PETERSBURG Beverly Rivers and Jeff Abugel loved the ambience of Savannah, Ga., and Charleston, S.C. But the cost of living drove them northward in search of a similar place to call home.
Petersburg's historic Poplar Lawn district popped up on an Internet search.
While visiting Rivers' son and his family in Northern Virginia, the couple trekked down Interstate 95 to check out Petersburg -- in particular, a circa-1870 ivy-covered Italianate house at 104 Marshall St.
"We pulled up in front of this house, and there was this dashing Southern gentleman [the real estate agent] standing on the porch waiting for us," said Rivers, looking very Southern herself in a seersucker outfit, perched on an 1830s sofa.
"It just reminded us of something right out of Savannah, where you have this gracious home and this pretty garden.
"As we went from room to room, we kept saying, 'OK, let's not get too excited, because there's going to be something we don't like about this house.'"
There wasn't.
"We took videos and watched them over and over that night," Rivers recalled. "That was a Saturday. We bought it on Sunday."
Compliments to Petersburg all around, because Rivers is an expert on the country's premier homes and neighborhoods. For more than 30 years, she has served as an editor for numerous Better Homes and Gardens publications.
Rivers and Abugel, who met while working for Better Homes, commuted between the publishing house's Des Moines, Iowa, headquarters and Petersburg every other month for about four years.
"What we found is that from the minute we would pull up out front, everybody was glad to see us," Rivers said. "We had more friends here within a year than we had ever had in Iowa. As years went on, what we found was by the Sunday when we were supposed to leave, we just didn't want to go. It was like leaving home."
Rivers and Abugel made the move permanent two years ago. These days, you'll find her long-distance editing Better Homes publications in her pajamas, frequently distracted by her office window's view of a picturesque church steeple on nearby Sycamore Street.
The secret to the house's harmonious design, strangely enough, is blended décor -- a mix of antique and contemporary, priceless and bargain finds, upscale and down-home.
The dining room, for example, combines a modern glass-top table, antique French chairs won on eBay and a pine cupboard from Fredericksburg. "We work it in," Rivers said. "We don't get caught up in whether it's 1700s."
Here's a peek inside a house that literally, as the saying goes, looks like something right out of Better Homes and Gardens.
Contact Julie Young at (804) 649-6732 or jyoung@timesdispatch.com.
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