This is a story of friendship and a family’s mantra lived over five generations: Faith, Family, Food, Farming. And what can happen when all those values combine to create something extraordinary.
Loveland-based remodeler Tim Gill (founder and owner of Perennial Professional Services) remembers the day in October 2019 when his friend Tom Fiorini called—inviting him, as well as several other old college buddies, to the Kelly-Donehue family farm outside of DeMossville, KY.
Although Tom didn’t give specifics, he told everyone they were being brought together for a charette—a French word meaning “an intense, time-sensitive effort by a group of architectural students to solve a problem.” It was a term Tim and Tom understood well. Their more than 40-year friendship had begun when they were students at the University of Kentucky, majoring in architectural landscape.
Although Tim had never been to the farm, he had heard Tom talk nostalgically about his childhood summers there with his grandparents, Jack and Esther Kelly.
Tom and his wife, Jo Anne, had acquired control of 42 acres of the original family farm and all of the buildings that summer from the estate of its last owner, his Aunt Ann Kelly, who had died in March. A neighbor had purchased the farm’s surrounding 175 acres.
The 1884 farmhouse, built by Tom’s great-great-grandfather, James Donehue, had not been lived in for nearly a decade. “It was pretty much buttoned up like a museum,” Tom says. And it was in pretty rough shape.
On October 18, everyone arrived at the farm. The group consisted of Tim, landscape architect Phil Bishop, architect Garlan VanHook. Other specialists—an arborist, two engineers, a neighboring farmer—were there that weekend, too.
Tom then revealed his and Jo Anne’s plan for the farm’s future: As faithful stewards of the land and to honor Tom’s ancestors, they planned to turn the farm into a community center—a place for work, prayer and play amid the natural beauty of the rolling landscape.
It would be a retreat, where people could come and enjoy the restored and renovated farmhouse and property, plus all the amenities they planned to add: a large swimming pool, pickleball and basketball courts, an outdoor kitchen, two bunkhouses and four fully equipped RV pads. It would be a massive and expensive project. And the kicker—it would be free to use.
“We all told him he was crazy,” Tim says, laughing, “but Tom was adamant that this is what they wanted to do.”
For two days, the group explored every inch of the house and listened to Tom’s vision for the property. “He wanted to maintain the original two-story house, take all the additions off, add a family room on the back, and a master suite above it on the second floor with additional storage,” Tim remembers. Tom also planned to plant several hundred trees—including fruit trees—and reestablish the vegetable gardens, hayfields and pastures.
The house needed all new plumbing, electrical, HVAC and a persistent wet basement issue solved. At its core, it was a 140-year-old wooden box with oak floors and oak walls. The TLC it would require to bring it back to life was hard to imagine. But “imagine” they did, and over two days, architect Garlan came up with a plan and remodeler Tim began to develop a strategy and estimate for pulling it off.
Once Tom gave the green light, Tim brought in his crew. “We stripped every wall down to its bare studs, but were able to harvest a lot of the wood,” he says. Jo Anne took on the formidable task of removing decades of wallpaper. “Seven or eight layers,” she smiles.
The old enclosed porch was removed, a memorable day when the mini-excavator pulled it off its stone foundation and “snakes starting shooting out in every direction,” Tim says, laughing.
Tim estimated that the project would take about six months, but 2020 dawned, March came and COVID shut the world down. Yet, in a strange twist of fate, that didn’t stop progress.
Although government had ordered builders to cease all operations that involved going into occupied houses, Tim’s crew weren’t breaking any rules by continuing to work in an empty farmhouse. “My guys drove separately, and each worked in a different room.”
As Tim had promised, Tom, Jo Anne and family were able to stay in the house for Christmas 2020. The first few months of 2021 were devoted to “tying up loose ends,” Tim says. And by spring, the Kelly-Donehue Heritage Farm began to welcome the community.
Interestingly enough, the first event—a reception after a funeral at nearby St. John’s Catholic Church—had ties to Tom’s Irish immigrant great-great grandfather James. James was also part of a group of immigrant families who built St. John’s in 1883.
Since that spring 2021 opening, other people have enjoyed personal retreats; groups have held meetings and reunions. The community was invited to the farm for a Christmas party that year. The big event this summer was the farm’s 150th anniversary, which drew 300 people on a rainy day!
Every wall throughout the house is a tribute to the generations of Donehues and Kellys who called it home—photos, documents, swatches of wallpaper that Jo Anne removed, old farm tools, a glass case containing arrowheads and stone implements belonging to the land’s original residents. A short wall between the two large downstairs rooms showcases the tongue-and-groove technique used to construct the house in 1884. And perhaps most precious, James Donehue’s framed certificate of U.S. citizenship, dated August 23, 1859.
Still, Tom and Jo Anne have one more project for Tim—to build them a small retirement home on the property.
“We plan to move there and be the caretakers,” Tom says. As for more on this amazing restoration and community center? Word-of-mouth is the current practice, with a formal website and Facebook presence to come in time.
PerennialProfessionalServices.com | 308 S. Riverside Ave, Loveland | 513.683.7222
“The difficult college program we went through together in our early 20s created bonds for life.” - Tim Gill
“The program statement was easy to write because we knew what we wanted to do.” - Tom Fiorini