The View Finders
The View Finders
The View Finders
O.Henry photographer Amy Freeman focuses on family
By Cassie Bustamante • Photographs by Amy Freeman
As any photographer knows, life can change in a flash. After years of hunting for a mountain retreat, O.Henry photographer Amy Freeman’s search became more urgent. Her family — husband, Peter, and son, Louis — needed a place where they could escape into nature while spending valuable time together. “It’s been a dream for a long time, a really long time,” she says.
“We’d been looking for years,” agrees Peter. Thirty years, in fact, since Louis was just a small child. They’d perused properties in Brevard, Asheville, Banner Elk, Blowing Rock, you name it, sticking within the borders of North Carolina.
As many others did during the early days of COVID, Amy recalls, the family leaned even more into finding a peaceful getaway. “We decided one random Saturday we would go look up in the Roaring Gap area, but — accidentally — we didn’t get off early enough and we ended up on the Fancy Gap exit instead.” They’d crossed over into Southern Virginia. “And, we were like, this is kind of great.”
Suddenly, they had their sights set in a new direction across the North Carolina border just as a curveball came their way. In October 2020, Louis, then 32, was diagnosed with myotonic dystrophy type 1, a form of muscular dystrophy that leads to progressive weakness of the body’s muscles. For a long time, doctors thought perhaps Louis had Asperger’s Syndrome, a form of autism. Amy and Peter, however, weren’t so certain.
“Nothing ever made sense to me because he’s so smart, but just struggled in certain areas,” says Amy. Louis graduated from High Point University in 2011 with a bachelor of science degree and works at Freeman Kennett Architects, founded and co-owned by none other than his architect father, who’s been in the business for over three decades. But Louis is not just book smart. In fact, Amy says, “You should follow him on TikTok. He’s got some hilarious videos. He has a wicked sense of humor.” (You can find him there at @musculardystrophy88.)
Armed with a diagnosis, their mountain home checklist now had new must-tick boxes. “Travel time,” says Peter. Anything longer than an hour-and-a-half in the car can be a challenge for Louis. “The other consideration, the biggest, was that we didn’t want to find a place where he’d have to go up a lot of steps.”
In order to afford the second home, the family decided Louis could move into a single-level downstairs apartment in Peter and Amy’s townhome and sell his place. He was willing to give it up if it meant they could have a mountain house, but they all still wanted their own spaces. “Architecturally, we were looking for a place that would give us separation under the same roof,” says Peter.
“We all need a break from each other,” he quips. Amy chuckles knowingly.
On Peter’s 60th birthday, just as the family was headed home from a weekend at the beach celebrating, Peter came across a home on Zillow that he thought they needed to see. Back in High Point the very next day, Peter called the listing agent. Right away, the family, including Coco the dog, who travels everywhere with them, hit the road and headed to Hillsville. The home provided every necessity they’d listed, including no steps and adequate separation of space.
Plus, the home offered even more than they could have imagined. Beetling on a rocky perch just off the Blue Ridge Parkway, the house’s wraparound porch serves as a premium seat to the best show in town — Pilot Mountain amidst an ever-changing kaleidoscope of sky and stars.
“But,” Amy says, “we were like, I don’t think we can afford this.”
“It was super scary,” admits Peter. He consulted with his brother, Trey, who already owned a couple of properties, hoping he could advise them on making it work with their tight budget.
“Are we crazy?” Peter asked Trey.
Trey came to see the home and saw an opportunity. He offered to go in on the purchase and make the house an Airbnb rental 70% of the time, making the financial leap a lot less scary.
With Trey, the Freemans bought the home and quickly got to work, making basic cosmetic changes to prep it for rental. On the main level, the walls were painted a soft neutral. Amy selected Benjamin Moore’s White Dove. But their painter had the color matched at Sherwin Williams and, Amy says, “it was very different.” When she first saw it, she wept. “But I’ve learned to love it.”
Before, bedrooms were a carnival of color, in chartreuse-green, mustard and poppy-red. The Freemans had everything coated in calming, rental-friendly neutrals. The previous owner left furnishings behind, so they repurposed what they could. An old gun cabinet was transformed into a bookcase. The rest, they cobbled together, bringing bits and pieces from home that had been passed down from their parents and were sitting in storage, like Amy’s father’s red, leather chair and her parents’ oriental rugs. They supplemented with items from Louis’ former condo, such as his sofa.
The once-plain fireplace — “it was just a hole,” says Amy — was decorated with large-scale, charcoal-gray tile grouted in high-contrast white. The tile had been leftover from their own bathroom floor at home. A proper mantel the couple ordered from Wayfair was the icing on the cake. Now, Amy says, visitors often comment on the fireplace. “And I am like, that’s my bathroom floor! I usually walk on that!”
In the kitchen, Amy says, they saved a ton of money by keeping the existing cabinetry and countertops. “We have a problem replacing something that’s perfectly good.”
“That’s our attitude,” agrees Peter. “We’re not cramping the landfill.”
With their inexpensive cosmetic updates, the house was ready to rent out to mountain-seeking vacationers. While the Airbnb share idea enabled the Freemans to purchase the house and they found much success with the rental, Amy says, “We found out very quickly that’s not why we got it.”
“Louis fell in love with it,” says Peter. “He kind of blossoms up there. And I think that made us feel really good, that he was kind of taking to it.”
Unlike Peter, Trey, who owns a house in Athens, Ga., and another in WaterColor, Fla., found he wasn’t able to get to Hillsville often. He wanted to rent the home out even more. Amy and Peter weren’t ready to give up what already little time they spent there. Their wheels started turning.
