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given job. He attained the position of builder or general contractor in 1983, when he built his first house.
In 1985, McBride began his association with The Taunton Press and their publication, Fine Homebuilding magazine. McBride had been “hurt on a job, had time on my hands and they invited me to do some writing.” The article he submitted was about the first house he had built.
The house was noted for the difficult geometry of its roof. Subsequently, complex roof framing became one of McBride’s specialties.
The publishers were so pleased with the article, McBride began publishing two to three articles a year based on projects he was doing.
In 1991, the McBrides moved to Rappahannock.
Instead of building a house in Gid Brown Hollow, they bought a gorgeous house in Sperryville which dates back to the 1880’s. The house was remodeled in the 1940’s by Charlie Hawkins whose grandfather had built the Old Victorian after the Civil War.
Hawkins came from a long line of Master Builders whose architecture shaped much of Rappahannock County.
A research project on the Hawkins ensued, and McBride published another article in Fine Homebuilding. With this article, McBride became a con1 tributing editor for the magazine, and without his knowledge, was laying the groundwork for the more ambitious book project later.
McBride has always had a great fondness for old houses and history. In New York, he worked on many Old Victorian houses. One of the most famous projects he worked on was the restoring of an “Octagon” house built in the 1860’s. The National Trust had bought the property.
Realizing the astronomical expense of the restoration, they deeded the estate over to
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