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A Southern girl from Alabama, who spent part of her childhood back and forth to Louisiana, Margie Redditt fully expected a career in interior design, having graduated from the Art Institute of Atlanta. And what do we know about the best laid plans of mice and men?
“Hey, I met a French Canadian guy with a hippie van in Hartford, Conn. We saved money, bought some land in Floyd County, and the next thing I know we were living off the land, and along came the babies,” she relates. Being astute to a healthy lifestyle with natural food and two children to feed, Margie became involved in the local food co-op. “It was an all-volunteer, fledgling group and hard to get people to work, so I bought the co-op and started my own gig.”
The Business Side of Life
The health food industry was just finding its footing, and Margie set her sights on a building in town which many others had tried to buy. “I told the building’s owner my story, my hopes, my dreams, and lo and behold, she sold it to me. I was definitely in the right place at the right time.”
She found the whole natural foods industry invigorating and inspiring, learning a lot from her customers along the way. She re-named the Floyd Mill Co-op, Harvest Moon, and the business expanded. Finding herself once again in the right place at the right time, she built a large, freestanding, log structure on the edge of town around 2013.
The Quirky House Side of Retirement
Margie had been hunting around on weekends, thinking of her retirement years, when a friend of a friend told her about this very unusual house. She looked at it. She liked it. “It has my name all over it, quirky, like me.” She bought it. It was an easy transaction, she, once again, being in the right place at the right time. She made the drive to Floyd and back every day for two years, and that took its toll. A buyer came along soon, the right place at the right time, and she stepped away from Harvest Moon.
The roughly 2,150 square feet is unconventional indeed with slanted ceilings, angled walls, unusual doors, a huge round window, a tower accessed only by ladder, and a loft railing made with vertical tree branches. The unique home was designed and built in 2002. One of the bathrooms and the kitchen had been updated. Margie has been intent on having the other bathroom renovated along with adding windows, decks and doors.
Outdoor Living Takes Shape
“I moved in around the time the pandemic began, so no one was working. I knew a lot of folks in Floyd, and I contacted Jeff Walls to build the deck. I told him what I wanted, we sketched it on paper, and he went to work.” It evolved into a multi-level deck project, and once completed, Margie got excited about gardening. The first task was removing brush and brambles from the side yard — nearly 15 trucks loads and one huge dumpster load hauled away. She planted grass for a park-like setting. The treehouse with sandbox under it was there.
Margie had very large accordion doors installed so the house can be totally open some 40 feet wide on to the upper deck. She is soon replacing a kitchen window which is both too high to reach and doesn’t open anyway with lower horizontal windows which will open. Her only concern in being able to see outside from the kitchen is that it could inspire her to plant more flowers and landscape features. The loft houses a puzzle table with a 1,000 pieces in various stages of linking together.
The interior is artistic with beaucoup natural elements – stone ledges and window sills, tile, wood floors and ceilings, unusual angles, unexpected colors, a natural wood edge island counter handcrafted in Floyd, wallpaper she hung herself and some awesome and interesting artwork.
Margie never lived in a town, always in the country. So, this is new to her. She loves the dead-end street location, her neighbors, the woods, watching kids ride bikes, and walking to the Center for the Arts or the farmer’s market. The setting with tall trees and lovely gardens is akin to the country while being in the town.
The curious house and the quirky lady are a perfect match for being colorful, creative, riveting, refreshing and intriguing. A harmonious, happy, healthy vibe and alluring personality permeates the entire place indoors and outside.
Text by Joanne M. Anderson
Photos by Tom and Christy Wallace
Photos by Tom and Christy Wallace
