Our Home

Our home is a, multi-level "post war" country house, located at the top of a hill in the Virginia countryside about ten miles from downtown Richmond. In the last year, we have done extensive work to update the property, and to make it facilitate our hobbies. Helping us in this respect were some great designers and contractors that we have met since moving to the Richmond area. Rodney Vaughan Interiors, EON Electrical Contractors, Kelleher Mechanical Contractors, Champion Builders and Donnie Clement, of Clement's Landscaping Service, have provided fantastic help in making our retirement dream home a reality. Shown below are just a few samples of their work.

The replica "turn-of-the-century" music room which serves as the studio for our 1926 Wurlitzer theatre pipe organ. Interior work, floors and finish carpentry are by Rodney Vaughan Interiors. We host live concerts and recitals in our studio, and theatrical lighting has been installed by EON Electrical contractors. Room design and pipe organ installation was by our own DeMajo Organ Works, Ltd. The stained glass window shown was built by Carolyn Insler of Vision Stained Glass Studios, Chattanooga, TN. It is an exact replica of the Tiffany Studios window that was installed in the dining room of my grandparents' 1890's mansion that was located on Esplanade Avenue in New Orleans.

State-of-the-art gourmet kitchen by Rodney Vaughan Interiors, with granite finishes by Capitol Marble and Granite of Richmond.

Above: Breakfast nook also by Rodney Vaughan Interiors and Capitol Marble and Granite. The French doors to the right of photo lead to formal dining room which was constructed by Champion Builders of Ashland, VA. Oak hard wood flooring is by Vaughan Interiors.

Back yard landscaping turned a vacant piece of rural land into a park-like setting, including the addition of outdoor cooking facilities, fountains and waterfalls, and a gazebo for relaxing and sipping mint julips on a quiet Richmond summer afternoon. This view was taken from the master bedroom balcony, which overlooks the gardens. The grounds of the home overlook historic Salem Church, which dates to 1794, and was the site of important events that sparked battles for religious freedom in the young Nation. Grounds Design is by Donnie Clement of Clement's Landscaping See their website here:.

Fountain and waterfall designed by Clement's Landscaping Service

This room houses the main portion of the DeMajo antique wireless collection. The focus of the room is a display of communications equipment (shown here) from the "pioneer years" of the broadcast AM radio era. The photos below are the continuation of the communications equipment display room. Be sure to visit our Radio Museum page to see more of the collection. Display illumination system for the DeMajo Communications Collection is by EON Electrical Contractors of Richmond, VA.

Bedrooms were remodeled, including new oak flooring and addition of a "French Quarter" style door and balcony in the "Blue Room" which is located on the second level of the main house. Unlike most of the French Quarter balconies in New Orleans, our balcony has not yet been featured in the "Girls Gone Wild' tv show, but it does provide a panoramic view of the gardens and surrounding grounds. The furniture in the "Blue Room" is from a Pre-Civil War Louisiana plantation home.The rosewood bed and commode shown are over 170 years old. Rodney Vaughn Construction oversaw the bedroom renovation work.

Another phase of the renovations included a new network operations center and "ham shack" This work station was constructed in a previously unfinished area of our basement. It now houses our web and mail servers, network switching equipment, a complete HF and VHF ham radio station, and facilities for producing several monthly newsletter publications and web sites that we maintain for various organizations. In conjunction with the construction of the network center, we also installed a new diesel generator so that the radio station can serve as a Red Cross and ARES communication center in the event of a civil or weather emergency.

Security Division..."Her Majesty" Queen Daisy and Peppy the "Court Jester". You can also see a view our neighborhood by looking directly through one of our security cameras here.