By Matt Snyder
SHARPSVILLE —
Growing up, Russell Adkins would often walk past the old family home, a three-story brick house on 7th Street in Sharpsville. Family stories had imbued it with a larger-than-life quality.
The portico made it seem even more grand, and he had spent many hours hearing his grandfather’s stories about growing up inside those walls.
“This is a house I had walked past every day of my life for 18 years, but never been inside,” he said. Still, in all his grandfather’s stories it was “the family house.”
The neighborhood is a tapestry of Russell’s family, particularly on his grandfather DeSantis’s side. His great- grandfather built a second house catty-corner to the first and eventually moved there. His grandfather’s sister married and moved in across the street. A cousin of his mother’s and family friend lives next door.
Heritage is evident in the home, right down to the stonework fireplace mantle imported from the DeSantis family’s ancestral home of Italy.
“There’s a ton of family history in this neighborhood. It’s kind of all interwoven,” said Russell, who grew up about a block away.
So four years ago, when Russell first saw the house was on the market, he sat at his desk in law school and fretted the bad timing of it all. He expected the home to sell in months, and never thought he’d end up back in Sharpsville.
Funny how that works out.
Four years later, Russell and his wife Shannon were looking for a home in the area. At first, Shannon was worried Russell would let his sentiments for the old home get away with him. But when she saw the inside, Russell said she went running up and down the steps, and said, “This has to be our house.”
Upon his first time setting foot into the wide-open third floor bedroom, a stretch of open space with windows at the north and south end, Russell said he felt chills go through him. “Here I stand in my grandfather’s childhood bedroom and I have the opportunity to put the house back,” he said to himself. It came with a sense of pride and obligation.
But it wouldn’t be easy. “Fixer-upper” would be a nice word for the property. The house was in foreclosure, vacant, and falling apart. If it had been let go another year or two, Russell said it could have been fodder for the wrecking ball.
The portico on the front door, symbol for so long of the house’s grandeur, was entirely rotten, Russell said. Bird nests infested it. Cracks in the backyard pool had let a jungle of brush escape, growing yards above ground level, Russell said.
Inside, the house had old wiring that made it uninsurable. Appliances had been stripped, leaving holes in the walls. Plaster peeled and fell off in places. There was water damage and leaks in the roof.
The upstairs bedroom, the one called “the ball room” in all his family stories, was in particularly sad shape.
Add to that, Adkins said he is not what you would call “handy.” His attempts at home improvement landed him in the hospital at Sharon Regional Health System with a cut finger.
But cousins, friends, and other family and acquaintances chipped in. Russell and Shannon bought the house in February and, since then, everyone has rewired, painted, roofed, filled in the pool, lacquered, tiled, and otherwise finessed the home back into shape.
Russell said that he and Shannon watched a lot of HGTV this past year. They’d been staying nearby with Russell’s father, who has the handyman skills his lawyer son lacks. Good thing, too, Russell joked: “Dads work for free.”
They’re moved in now, for the most part. This week, Russell and Shannon walked into the ball room for the first time since the fresh, red-mahogany lacquer had dried. It had gone from the worst room in the house to the best, Russell said.
There’s still more to do. The almost mythical portico Russell looked at as a passing child has been torn down, leaving the front stoop naked. But Russell said they’re in this for the long haul. There will be time enough to replace it later.
Russell said this is no “starter house.” They hope to raise and host their family in the house. It produced memories for his grandfather, and now Russell hopes to make new memories with his young family, and pass along the old ones to his son, Luke DeSantis Adkins.
Because so many family members have passed away these last few years, Russell said it’s that much more important to raise his son in a place with deep roots. He has to get a feel for where he comes from, and also who he comes from.
