A new look for 140-year-old home in Faith

Published 12:00 am Tuesday, December 1, 2009

By Steve Huffman
shuffman@salisburypost.com
FAITH ó When Rich Gould moved from Princeton, N.J., to China Grove a few years ago, he planned to continue a house-painting business he operated.
Gould, 34, had been in the business for years in New Jersey. He decided to come south because his brother, Phil, moved to Lexington to work with the Richard Childress racing team.
Gould is a racing fan and has several friends in the business. This would be a great place to live, he figured.
But upon arriving in Rowan County, Gould discovered a hard truth ó the downturn in the economy had put a hurting on the house-painting industry.
“Things are just slow,” Gould said. “It didn’t go as I’d planned.”
The good news is, without any houses to paint, Gould has turned to buying, renovating and selling older houses. He’s completed four and is on the homestretch when it comes to his most ambitious project to date ó the renovation of a 140-year-old house at the intersection of Faith and Artz roads east of Faith.
“This is my largest by far,” Gould said of the magnitude of the job. “The others, I could do by myself. I’ve needed some help on this one.”
Gould said the house wasn’t in the best of shape when he purchased it earlier this year. The house had been foreclosed upon and Gould paid $49,000 for the property, which included an acre and a half of land. There’s also a garage out back.
Gould said the work has been both invigorating and frustrating. The back side of the house, he discovered, was resting on granite slabs. Gould and his workers (David Whitley is the general contractor for the work) have put countless hours into the project.
A new roof has been laid and an outside of aluminum siding has been removed, replaced with vinyl siding and cedar shingles. Inside, walls have been removed, windows replaced and the staircase reworked. The foundation has been reworked and a heat pump installed.
The house now draws admiring glances from passing motorists. Inside, it has an open feel.
Gould said that while the house rests in Faith’s extra-territorial zoning district, it is not inside the municipality’s town limits and therefore isn’t subject to its historic preservation ordinances. Refurbishing the house would have been far more difficult, Gould said, had he been required to adhere to those ordinances.
“I’m taking something that was part of the community for 100 years and making it new again,” he said. “It’s going to be an old structure with an all new body.”
As he spoke, Gould stepped back to admire the house and chuckle as he recalled all the work that has gone into the project.
“It’s pushing 150 years old,” he said. “It’s going to have some positives and some negatives.”
Gould plans to sell the house when he finishes the work in another month or two. The end project will measure 2,700 square feet. The asking price is $199,000.
Gould said he was told that a Fink family raised 14 children in the house. But over the years, the structure changed owners on a number of occasions.
Gould noted that plans for a four-way stop in front of the residence should make living there more pleasant. At the moment, cars traveling Faith Road zip past at a high rate of speed.
But Gould said representatives of the N.C. Department of Transportation told him the intersection will soon be turned into a four-way stop.
Gould and his wife, Christine, have two sons, Richard, 5, and Bobby, 3. Christine is pregnant with the family’s third child. Gould said that with the exception of the local painting business not being everything he’d hoped, his family has enjoyed its move south.
“We love this area,” he said. “We plan to stay.”
Faith Mayor Bill Johnson said he’s proud of the work that Gould has put into the project.
“I told him it looked great,” Johnson said of a recent meeting he had with Gould. “Anytime anyone can improve the aesthetics of a property, we’re all for it.”
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Anyone interested in looking at the house for possible purchase is asked to call Rich Gould Properties at 704-856-8101.