MACON, Ga. — The first time they saw the house, the Moores stood on paint cans in the backyard to look through the windows. The home had been uninhabited for more than 10 years.
“The plaster was crumbling. There were floor joists, but no flooring on the porch, so we saw it in extremely rough shape,” Heather Moore says.
“That’s where the dreams started,” says her husband, Andy Moore.
Heather and Andy Moore have lived in their renovated and restored home in Macon for 11 years.
“We say we’re lucky we found this when we were in our early 20s because we weren’t as risk-averse as we are now,” Heather Moore laughs.
The couple first saw the home on a flier from Historic Macon. The home needed a lot of work, but Historic Macon included a rendering of what it would look like after the restoration.
The couple decided to buy the home, and over the course of nine months, Historic Macon restored the home and updated all of the systems.
“They basically put a new house into an old house,” Heather Moore says.
Now she describes her home as an overgrown cottage, mentioning how fun it was to decorate the cozy rooms.
“Both of our jobs are very technical in nature, and this house gives us the opportunity to kind of use the more creative side of our brain,” Andy Moore says.
“It’s also been a place that we’ve really been able to grow in. It’s met our needs at really every stage of life,” he says, reminiscing of friends sleeping on air mattresses for Mercer homecomings in their early 20s and explaining how now the house is home to the couple and their two kids.
A few years ago, the couple was able to buy the lot next door to them that had been a parking lot for Mercer for years. They transformed it into their backyard, complete with a garden, a patch of wildflowers, a corner for chickens, an outdoor fireplace, and a beautiful old tree to give shade over a picnic table.
“ So we were able to have that kind of outdoor space while still living in an urban area,” Andy Moore says.
While the home is historic, the Moores filled it with their own family history, too, bringing in furniture from great grandparents and dishes from extended family. At the top of their stairs is a prayer bench that Andy and Heather knelt on at their wedding. Heather Moore’s father built it using wood from the homes of both sets of grandparents. It’s clear that history is appreciated in this home.
“I think that’s a fun tie-in that, yes, we’re in a historic house, and we’re a piece of that story,” Heather Moore says.
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