“This North Carolina Couple Turned a Well-Loved Property Into Their Forever Home”
Plus, they created a unique microresort to offer guests an escape.
- Southern Living Magazine
For many folks who are house hunting in the hamlet of Highlands, North Carolina, a rambling 28-acre farm with four tumbledown cabins might send them running in the other direction. But when it comes to real estate, Margaret and Chris Shutze aren't afraid of anything. "It doesn't matter what shape it's in, but it needs to have some essence that we can build upon," Margaret recalls telling their agent. "Nothing scares us, not even the most dilapidated building." The former rhododendron nursery on Flat Mountain Road held the enduring charm that Chris, a custom-furniture maker, and Margaret, a luxury-hotel designer, had been searching for. Once they saw its pond, waterfall, and old Amish-built barn, they knew instantly that it was the kind of place they could transform into a unique getaway for guests as well as a home to raise their two young sons, away from the demands of city living.
"We purchased the property from an eighth-generation Highlands family," says Margaret. "The cool thing is that when we bought it, we learned that the previous owner, Tom Chambers, who unfortunately passed away in 2019, had always dreamed of turning it into a bed-and-breakfast."
THE PEREGRINE
THE KINGFISHER
THE WREN
