People may put their passions to work by rescuing dogs or dolphins. Kym Petrie rescues houses … after tearing them down to their studs and rebuilding them from the floor up.

“My team, we consider ourselves to be home rescuers. We are passionate about doing this for the neighborhoods, to bring these great structures back to life,” Petrie says.

During her career in marketing, community development and branding, Petrie and her family also have restored about two dozen houses – sometimes out of necessity.

She started renovating houses with her brother more than three decades ago. Raised in Toronto, she moved closer to him in Northern Ontario after her first son was born.

“I needed to find a really great house in a really great neighborhood, which of course wasn't going to happen. So, I found a bad house in a really great neighborhood. It had good bones, but it needed more than TLC.”

Petrie had no experience in construction. But her brother, a general contractor, was willing to help her learn and bring his buddies along for the price of a hot meal.

“If I could feed these young guys, I could get their help three or four nights a week and maybe on the weekends. That's how I got into it,” she says.

Petrie’s sons are grown now. One is in the U.S. Army. The other – a former speed skater – is a carpenter in Charleston. They still tease their mom about the houses she’s renovated.

“My husband and our boys laugh about it. While I see the beauty in what a house can be, most people need some convincing,” she says.

Petrie says reactions are rarely, “Wow, this is beautiful,” and more often, “Are you kidding me?”

She was working with the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund Corp. when she met her husband, Ron. They married and had just finished renovating a house together when Petrie’s older son left home to train with Canada’s Olympic skating team.

“There was just no reason for us to be in a beautiful but unbelievably cold place,” Petrie says.

Ron discovered Greenville on a business trip. “We just fell in love with the city,” Petrie says. The couple moved south with their younger son 15 years ago.

Petrie continued her work in community development – and houses.

At first, she was known around town as “that lady builder.” But in 2020, she founded her renovation company, Goin’ South. And last month, she and her team were featured on an episode of “In With The Old” on Chip and Joanna Gaines’ Magnolia network.

“It was frightening and scary, and stressful and fabulous,” Petrie says of the television experience.

The episode featured Petrie and her team’s work on a brick home on Buist Avenue near downtown Greenville. Built in 1943, the two-story Cape Cod-style house had been vacant for a decade. A preservationist had begun an attempt to restore it to its original state, painstakingly chipping away layers of paint, but the home had fallen into extreme disrepair.

“There is something magical about the heart of a preservationist. I have great respect for their craft, but preservation – in the strict sense of the word – is not my calling.” Petrie says.

Goin’ South bought the house on Buist in 2021.

Not everything could be preserved. “We kept as much of the history of the house as we could, honoring what that house is, playing up the great character, but also making it livable,” Petrie says.

Petrie and her team of artisans and tradespeople put on a new roof and updated windows, plumbing, electrical, cabinets and appliances. They refinished the original floors and kept the arched doorways. They added a mudroom and first-floor primary suite with space for a king-sized bed, closets and an ensuite bath; an open kitchen; living room; sunroom; two bedrooms and a bathroom on the second floor; and an eclectic basement with artful, floating steel steps.

Magnolia’s crew filmed “In With The Old” more like a documentary, without the faux drama of some “reality” shows.

“They wanted to tell the story of the house renovation and feature our community and the artisans working on the project. That was why we were so interested in doing it,” Petrie says.

“Filming that episode was a love letter to Greenville for us. It was as much about the trades and the city as it was about the house.”

Petrie says she is as proud of the team she has built as the houses she has worked on. Stonemasons, carpenters, electricians, plumbers, painters, tile installers, the demolition crew.

“I spend more time with them than I spend with my family,” she says.

When starting a project, Petrie keeps the original wood floors and emphasizes the mechanical systems. “Good mechanicals lead to good design. If you don't have great mechanicals, your house doesn't operate well. It doesn't matter how pretty it is,” she says.

Goin’ South installs two washer/dryer units in each home, along with cabinets, closets, storage and pantries. “I want to use every inch of space in a smart way,” Petrie says.

Not everything has to be expensive. “There are always great architectural finds to be had,” she says. “Local businesses sell quality building supplies at discounted prices. I love antique stores, consignment shops, Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist.”

Though Petrie prefers to leave the structure of a house intact, the team made an addition to a home on West Avondale Drive, then flipped the design so that the living areas are on one end and the bedrooms are on the other.

“I like an open floor plan. We entertain. So, at our house, one whole side is a kitchen,” says Petrie, who lives in a home she and her husband renovated on Augusta Street.

“It’s livability … trying to keep the bones as it was built but making it modern for modern families. That's what we do,” she says.

Houses don’t have expiration dates, Petrie says. “You have to look a little bit deeper into all of the good stuff that's lying just underneath.”

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Bringing Homes Back To Life Is Kym Petrie's Passion