When the Thomas family purchased the ancient Laurietta estate near Fayette, Mississippi, the home that came with it was not particularly appealing.

Years of neglect had reduced it to a shell of its former self, despite its construction in the 1820s and listing on the National Register of Historic Places.

After a three-year restoration, here’s how it appears now.

They were determined to do it correctly, so they hired a crane to hoist the 2,770-square-foot house onto supports, “where it sat for more than a year during repairs to its foundation and the installation of new insulation, plumbing, and electricity.”

Country Living reports that after electrical repairs, they removed and numbered each wallboard before reinstalling it. Scraping off decades of paint revealed original artistic elements, such as marbleized baseboards and imitation bird’s-eye maple panels, which a restoration painter was able to restore.”

An ancient diary from the 1800s recounted how the interiors had appeared at the time, and they tried to replicate as much of the white and wood palette as possible. They gently sanded the heartwood flooring, leaving scars and burn marks in their wake. “Those flaws are part of the story,” Tere Thomas explains. “Besides, Laurietta’s not a grand house.”

The couple converted Laurietta “from a dilapidated buzzard’s nest into a roost where their extended family could come together for weekends and holidays.”