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It was a busy week: Derrik Deyhimi was in town from Houston to tour 29 homes for sale so his wife, Jane, and their two young children could move up to be closer to their extended family. “They were big homes, nice homes, but no personality,” he says.
Until he saw this one in McLean, VA. The stately Williamsburg-style house had been vacated several years earlier and received minimal upkeep in the interim. But it sat on four-and-a-half acres, and even though the landscaping was overgrown, he could tell that it had once been exquisite. The property’s large lily-pad filled natural pond, fed from Great Falls, was still home to hundreds of vibrant koi, bluegill, and catfish that the previous owners had stocked years before. “My wife and I looked at each other, and made the decision right there,” Deyhimi says.
The Restoration
From then on, the gardens became the family’s first priority, and they turned to the man who had created and maintained the original landscaping for some 20 years, Richard J. Lewis of Merrifield Garden Center.
“Before I hired a builder,” Deyhimi says, referring to Ardent Home Services, which gutted the house in a total renovation designed by Architect Kim Beasley, “before I did anything, I started working with Richard.”
During the nine-month renovation, Lewis oversaw the work of clearing out the overgrown plantings, adding new water features and waterfalls, and fixing the broken lights throughout the property.
“We did a major cleanup,” Lewis says. “It was let go a long time. We had to put it all back.” In addition, Lewis opened a never-used side yard, expanded a tiny stream into a pond surrounded by rocks, and installed a series of three waterfalls leading into the new pond from a bridge above it. The stream leads out of the pond and down a waterfall Lewis had built years earlier to the main pond below.
A giant play structure for the kids, Dylan, 6, and Jordan, 4, which has become a draw for all their friends, is also new on the side yard.
Settling In
The family has been living on the property less than a year since completing the renovation, and they are still discovering what the gardens have to offer as each new season arrives – especially the wildlife drawn to the large pond.
The Deyhimis feed the fish every other day – an activity that causes the fish to team around the newly installed dock any time someone walks up. There’s a family of hawks on the property, too – a source of constant wonder for the children.
They retain their home in Houston, and they’ve brought up many reminders of their rolling, two-acre property there. Some of the boulders on the ponds were shipped from Texas, and all the statuary surrounding the property is from there. Deyhimi’s favorites include a fisher boy on the edge of the pond, which reminds him of his son, as well as a charming sculpture of a girl and a boy, nestled into plantings by the pond’s edge, to represent both children.
Next on the garden’s to-do list is building a .7-mile jog/walk trail around the property’s perimeter. But for now, the family enjoys their gentle strolls. Says Deyhimi: “In the morning, it’s just so tranquil out here.”