They were newly invigorated and determined to find a way to buy out Trey. Amy blurts out, “We manifested it!”
Peter chuckles. “Well, we sold our office building.”
“OK, we sold our office building, but, I mean, I manifested it,” Amy says teasingly.
With the house now 100% theirs, the Freemans removed the Airbnb listing and got to work putting their personal stamp on the place.
“We love a project!” says Amy.
Unlike many couples who struggle DIYing together, Amy and Peter have always gotten along incredibly well throughout the process. “It really is amazing that I can almost finish her sentences and she can finish mine,” Peter says of planning designs with his wife.
Inside, they updated the kitchen by painting the cabinets a soft, spruce green and replacing the once brown-hued countertops with white quartz. What brought it all together was the backsplash tile, which came from “a new, cool sample” Peter had gotten in at the architecture firm that happened to match perfectly, Amy recalls.
“It is nice to be in the business,” says Peter.
They began bringing more personal pieces from home. A side table the couple purchased from Pier1 Imports the first year of their marriage features a little upside-down man holding a glass top. Amy recalls thinking that its $60 price tag was too rich for their newlywed blood. “Somehow,” she says, “it survived over the years.” Now, a true conversation starter, it sits next to the living room sofa.
A large Cordial Campari vintage marketing poster print Amy and Peter purchased at Rooster’s on State Street 25 years ago hangs on the kitchen wall. Nearby on a perpendicular wall, a caustic-wax painting that looks like a birch tree anchors a table and two stools. It was a birthday gift to Amy last year from her friend, local artist Dana Holliday. “It’s my most treasured piece of art.”
The biggest change they made was painting the exterior, which is constructed of hardy cypress, a dark shade of charcoal. “Peter walked around the house 1,000 times, considering, and finally decided he wanted to go darker,” says Amy.
“Peter never brags on his design chops,” Amy continues, “but I am here to tell you he imagines things that I typically can’t wrap my brain around.” The Freemans originally thought they’d use a natural wood trim, but, around that time, Amy photographed a July 2023 story for O.Henry, “Beyond the Back Door.” She was inspired by an outbuilding Otto & Moore had renovated and painted a similar charcoal, but its door was a cool shade of blue. In the end, they opted for a “dark, greenish blue,” says Amy, and now the home blends in with the hardwoods that surround it.
While they still have other projects they’d like to slowly chip away at — perhaps an art studio — they’ve made the Hillsville home all theirs. “Now it doesn’t feel like we’re just going up to our Airbnb for the weekend,” says Amy. “It feels like home.”
Most Fridays, the family hops in the car, with Coco, of course, and heads to the Blue Ridge Mountains for the weekend. “We breathe the minute we get off of 74 and start to rise up the mountain,” says Peter, audibly exhaling.
Able to unplug for a bit, the Freemans spend their days visiting the nearby Floyd Farmers Market, Primland Resort or Chateau Morrisette, which was founded by William Morrisette of Greensboro’s Morrisette Paper Co. Current co-owner Melissa Morrisette, the founder’s daughter-in-law, has become an incredible friend. “We are welcomed like family when we are at the winery.”
And when they don’t feel like venturing out, the 4-acre property and its surrounding area offers plentiful rest and recreation. There’s fishing nearby, which Peter hopes to get into when he retires one day. Just 10 minutes from the house is a very short but beautiful hiking loop Amy loves to trod. But, she quips, even a trip to the mailbox can be a walk through nature’s wonder.
“Porch time, as we like to call it,” Amy says, is a favorite family pastime, and Peter agrees. The first thing he does every morning is step outside onto the expansive porch to take in the view.
“One of the things that Amy said years ago when we first started this process was, ‘I want to go somewhere with big sky,’” recalls Peter. “And that always stuck with me.” Looking out to Pilot Mountain in the distance, the sun setting off to the right in a rainbow of misty blues, golden oranges, all the way to fiery red, there’s no denying her wish was granted here. In fact, you can catch both the sunrise and sunset from this vantage point on the porch — and plenty of “big flyers,” including pileated woodpeckers.
“It just feels like you’re in a treehouse and nothing else in the world exists,” Amy muses.
But the biggest blessing this house has bestowed upon the Freemans is the freedom it’s given Louis. Once an avid snowboarder and golfer, Louis is yet again able to adventure outdoors, thanks to a side-by-side — a utility task vehicle (UTV) Amy was totally against at first. A fallen tree that was blocking their driveway, however, changed her mind.
Up at the house by herself, she called her neighbors to see if they could help her clear the small tree. Mariah, who’s around Louis’ age, cruised on over on her side-by-side with a Bear Saw. She cut the tree and then used a winch attached to her side-by-side to pull the tree away. Immediately, Amy says, “I go in the house and call Peter and say, ‘Y’all can go ahead and get that side-by-side. I think we need one.’”
In fact, Amy says, she’s had to reframe her perspective on other things, too. “Nowadays,” she says, “we bring the party to us.” Rather than venturing out to visit friends, they welcome guests to stay at their Hillsville home with them. Two extra en-suite bedrooms, Amy notes, provide lots of privacy.
Life’s given the family unexpected circumstances, “but then you just realize that’s OK,” says Amy. If not for living under the same roof with Louis, “I would never have gotten his humor. I would have never been able to see that part and how strong and courageous he is.”
It’s a privilege, Peter agrees. Most parents, he adds, don’t get to know their children as adults in the way that they’ve been able to know Louis. “We all get so much more connected with the Earth and nature,” he says. And, it seems, to one another.
“We’re the three musketeers,” quips Amy.