Historic home restored

Joe and Kelli Carvalho have transformed a century-old house in the Ocala Historic District from a trash ridden eyesore and suspected haven for drug use to a tidy part-time family home and AirbnB property.

The single story, three-bedroom, one-bath, 1,100-square-foot, wooden bungalow-style house at 719 SE 2nd St. has undergone major changes since the Carvalhos purchased it in March of 2019.

“Joe’s done a beautiful job,” said neighbor Sheri Taylor, who has lived in a circa-1929 house within view of the Carvalho’s residence since 2004.

Taylor claimed that prior to the Carvalhos acquiring the property, the site was “neglected (and) in pretty bad shape” with what she described as transients occasionally milling around the property or sleeping on the porch.

Joe Carvalho spent six months in an intensive cleanup and restoration project shortly after he and his wife purchased the house. He said they found trash of all kinds around the residence, including possible drug paraphernalia.

“It took a crew of four people a week to haul the trash away,” said Carvalho, 41, a native of Toronto, Canada.

A check of City of Ocala Code Enforcement records revealed a January 2019 letter from the Code Enforcement Division that refers to violations for junk and debris, and overgrowth. A 2016 report uses the words “rooming/boarding house” in connection with the property. The 2019 letter details three liens in the amounts of $162.44, $13,682.64 and $175.71 against the property.

Carvalho said the total for the house purchase, payment of liens and cost of restoration was “in excess of $100,000.”

The Carvalho family’s journey to the home can be traced back to 2000, when Kelli, a Marion County native, and Joe first met in Belize while both were serving as volunteer missionaries with the Catholic outreach, the Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLTS). They married in 2007 and moved into a circa-1890s home in the 200 block of Southeast Sanchez Avenue, which is in sight of the house on 2nd Street.

The Carvalhos were aware of unusual activity at the 2nd Street house over time, but the situation boiled over in 2019 when their Sanchez Avenue home was burglarized. A neighbor’s surveillance video allowed Joe and Kelli to observe the thief run into the 2nd Street house carrying items stolen from the other residence. They contacted police and some materials were found in the 2nd Street house.

The couple began to follow the situation with a desire to rescue the house from its blight and it wasn’t long before an opportunity arose in which they could pay the liens and purchase the property through a third party.

The house was first built as “rustic” with no-frills construction, Joe Carvalho said. The home has three fireplaces. He said dark paneling that most likely was installed in the 1970s was removed and that the walls and floors are all the “original, local wood.” A bathroom was added some years ago.

The house was one of the stops on the 2022 Historic Ocala Preservation Society’s (HOPS) Heritage Home Tour on Dec. 17. The couple estimated that about 500 people toured the home, which was awarded third place for their Holiday Porch decorations at this year’s event.

Pamela Stafford with HOPS praised the work by the Carvalhos.

“I met Joe shortly after he purchased the house and it was in horrible condition. It looked like a ‘lost cause’ for rehabilitation,” Stafford wrote in an email. “He and Kelli have done an amazing job of bringing the house back to life and becoming a home. Vision, recycling, repurposing and time have resulted in a showcase for the neighborhood.”

The couple’s three children, Gabriella, 12; Elijah, 10; and Tobias, 7, all seem to enjoy living in the bungalow.

Since purchasing the house and completing the restoration with modern appliances, the family has spent three months a year in Ocala and nine months in Benque Viejo Del Carmen in Belize, where Joe and Kelli continue their missionary work at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel parish.

Kelli is a high school biology teacher in Belize and Joe is a construction supervisor currently overseeing the building of a junior college. The couples’ housing is provided in Belize and when they are away, their Ocala home is rented as an AirbnB.

Meanwhile, Joe Carvalho said, in a note related to their missionary work, the generous nature of the people of Ocala showed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when they were involved in a food drive for people in the area of Belize in which they do their missionary work. Six pallets of food were sent from here and the freight cost was mostly donated.

“The donations had a huge impact on the people in our area,” he said.