Jade Sanders and her husband John spent most of 2020 with one foot in Texas and one in Grove City.
In fact, this Discover Grove City interview took place over the phone while she, John, and sons Easton and Beckham were six hours into the long trip to Houston. Sanders’ sister lives in Grove City but the rest of her family is in Texas, which is why they split the year in two places. And when the family is away from the Buckeye state, they make sure their historic Park Street home is taken care of – by putting it on Airbnb.
The Sanders family moved into the 1931 house about a year ago and have been renovating from the get-go. They’re no strangers to the process, though; the Sanders own their own renovation company JCS Properties & Management and have renovated about 75 homes. So, why not take on their own home?
“We fell in love with the area around Park Street,” she says. “We really like older houses with a lot of character to them.”
Sanders kept a lot of the exposed brick and maintained structural pieces original to the house. The floors are genuine, though refinished.
“All the hardwood is original,” Sanders says, “though they’re not perfect. There are holes and cracks, but you just don’t see hardwood floors made the same way these days. We’ve also kept this big trim that you don’t find in modern houses.”
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There are a lot of ups and downs when it comes to renovating, especially when your house is older. But one of the biggest issues was apparent very early in the project. The house had no heating or air conditioning systems, so Sanders and her husband took on the task of installing the units.
Luckily, the Sanders had most of the renovations done before COVID-19 hit. What affected them most was the lack of Airbnb guests during the pandemic.
“When we’re in Texas, there’s almost always someone using our house as an Airbnb,” Sanders says, “but the amount definitely decreased. However, we did have a few people who needed the house as a necessity. One couple stayed there for quite a long time because they had moved there for the time being to help their elderly parents.”
Sanders adds that she’s grateful they had most of the renovations completed prior to COVID-19, as she knows that the prices of materials have spiked considerably.
As for the couple’s favorite part of the house, she says they loved doing the kitchen. However, the most enticing aspect to them was the location.
“We like the proximity to downtown,” she says. “I can put the kids in the stroller and take them to the library and we make trips to Capital City Cakes a few times a week. We just love being close enough to support our local businesses around town.”
Mallory Arnold is an associate editor. Feedback welcome at marnold@cityscenemediagroup.com.
