John Gladden | The Gazette

CHATHAM TWP. — With its brick walls, twin porches, arched windows and green shutters, Anne Melfo and Doug Fawcett’s 1880 cross-gabled Victorian farmhouse looks like it belongs in a storybook.

After a decade of restoration, every inch of their 129-year-old home tells a story — from the painstakingly refinished hickory floor in the dining room, to the replastered ceilings and the carefully preserved original hardware on the doors.

Call it a love story — a labor of love story.

Anne Melfo and Doug Fawcett are the winners of this year’s Outstanding Home Award from the Medina County Board of Realtors for the restoration of their 1880 Victorian home in Chatham Township. (John Gladden | The Gazette)

The couple’s commitment to caring for their Chippewa Road home has earned this year’s Outstanding Home Award from the Medina County Board of Realtors. The award is presented during American Home Week — this year April 19-26 — which honors home stewardship and celebrates a cherished, but easily taken for granted cornerstone of democracy: the right to own private property.

Homes are nominated and judged by MCBR members. To be eligible, the house must be located in Medina County and must have been built before 1949. Homeowners supply a letter and photographs detailing the restoration process. Fawcett and Melfo will receive the award during a luncheon on Thursday.

Fawcett, 48, is the owner of Kellex Seating, a furni-ture company serving the hotel and resort industry. He grew up watching his parents refurbish a Greek Revival home, so old-house-restoration is in his blood. It was new to Melfo, 45, but she threw herself into the task.

“Doug and I did everything. We tag-teamed a lot,” she said. “When we were working on it, I’d go to work on Monday just to rest!” The couple has two children, Victor, 7, and Michelina, 4.

In addition to the endless painting and wallpapering, they refinished wood floors — using a screwdriver and a Dremel tool to dig a century of compacted gunk from the gaps between the boards. They put on window shutters, a slate roof and added a tin ceiling.

Their guiding principle was to honor the home’s original good workmanship with good workmanship of their own.

“We decided we’re not go-ing to do it unless we do it right and it’ll last another 100 years,” Fawcett said.

Outside, there’s a garden shed — formerly the farm’s blacksmith shop, but now where the family makes maple syrup each spring. They also make wine and keep bees.

The centerpiece of the landscape is a bank barn that looks like it’s been there forever, but was raised by Amish builders from Spencer Township. Fawcett and Melfo had it built on the footprint of the farm’s original barn, which burned some time in the 1950s.

In the restoration process, they have learned little bits of the home’s history. It was originally known as the Myers farm, encompassing some 200 to 300 acres. During the Chatham Township oil boom, the Myers family took in boarders, as many local residents did. The walk-up attic — where one of the workers who built the home inscribed his name and the date, “Willie Woods, 1880” — was set up to ac-commodate rows of cots for oil field laborers.

One piece of the house’s history came home to roost through an amazing series of events, involving the daughter of a neighbor of Melfo’s sister’s mother-in-law in Akron.

The daughter was in the process of sorting through some family belongings. Among them was a shoebox of cards owned by her mother. In the box was a 1904 greeting card. The mother-in-law asked if she could give it to Melfo and Fawcett.

“She thought of us be-cause we were moving into an old house,” Melfo said. “Old … old. That was the only connection.”

When she flipped the card over, she saw the recipient’s name and address: Paul E. Myers of Chatham Town-ship. He grew up in Melfo and Fawcett’s house. The card, which was a gift from a teacher, is now framed and hanging in what could have been Paul’s old bed-room.

“It comes full circle,” said Melfo.

Bittersweetly, Melfo and Fawcett have placed their home up for sale. They soon will be moving to be closer to family. It’s hard to leave a place when you’ve put so much of yourself into it, but there are good feelings, too, knowing you helped pre-serve a home for another generation.

One of the comforts of re-storing an old house is knowing its story began long before you got there and will continue long after you are gone.

“We’re caretakers,” Fawcett said, “not homeowners.”

The home’s next caretak-ers, whoever they may be, will be happy to know the wall hanging with Paul E. Myers’ card comes with the house.

“I’m not going to upset the karma of that,” Melfo said, and laughed.

Contact John Gladden at gladden@ohio.net.