Valley View Cottage: How We Designed, Launched, and Sold a Virginia Wine Country STR for a $70K Appraisal Increase

A behind-the-scenes look at Valley View Cottage, Keenan & Co.‘s first short-term rental in Purcellville, Virginia. From septic permits to five-star reviews to a $100K appraisal increase, here’s how investment-driven design made it work.

Purcellville, Virginia | wine country getaway

short-term rental & property resale

There is something about the Blue Ridge Mountains that slows everything down. The rolling hills, the vineyard rows, the kind of quiet that reminds you why you left the city in the first place. When we purchased this property in Purcellville, Virginia, that feeling was exactly what we set out to create.

Valley View Cottage was our first short-term rental and one of the most formative projects in the Keenan & Co. story.

The Brief

The property had been largely untouched for a decade on the outside and unlived in for two years on the inside. It had good bones, a lot of potential, and a lot of work ahead of us. Our goal was to create a calm, unhurried retreat for couples and families looking to explore Northern Virginia’s wine country without sacrificing comfort. Before a single piece of furniture was sourced, the property needed to be brought back to life from the outside in.

The Challenge

The most significant undertaking was the septic system. It had fallen off county record entirely and needed to be not only located and documented but brought up to current permit standards. Working with the local health department is its own process and it requires patience, flexibility, and a budget that accounts for the unexpected. Ours did, and that made all the difference.

Beyond the septic, we replaced the roof, which meant saying goodbye to two skylights in the upstairs bedrooms that had been turning them into greenhouses every summer afternoon. A small loss in charm, a significant gain in livability. The mudroom door, original to the 1950s construction, was replaced along with several broken windows. These were not glamorous fixes but they were the ones that made everything else possible.

The design challenge came in the form of a gift. We inherited a collection of beautiful hardwood furniture pieces that had not been part of the original plan. With the budget recalibrated after the septic work, we made the decision to lean into them rather than around them. The dining room and primary bedroom became anchored by these pieces.

The Approach

Before we ever closed on this property, we had a detailed investment plan with line items, contingencies, and a buffer built in specifically for surprises. That buffer is not a sign of pessimism. It is the difference between a project that stalls and one that finishes.

The design direction was breezy farmhouse with a palette pulled directly from the landscape outside: soft blues, sage greens, warm creams, and grounded taupes. We wanted guests to feel like the inside of the home was a continuation of what they drove through to get there.

Sourcing was intentional and layered. Antique shops, secondhand stores, Etsy, and Facebook Marketplace gave us the character pieces with history. Wayfair, Amazon, and Target filled in the functional gaps. We prioritized materials built to last, hardwood, performance fabrics, solid construction, over anything that would show wear by the second season. The inherited pieces fit that standard perfectly.

The Work

Please use the links below to preview detailed story of each part of the process process.

Before

During

After

You can view the account on Instagram here.

The Result

Valley View Cottage opened going into the slower winter months, which meant our first season was a quiet one. Even so, we were booking peak months from May through October before spring arrived. Every review that came in was five stars.

What grew alongside the bookings was something we had not fully anticipated: community. We built genuine relationships and collaborations with local businesses woven into the wine country landscape around us. The property developed its own social presence and became part of a larger story about that corner of Virginia.

After the new year, we made the decision to sell. The logistics of operating a property at that distance, combined with some personal factors, pointed us toward closing this chapter. It was not an easy decision. Valley View Cottage was a special place, and it felt right that a family would be the ones to call it home every day, not just on long weekends.

In 10 months the appraised value had increased by $70,000.

The Takeaway

This property is proof of something become back to with every project: good design tells the story of a space, and when a space has a story, everything performs better. Guest reviews. Nightly rates. Social reach. And when the time comes, resale value.

Your home should work as hard as you do. Valley View Cottage did exactly that.