This is a love story. One very talented beach babe connected her heart and soul to one extremely skilled, guitar pickin’, country cowboy. Linda grew up in Virginia Beach. Larry hails from Monroe County, W.V.
She moved to Giles County with her small children to live near her late sister, Carolyn Hart, in 1983. Larry, the youngest of 14 children, enlisted in the U.S. Air Force after high school, serving with military fire and rescue crews. Upon discharge, he came to Giles County to live with his married brother and wife, Billy and Dean Harry. He almost always wears cowboy boots and has retired from Celanese, where he worked 10 years in production and 22 years in the carpenter shop.
In a classic boy meets girl narrative [he stepped in to help her sell a car], they fell in love and got married. She left the city and the beach behind to evolve into a very classy country lady. Together they have created a life of love and a charming home at the end of a dead-end dirt road.
Larry built the original house in the late 1970s and was living in it with two of his four children when they met. Linda and Larry resided here for decades until a fire destroyed it the night of Jan. 16, 2011. The dog awakened them, and all escaped without personal harm. At the time, Linda’s extensive craft room occupied the upstairs of the free-standing, 2-car garage. They packed up everything to convert the space to an efficiency apartment, so they could live on site while the new house was being built.
Contractors were engaged in rebuilding the skeleton of the house, plumbing, electrical and drywall, but it was Larry and Linda and their children who finished the interior. Side by side, they installed hardwood flooring and kitchen cabinets and primed and painted all the walls. It was a real labor of love, equally balancing the labor with the love.
“We expanded the living room, and I built the frame for a new fireplace and the bookcases that flank it on both sides,” Larry relates. The stonework surround is manufactured rock from M-Rock, based in Peterstown, W.V., and available at Lowe’s and The Home Depot. A few years after the house was finished, Larry expanded the primary bedroom, bathroom and walk-in closet, designing everything to be handicapped-accessible.
“The style is ‘Early Yard Sale and Flea Market’”, he adds, though stepping in the front door would not make that impression. The living room exudes a warmth that is refined and relaxed, cozy and casual. Sophisticated expressions of creativity rest on shelves and in a glass-front cabinet. A lovely homemade quilt graces the soft couch. Everything speaks tenderly of love, ingenuity and imagination with a captivating hint of whimsy.
The double French doors between the living room and kitchen somehow survived the fire, and the couple added more French doors going into the two enclosed and winterized porches that house Linda’s sewing and craft supplies. Off the front of the living room is one sewing room, and off the side is another one which connects at the opposite end to the kitchen.
The coffee station was built by Larry, and appliances underneath the counter are out of sight behind a curtain, made by Linda. These under-counter kitchen curtains can look very old-fashioned in some kitchens, but this one, in an herb pattern fabric, offers an elegant sense of playfulness.
The Harrys love one another with an enduring devotion. They love their home, God, Jesus and Christmas. Linda starts her holiday decorating as early as September in their bedroom with an angel theme in that tree, bed linens and decorations. She’ll work her way through the house room by room as the weeks march on. She has at least four Christmas trees. One with Larry’s handcrafted wood ornaments adorning it stays up year round, moving to different rooms as it strikes her fancy.
“I put up the kitchen Christmas tree early for the grandkids. They love it, but they also exclaim that it’s too early. For me, it’s never too early for Christmas,” Linda proclaims. “When people come, I want them to enjoy the whimsical warmth of Christmas throughout the house.” Since she designs and makes elves, Linda feels ultra energized and inspired when surrounded by Christmas.
The two greatest commandments in the Bible are about love – love God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself. Linda sums up her life quite simply: “I thought I knew what I needed, but God knew what I really needed when He put Larry in my path. I found true love and Christmas at the end of a one-lane, country, dirt road.”
Text by Joanne M. Anderson
Photos by Tom and Christy Wallace
