When Claudia and Chris Beiler decided to move this year, they didn’t shy away from fixer-uppers. The couple owns a home design and renovation company in Honey Brook, Pa., a borough at the border of the Philadelphia suburbs and the Pennsylvania Dutch Country, where both of their families have roots.
They’d also spent nearly 12 years slowly renovating the three-bedroom house in Honey Brook where they were raising their rapidly growing family, which now includes five sons between the ages of 2 and 10. Mr. Beiler did much of the restoration work on the 1870 brick house himself, while Mrs. Beiler handled the décor, a mix of modern and vintage. They turned the attic into an apartment and rented it out through Airbnb.
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“We really loved the town, and really felt like we were supposed to be there with the people,” said Mrs. Beiler, 34. “But the more children we had, the more we just felt really crowded there.”
For their new home, the couple aimed to stay within 30 minutes of Honey Brook, where they would keep their old house and rent it out to friends.
Mrs. Beiler, who homeschools the children, wanted enough space for a classroom and several acres of land so they could “run and roam and catch snakes.” She also wanted a house with a midcentury or “cool” modern style, though options in the area were limited.
“It’s very, very rare to find a midcentury home in Lancaster County, because we’re more farmhouse,” she said. “We’re very colonial style.”
Mr. Beiler, 40, works as a real estate agent with Mrs. Beiler’s father, and handled the deal. The couple knew that most large houses with lots of land nearby would need serious repairs because the area’s Amish buyers, who often have large families and gardens, “usually snap up properties that size quickly,” Mrs. Beiler said. The ones that are left are typically in rougher shape.
The Beilers found three homes that offered the indoor and outdoor space they sought. Each had at least one major flaw that would cost a lot to fix, but thanks to their experience with renovations, they were willing to consider almost anything.
“We were hoping to spend less than $800,000 to $850,000 on the price of the home and any costs and necessary renovations for moving in,” Mr. Beiler said.
This four-bedroom, three-bath, 3,417-square-foot ranch house sat on nearly four acres in a hilly Honey Brook subdivision, and it came with an undeveloped lot next door. The L-shaped house had some interior flourishes that felt midcentury-modern, like a floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace, an open floorplan and lots of windows and skylights. But it was in worse shape than the listing photos suggested, and it also had mold. There was a two-car garage, a finished basement with a bathroom, two decks, and a pool that needed extensive repairs. The price was $565,000, with about $7,700 in annual taxes. Mr. Beiler estimated it needed about $200,000 worth of renovations.
This three-bedroom, two-bath, 2,692-square-foot home in Elverson, Pa., was built into the side of a grassy hill, allowing people to walk onto the top of the house itself. Inside, arched windows and a spiral staircase gave it a distinctive look, but everything was dated, from the kitchen to the bathrooms to the wall-to-wall carpeting. There were two bedrooms on the first floor, and a living-family room with doors to a deck on the second floor. The attached three-car garage came with an R.V. inside. The house also had mold, both inside and out. The four-acre plot had expansive countryside views, but few trees, meaning lots of visibility of neighboring homes. It was listed at $350,000, with taxes of about $7,000. Mr. Beiler estimated it needed about $300,000 in repairs.
This four-bedroom, three-bath, 2,940-square-foot midcentury-modern home was hidden on a wooded, 13-acre plot in Morgantown, Pa. It had much of its original mahogany woodwork, as well as vaulted ceilings with skylights, stone fireplaces and a basement rec room. Outside were a covered patio, a three-car garage, a horse barn and a pool with a sauna. The previous owners, an Amish family, had stripped out most of the electrical systems and plumbing, relying instead on an outdoor wood-burning furnace. As a result, the Beilers wouldn’t even be able to get a conventional bank loan to buy the house. It was listed at $786,800, with taxes of around $5,300. Mr. Beiler estimated the total cost of renovations to be about $100,000.
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