For most first-time buyers, a crumbling abandoned home would be too daunting a project to take on. However, when Betsy Sweeny, an architectural historian by trade, first laid eyes on the McClain House in Wheeling, West Virginia, she knew exactly how to revive the fortunes of the forlorn property. 

After purchasing the home for just $18,500 (£14.7k), Betsy embarked on an impressive renovation that honours the history of this beautiful landmark house.

Click or scroll on to see how Betsy turned an endangered house into a dream home...

Originally from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Betsy relocated to the city of Wheeling in West Virginia in 2019 after taking a job with the Wheeling National Heritage Area overseeing its cultural heritage programming. Around eight months after the move, she was walking with a friend through the East Wheeling Historic District, a community peppered with beautiful Victorian-era homes, when one particular property caught her eye.

"I saw my home and said 'Oh that looks abandoned, I wonder if it's available' and a neighbour overheard and said 'Yeah it's so-and-so's house, I’d bet he'd sell it to you'. Before I knew it, I was touring it with the previous owner," Betsy tells loveMONEY.

Captivated by the property, which was named the McClain House after the affluent family who'd built it back in 1892, Betsy bought the home for $18,500 (£14.7k) in cash at just 27 years old.

"Any one of those houses would've been gorgeous and exciting to own, but the fact that this one was in a pretty significant state of disrepair and needed saving was what drew me to it," she says.

Betsy has always loved old buildings, so the purchase wasn't surprising to friends and family. But while she had managed stages of preservation and restoration projects through her job, this was the first residential renovation she'd undertaken on her own so she decided to document her progress on Instagram.

The condition of the five-bedroom house certainly wasn't for the faint-hearted. Around a dozen windows were completely missing and water infiltration had weakened some of the structural beams. "It was extremely dilapidated. It was in imminent danger based on how compromised the structure was," Betsy explains.

Sizing up the job ahead, Betsy secured a $25,000 (£20k) loan that was available through a local preservation organisation. She used the loan as a cash downpayment on a larger $100,000 (£79k) construction loan to finance the extensive renovation. The project was also eligible for a residential historic tax credit valued at 20% of her remodel cost, which Betsy could take off her future tax liability. 

Betsy tackled the project logically, securing the exterior before moving on to the interior: “When you’ve got a renovation of this scale, it’s sort of a top down, bottom up, outside in situation. From the top, the roof was in a very good condition as it's high-quality slate, but the house didn’t have gutters, so water was washing down every face of the exterior, which meant it was washing the mortar away and the brick was compromised."

Her priority was fitting wood box gutters, which specialist carpenters crafted and installed, and repointing the brickwork, a job that Betsy tackled herself.

Inside, the 3,075-square-foot (286sqm) home was a shell. Swathes of plaster and lathe had fallen away from the walls, leaving the timber framing exposed in places. Due to the water ingress, damp patches marked the interior and layers of discoloured wallpaper were peeling away. 

The home had been vacant for between 30 and 40 years when Betsy got the key. The previous owners, a couple who were also preservationists, had bought the home to save it from demolition. They carried out work to stabilise the property's condition before a job opportunity took them out of the area.

Betsy's purchase coincided with the pandemic, which gave her more time to concentrate on the project and take on the role of general contractor. 

After the exterior had been secured, the focus shifted to interior structural repairs across the floor joists and walls, removing rotten timber and replacing beams where necessary. Once the interior had been made safe, the utilities were replaced.

One of the most challenging aspects to negotiate during this time was the missing windows. The voids were boarded up and made watertight and Betsy commissioned reconstructions of the wood frames. However, it would take 10 months for the majority of the windows to be installed.

Despite its dilapidated condition, the home still harboured some amazing original features, including numerous beautiful slate fireplaces with intricate tiling and metalwork. While some had cracked, all but one were luckily still in situ and able to be rescued. 

For Betsy, maintaining the integrity of the home's original architectural features was paramount. "If you picked the house up and shook it, anything that falls out I feel totally comfortable taking creative license with. If it's a feature of the home – fireplaces, the staircase, woodwork – those things are meant to stay forever and I did not mess with them."

While the three-storey home was void of furnishings when Betsy bought it, the remaining features gave her a glimpse into the lives of the property's past residents.   

"Because the house has a lot of ornamental details, you do get a sense of the people who have lived there over time. The McClain family that built the home was an upper-middle class family, and that’s evident through the types of finishes that were selected and the intricacy of the woodwork."

Thanks to deeds and city records, Betsy was able to build up an image of the property's lineage. After the McClain's tenure, it passed through several other wealthy local families. After cycling through a long list of subsequent owners, the last couple to have purchased the home in the 1940s, remained there until the 1970s.

When the couple passed away leaving no heirs, the inheritance of the home became unclear. The McClain House was seemingly lost in the shuffle of paperwork when their estate was dealt with. The house stood empty for decades before it was picked up by the preservationist couple who ultimately sold it to Betsy.

