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the time. The couple got married a year later in Williamsburg, Va. — halfway between where they both lived — and managed to snag as-signments near each other a year later. They’ve been able to live in the same place ever since.

Owning a bed and breakfast was all part of the plan, Beth says.

“We had grand plans. We always wanted to have a big property. I was always crazy about horses, so I wanted to do horses,” she says. “Marc loves to host people and hear their travel stories, and, of course, he’s full of stories.”

Their post-retirement busi-ness endeavors are a challenge, though. Beth notes that between the horses and the bed and breakfast, they run two 24-hour businesses. And they are rarely without guests, so getting away for a family trip is a challenge. But Marc notes the friendships they’ve made with their guests in the past eight years they have run the inn makes it worthwhile.

At this point, they are hosting young men and women who they first met while visiting UGA on a pre-college trip with their parents. The parents returned for gradua-tion and now their children stay at The Colonels when they are back in town for their wedding.

“They do their four years, they graduate, they have their party here and then they come back for their wedding. And I get to congratulate them every time,” he says. “They tell us their story, we tell them ours. It’s very nice.”

Clockwise from top: One of two dining rooms at The Colo-nels, where larger parties of guests can dine together. Above, the house is filled with paintings and artwork. At left, antique chairs in the guest rooms.

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Changing the contextAn Athens architecture firm practices what they preach by rehabbing an old mill in Clarkesville

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By Carolyn Crist

Brett Nave and Kelley Bishop, the husband-wife team and principal archi-tects at the Athens firm Studio.BNA, take the design-build philosophy seriously. As both registered architects and contrac-tors, they not only draw up the vision for a new concept, they also get out in the dirt and create it on the construction site. In fact, all seven team members play a role in both the design and construction of new projects.

“Architects need to know how to build,” Nave said. “If you’re drawing all day or even working on a computer, you see this 2-D image in front of you. Getting splinters and using your muscles spawns a different side of your creativity.”

Nave and Bishop brought their firm to Suite 200 in The Leathers Building last June. After graduating from Au-burn University’s School of Architecture in 1994, they started Studio.BNA in Montana in 2000 and worked throughout Wyoming, Illinois and Mississippi before landing in Georgia.

“We’ve been trying to get here for a couple of years now,” Nave said. “It’s a great environment to live and work, and the schools are great.”

As part of the firm’s ideology, the Studio.BNA team focuses on the “inte-gration of site, environment, experience and creativity,” Bishop said. They empha-size reusing and repurposing old items from a site in a new way, particularly wood or steel scraps or odd items found in a junkyard. In the Pulaski Street studio space, they created a wall by flipping 20 old parking lot lights on their sides and mounting them to a steel frame.

“We do this in all of our projects in some respect,” Nave said. “We use cut-offs that don’t have a purpose anymore to create table legs or a table top. When you take something familiar and change

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its context or use, you hand somebody a new experi-ence.”

This philosophy is apparent in their “forever” project at Habersham Mill in Clarkesville — 200,000 square feet of textile mill that is being remodeled 500 square feet at a time by using old mill materials to reclad the walls or create furniture. The site will eventually contain residential lofts, gallery spaces, studios, a music venue and a restaurant, all with a focus on artists and artisans. For two months this summer, the first art show at the location will bring together 50 artists to showcase their works in the second-oldest mill building along the river.

“This is the first feel for what this place is going to be,” Nave said. “You’re not going to see 37 shops and restaurants here. It’s going to be a quieter place for weddings, banquets and a long-standing art venue.”

So far, the Studio.BNA team has refurbished the old general store, post office and barber shop to cre-ate small loft spaces with bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchenettes. Platform beds and reclad walls were made from salvaged wood, and counter tops are engineered with floating concrete. One loft features all wood walls, and another features all brick.

“Everything out there is repurposed,” Nave said. “Many times, it’s more about saving what you have from a site and reincorporating it in what you do.”

The team found an old Batman symbol carved on a door in the post office and reused it in one of the bedroom walls. Behind the post office, they remodeled

Along with renovating living spaces at the once-abandoned Habersham Mill, Studio.BNA also builds furniture for the spaces from leftover wood and other materials. On the previous pages, a bed sits atop a custom platform made by Brett Nave and Kelley Bishop. The project, dubbed Habersham Mill Village, includes about 60 units created through adaptive reuse. Photos courtesy Studio.BNA

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an old storage shed by adding a steel-clad wall with a large window that slides horizontally on wheels. To connect the old general store to a courtyard area, one team member created a steel pivot system that allows an 11-foot-tall glass door to hinge open. The team is wrapping up work on the general store by adding a catering kitchen for future event space.

“The longer you’re there on site, the more you get it,” Nave said. “We’re taking each project space by space, and the vision is evolving.”

The team is now working on a riverside pavilion that uses the old settling base where the mill’s chiller equipment was housed to create an outdoor space with a fire pit. They’re also opening up and screening in an old machine room to make a common space for up to 200 people.

“In about 20 years, we’ll be done,” Nave said. “It’s long-term and innovative and just the right mix of scale and quality to be a fantastic project.”

The footprint of the building that housed the mill's chiller equipment is planned to hold an outdoor pavilion and a fire pit. The mill was the site of the first iron foundry in Georgia, manufacturing cannons during the Civil War.

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