Welcome to Pauline Manor.
Hi! We’re Mike and Lynsey Kmetz, the current owners of Pauline Manor. We have two daughters, Sam and Taylor, and a small herd of dachshunds — Leia, Ahsoka, Chewie, Lando, and Fiona.
Mike runs Elite Management of Florida, a property management company, and also owns a full-service printing business. I’m Lynsey, Managing Director of a digital marketing agency called Apogee, which was originally based in Atlanta, Georgia.
In the summer of 2022, Mike was browsing Zillow for potential rental properties. Amused but curious about one listing, he called me over, probably expecting me to tell him he’d lost his mind. Instead, I fell instantly in love and said, “I can see living out the rest of my days there.”
That simple moment kicked off a six-month rollercoaster of highs, lows, and everything in between on our way to buying the home that would become Pauline Manor.
Due to the home being in a state of mid-construction on a lot of projects, traditional financing was not an option. It took six months, a lot of prayers, and help from a few family members to make our crazy idea of purchasing this property a reality. Despite many sleepless nights, a few arguments, and a significant amount of tears, we know that it was all worth it to become a piece of this home's story.
In the first 90 days, we used a dumpster to remove old wood and metal from the property, pulled up the hardwood and tile to reveal the original hardwood floors, had the downstairs sheetrock completely redone, painted the entire interior of the house, a fence installed for the pups, removed the siding from the second story and wrapped with protective cover, turned the work shed into a workshop, installed an additional wall in the master bathroom, removed an exterior wall from the master bedroom, removed the fish tanks from the greenhouse, had a new driveway poured, and had a new roof installed.
The second year brought in a large garden, a thriving greenhouse, numerous thrifted antiques that make you feel like you are stepping back in time with themed guest rooms, and a newfound love of Sourdough which led to Lynsey starting her own little Microbakery to share her baked goods with loved ones.
We are excited to continue to share all of the details of this journey and we have been overjoyed at the support from our friends and family as we have embarked on this crazy idea. We were not even looking to move when we saw that listing on Zillow, very happy with our home where we raised our girls and built our life as a family... but there was just something about this home that made us change our course... and in turn, changed our life.
The journey with this old house has changed the way we live in ways I never expected. What started as a simple restoration project has turned into something much deeper, something I now think of as a Modern Victorian lifestyle. It is a return to slower, more intentional living, but without giving up the comforts and conveniences of the modern world.
For me, Modern Victorian living is about bringing purpose and beauty into the everyday. It is about filling our home with things that tell a story, learning traditional skills that connect us to the past, and finding a quiet kind of joy in the making and the doing. It is baking bread in the morning, tending the garden in the afternoon, and preserving the season’s bounty for the future ahead. It is about making do with what we have, buying thoughtfully, and creating a home that feels alive with warmth and history.
This old house has reminded me that progress does not have to mean constant motion. Sometimes it looks like slowing down, rolling up your sleeves, and choosing to build a life that you never want a vacation from.
We would love to connect with you on Instagram and Facebook for updates and a behind-the-scenes look at all of the goings on around Pauline Manor. We are so happy that you are here.