The Connection

May 19 was far from the first time Richard and Jane Elizabeth Braun of Fairfax have opened up their home to numerous guests.

The couple and their two sons entertain at their grand Georgian home with school functions, New Year’s parties and an annual Pirates and Mermaids pool party, complete with actors recreating the famous Disney “Pirates of the Caribbean” ride jail scene and non-costumed guests walking “the plank.”

“We like opening up this house because the house isn’t ours, we’re just sharing what

God shared with us,” said Richard.

“When you have bounty, you share it,” his wife Jane Elizabeth added.

Community members had the opportunity to share in some of that bounty, visiting the Braun’s property on Thursday, May 19 as part of the Clifton Fairfax Homes Tour.

THE 44TH ANNUAL HISTORIC TOUR also included a silent auction and book signing at the Clifton Presbyterian Church Acacia Masonic Lodge.

Each year, the Clifton Community Woman’s Club that organizes the event donates nearly all of the homes tour ticket sales to scholarships for local students, food banks and local, national and international charities.

Joane Neckel of Fairfax Station has been part of the homes tour for ten years. She welcomed guests into a dining room off the entryway in the Braun’s house, pointing out a 200-year-old French chandelier and an antique late 15th to early 16th-century French vestment table.

“People always come to these to get ideas,” for things to do in their own homes, Neckel said. “It’s fun to see the ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ as people come through.”

Sharon Gottlieb, whose more modern, Frank Lloyd Wright-esque home in Clifton was on the tour last year, said people are always interested in “seeing how other people live, how they decorate.”

Gottlieb is particularly impressed with how the Brauns mix old and new in their home. She also appreciates how the house feels “intimate despite the size.”

“She’s done so much to make it welcoming and warm,” Gottlieb said of Jane Elizabeth.

The main house was built in 1986 and they completed an addition five years ago. However, the kitchen features a backsplash built with Civil War-era brick and massive reclaimed wooden beams.

Underfoot throughout the house runs reclaimed random plank heart pine from West Virginia, Jane Elizabeth’s childhood home.

Behind the main house is a two-story stone cabin that’s said to have belonged to General George Washington’s half-brother Lawrence. It hasn’t been moved, Richard and Jane Elizabeth said.

When the family moved in, they said they had a pair of historians date it at around the 1740s -- pre-Revolutionary War.

Despite the serenity and splendor of the lush landscaped backyard (complete with edible blossoms) and detailing throughout the house, the Brauns dealt with homeowner’s headaches shortly after moving in, just like everyone else.

Maybe more so.

A massive flood in the basement, invading bugs and mice, and falling tables had Jane Elizabeth wanting to move out.

“I couldn’t take it,” she said. “We called it the Ten Plagues.”

WITH ALL THE HISTORY buried (figuratively) in the property, the Brauns decided there was truly something evil going on at a spiritual level.

They decided to exorcise the entire house, Richard said.

“It was definitely occupied by something,” said Jane Elizabeth.

Together, the family walked the four corners of the property and dedicated it to God, the couple said.

After that, things improved. A minor break here and there, but no more plagues. A different, more positive presence came over the house.

“We look at it as not really ours, on loan to us, on loan from God,” Jane Elizabeth said. “We receive nothing but blessings from that.”

This gratefulness is at the heart of the Braun’s openness and passion for entertaining many and large groups of people. They simply like to keep the house brimming.

“When they come here, they feel this peace,” Jane Elizabeth said. That is, as long as they wear a costume and play nice with the mermaids.