The charred wall of one of the two upstairs bedrooms can be seen in the photo above, as well as the one-story kitchen addition.

Brothers Neil and Tim Nord- heim of Richmond restore old homes for a living. Owners of a weekend home on the Piankatank River in Mathews that they restored a couple of years ago, they had an eye on an abandoned home that was nearby on Hallieford Road, so when it went on the market several times in a row, they made a “low offer.”

The Nordheim brothers have removed all the plaster and lath strips from the interior walls of the house in Hallieford, exposing the 2x4 framing and the exterior siding, which appears to still be in good condition.

Their offer was accepted, and they bought the circa-1900 house in November from the out-of-town owner. By January, they cleaned out years of accumulated items and trash, removed old horsehair plaster from interior walls, and cleared out enough underbrush and trees to make the house visible from the road.

The ro...