Yet the deteriorating house, documented on county maps as early as 1752, needed a little work.
When they purchased it, "Everything was overgrown and the walls were caving in. It was like a spookhouse. But I loved it, because I always saw the vision of what it could be," says Laura.
In addition to restoring the house and rewiring it with high-tech upgrades like geothermal heat, a music system, and skylights that automatically close if it rains, they expanded the home's footprint.
The additions sprang up in two directions, forming a wing with a great room, two bedrooms (bringing the total to seven), and two bathrooms, and, on the other side, a spacious master bath, a porch, and a sunroom. They also added a three-car garage, although Gene's car collection is housed in nine stalls in the barn.
The new wings were planned with sympathetic rooflines so as not to overwhelm the original core of the house, says Rene Hoffman of R.A. Hoffman Architects in Paoli. He also had to work around protected historic elements, such as original stone sluices once used for drainage. He incorporated old external stone walls into the internal structure, and redirected the flow of traffic through the house, designing breezy hallways so people didn't have to pass through one room to get to another.
The one running alongside the dining room and kitchen is lined on one side with old exterior stone, and on the other with sunny French doors.
Outdoors, the Schrivers redesigned the 14-acre grounds, including patios, manicured lawns, a pond, and woods, for frequent entertaining. They carved terraces into the hillside for cocktail parties.
All that forethought proved useful when daughter Victoria, a fashion designer, decided on a backyard wedding in June 2007.
"It was pretty close to exactly what we wanted," Victoria said.