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While water damage had affected some parts of the home, other areas survived relatively unscathed. "The water infiltration was coming from the outside in, so many of the elements of the interior, especially in the centre of the building, hadn’t been super damaged yet," Betsy explains.

At the heart of the home is what Betsy describes as the "miracle staircase". For all the damage the house had endured since its abandonment, not a single spindle or tread was missing. The original woodwork and remarkable carved detailing shine as brightly as they did more than a century ago.

In total, it took Betsy 18 months to make the home liveable and the remodel to date has cost around $130,000 (£103k) –  an impressive feat considering the scale of the work required. 

"I was able to accomplish this project with a relatively small budget because anything I could do was done by myself. Refinishing the floors, plaster, drywall, tiles, reinstalling the decorative fireplaces – everything like that I did myself with the support of my loved ones," she says.

Let's take a look at the renovated McClain House...

With the bulk of the overhaul complete, the house was transformed. Across the exterior, Betsy opted to paint her doors, window frames and gutters a dark teal shade. The brickwork has been repaired, though Betsy was respectful of maintaining the historic wear across the façade.

To be in the clear for her loan repayment, the renovated home needed to be appraised for at least $125,000 (£99k). Thankfully, it appraised for $202,000 (£160k), which meant Betsy could refinance and wrap the construction loan into a traditional mortgage, and pull out equity to finish the interior. 

Sunny yellow walls now offer a cheery welcome in the entryway. The original double front doors with their ornate detailing are still in place, the teal offering a pleasing contrast to the interior. Betsy revived the doors' exquisite brass hardware, which had dulled over the decades.

It was incredibly important to Betsy to respect the property's original design, which had endured more than 130 years with only minor alterations. Consequently, she kept the layout faithful to the home the McClain's moved into all those decades ago: "I have not changed the floor plan just because that's what I believe as a preservationist."

While many of the home's original elements had endured, a few had been lost along the way. Looking back at old photos, Betsy realised the McClain House once had a stained-glass window above the door, which had been removed at some point over the years. She was determined to reinstate it during the renovation.

"One of my close friends is a stained-glass artist and together we designed a new window that was appropriate for the home. That moment of it being installed coincided with the day that everything came together and it finally looked like a house you could live in. That moment was very emotional."

One part of the home that's witnessed the comings and goings of generations of residents is the staircase. The architectural masterpiece has been cleaned up, but it's otherwise untouched from its original state. Charmingly, you can still see traces of wear on the treads, the culmination of over a century of foot traffic.

Other than the usual complexities that come with renovating a historic home, the project went relatively smoothly. "There weren’t really any surprises," Betsy shrugs. "Part of the reason I do what I do for a living is because I can anticipate those surprises, so we didn’t have any big dramatic moments."

Located just off the hallway via pocket doors is the living room, which was historically the parlour. Sash windows line the bay, while crisp white walls allow the space's period architecture to take centre stage.

Betsy was able to save some of the home's original wood flooring and refinish it, though oak replacement boards were used to patch up damaged areas. Strangely, the house was originally fitted out with simple strip-wood flooring, somewhat at odds with its high-society origins. 

"I always think it’s funny because it seems like they ran out of money when it came to flooring. It would be very typical to see an inlaid design, but they’re very average," laughs Betsy.

The lounge's slate fireplace with its intricate engraved surround is a focal point of the room once more, its tarnished finish imparting character to the space.

While there's not much about the renovation she'd change, Betsy wishes she'd preserved more areas of wear in the home: "I regret painting the things that I did. I miss the patina of those plaster areas on the walls that had to be repaired. I think showing as much of that as you can is really rewarding in the long run," she advises. "I have lots of areas where the woodwork is chipped, but I don’t want to change it. We call it earned patina."

From the living room, a set of pocket doors opens up the space to the formal dining room behind it. Like her predecessors, Betsy holds dinner parties here, continuing the legacy of good food and conversation.

Despite being the most used room in her house, Betsy has an ambivalent relationship with her dining room. "I love my dining room and I hate my dining room. I love the light, the beautiful built-ins and the woodwork... but it’s also the room that from an interior design perspective I’ve done the least to, so it doesn’t really have good style, but it has great bones."

Among the dining room's standout features are the incredible stained-glass panels at the rear of the space, which glisten with aquamarine, coral and emerald-green hues.

Handling the fabric of a historic home can be intimidating, especially one with exquisite original features like the McClain House. For renovators who aren't versed in the best practices of historic preservation, Betsy recommends hiring a consultant: "A lot of people don't realise it can be affordable and it can help a lot to have someone that's fully comfortable in this world providing insight and an oversight with contractors – it doesn’t have to be a big line item in your budget, but it can bring a lot of reassurance."

The kitchen is situated at the back of the house. When Betsy refinanced after the initial construction loan was paid off, she used $30,000 (£23.8k) in equity to carry out a custom kitchen renovation. 

Betsy was adamant about her plans for the kitchen, even when they proved divisive. "The kitchen is the exact floor plan that it was when the house was built. That was not a popular decision. I had a lot of contractors suggesting that I make modifications to accommodate a more 'modern' kitchen."

To add more storage while maintaining the original layout, Betsy had custom cabinetry recessed into the wall cavity, borrowing a few inches from the adjacent butler's pantry.

Of the $30,000 (£23.8k) kitchen remodel budget, $20,000 (£15.9k) was spent on cabinetry. "One piece of cabinetry from the butler’s pantry survived and I had that piece restored and it’s now a focal point," explains Betsy.

Another original element in the room is the stunning pressed tin ceiling with its elaborate relief design. Betsy revived the tiles with a metal brush head to dislodge any debris and loose material before covering the surface with a primer.

The butler's pantry is still in situ and used for storage, however, it's on Betsy's list of future renovation projects.

A small powder room completes the ground floor. Renovated with whimsical wallpaper and reclaimed fixtures, the small space makes a big impact. "I picked the wallpaper in the half bathroom because it reminds me of driving through Ohio in the spring when the first trees turn green," Betsy revealed. 

The vanity, which had been retrofitted with a scalloped sink bowl by the home's previous owners, was one of the few pieces of furniture left in the property. Betsy's mum refinished the unit, a project that cost just $75 (£59) in supplies. The result is a completely unique design that's both a statement feature and complements the period of the house.

Upstairs on the first floor, the master bedroom spans the entire width of the home. Large windows draw light into the space, while teal curtains offer an optional room divider to segment the sleeping nook. 

Elsewhere on the same floor is a second bedroom, as well as a combined laundry and closet room. Up on the home's second floor, there are three further rooms that were historically used as bedrooms. Betsy is still renovating this level but plans to use one space as an office, another as a bedroom and the third as a flexible bedroom and storage space.

One of the master bedroom's most interesting elements is the wall of faded wallpaper fragments that Betsy chose to leave exposed, a decision that was made elsewhere in the home too. The feature offers a fascinating window to the past and an insight into the design tastes of the home's former owners.

"Any house of this age you can almost guarantee there’s layers and layers of wallpaper and I absolutely adore wallpaper," says Betsy. "In the bedroom, there was a wall that was relatively intact that had probably 12 layers on it and I kept that and it’s sort of a focal point of the front master bedroom."

Betsy's love affair with wallpaper continues in the main bathroom on the first floor. "The paper in the bathroom upstairs is just wild and goofy. I love that throughout history, people have used wallpaper to really go nuts."

Betsy didn't source historic reproductions for the new wallpaper she installed. "Wallpaper is one of those things that’s so ephemeral; it’s meant to be something that changes with the times," she explains. "If I’d had something really significant I would’ve restored it, but everything was falling down. So I picked things that speak to me."

As well as a bathtub, the bathroom has a walk-in shower lined in white metro tiles. A small amount of square footage was taken from the rear bedroom to make room for the shower, the only minor change Betsy made to the floor plan. 

While Betsy was able to keep her project within budget, it's no secret that renovating an old home can come with unanticipated costs. For those seeking financial assistance for their projects, she has some words of advice: "In the US, unlike big banks, local banks and credit unions have the ability to tailor their lending to the person and the project and I think a lot of people don’t know that. I would not have my house without my local banker Troy."

While the McClain House takes up almost all of its lot, Betsy also acquired the vacant lot next door, which serves as her backyard. Previously the location of another historic home that was demolished in the 1990s or early 2000s, she describes it as a "sad missing tooth in the streetscape". Betsy fenced the lot in 2024 and installed a retaining wall, however, landscaping this area is one of her upcoming jobs.

Curiously, the land came with a Victorian-era tiny house, which was moved to the site by the previous owners who saved it from demolition. "To everyone’s disappointment today it’s a shed... I would love to do something more exciting with it someday," says Betsy.

The renovation and the publicity it garnered from the media signalled some life changes for Betsy. In 2024, she gave up her full-time job to offer her services as a preservation consultant. She's worked on half a dozen projects so far, advising on best practices for restoring historic spaces.

"I’m simply there to provide guidance, take a second look at things and give my professional opinion on what next steps could be without there being any influence or sway over those decisions," she says.

She's also an instructor for her local college's building restoration and preservation programme, guiding the next generation of preservationists.

A custodian of the McClain House's history, Betsy's renovation of this magnificent old home is a triumph. Not only has she reversed the fortunes of the formerly endangered property, but she's done so while celebrating its storied past and extraordinary architecture.

While work on the property is still ongoing, Betsy has her eye on her next venture. She's in the early stages of investigating a historic commercial site, which could be her new project. "There’s so many small businesses that are the heartbeat of a small city like Wheeling, and often the most enchanting are in historic buildings, so maybe that will be my next move," she reveals.

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