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This 1919 century home in west Akron needed some love. Its cream siding was stained with dirt, its landscaping was dead and its electrical and plumbing were out of date. But Aaron and McKayla Hale saw its potential as a rental that uplifts.
Finding good beyond the surface is what Aaron, a Bath native and a U.S. Navy and Army veteran, does. He lost his eyesight when an IED exploded during a tour in Afghanistan with the Explosive Ordnance Disposal unit. He later lost his hearing, and after cochlear implants, he can hear out of his left ear. As each challenge arose, he kept persisting.
“A friend of mine said, It’s only a disability when you let your limitations stop you,” he says. “So I found a way around my limitations.”
He married McKayla, a longtime family friend who had a crush on him, and they live with their 2-year-old twins and 10-year-old in Florida. Now, Aaron is focused on his passions: cooking and real estate. The Hales own the successful Extra Ordinary Delights online treat company, through which Aaron posts cooking TikTok videos, and got into real estate to reinvest their earnings for their retirements and kids. Aaron’s mom, Carol, still lives in Akron, so she scouts locations. They then buy and fix properties for rent, including a long-term rental in Green, a duplex in Highland Square and this 1,900-square-foot historical home in west Akron. Aaron finds purpose in helping out.
“We’re rehabbing homes that need a little TLC,” he says. “We’re putting some sort of value back into my hometown, which I absolutely love.”
The Hales bought this home in 2018 and transformed it into an affordable family Airbnb over nine months. They added it to Airbnb’s Frontline program that offers housing to COVID-19 first responders at a deep discount.
“I truly enjoy it,” Aaron says. “My mother and McKayla are very creative at turning an unloved home into something really special. I’m more of the numbers guy. I make sure it’s within the budget.”
The goal was to maintain the Dutch colonial’s 1919 charm while adding modern amenities and style. McKayla and Carol kept historic features like crown molding, 12-inch-wide baseboards and built-ins.
“They don’t do this in homes anymore — this beautiful woodwork. It’s really sturdy hardwood,” McKayla says. “We wanted to keep these features because it is original to the house.”
The wide array of paint colors on the walls and ceilings didn’t match, while natural wood features darkened it.
They brightened the house by painting the woodwork, ceilings and most of the walls in whites and neutrals and redoing the wooden stairs in white and gray, using a distressing tool to add a weathered texture.
“I really like the clean look that white, black, gray offers,” McKayla says. “You can add splashes of color … and it kind of modernizes the feel of the house.”
While much of the project was do it yourself, they enlisted contractors to do technical upgrades, including the electrical, plumbing and creating a breakfast nook. The kitchen got a full remodel with new stainless-steel appliances, white-and-gray marbled granite countertops, soft-close gray KraftMaid cabinets, a herringbone tile backsplash, a coiled faucet, a sink and a pendant light.
Upcycled pieces of furniture, largely from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore, add color pops, including a living room console that McKayla repainted robin’s egg blue and added new black knob hardware to, and dining room chairs that she repainted with chalk paint and reupholstered in a white chevron fabric.
“With a bit of paint and imagination, you can make older pieces brand new again. That’s something Aaron’s mom and I both really enjoy doing,” says McKayla. But they kept the sunroom furniture as natural wood to accentuate the sunny warmth that streams in through the many windows.
For more personality, she decorated with blue paintings, often in gold frames, and local art, such as an Akron Civic Theatre marquee print and a stunning Don Drumm butterfly cookbook holder.
There was only one bathroom, so they hired a contractor to convert an upstairs bedroom into a bathroom. While they added a sliding glass door shower with a rainfall showerhead, a white double sliding barn door vanity with black hardware by Knox Restoration sets a modern rustic tone for the bathroom, and a creamy brocade wallpaper from Akron-based January Paint & Wallpaper adds interest to a closet interior.
They worked their crafty magic in the bedrooms by painting desks cream or navy, adding white shiplap paneling to an attic bedroom and painting a lattice baby gate gray to hang as a deconstructed headboard in one room.
To match their neutral color palette, they had house painters redo the siding in a deep charcoal, Sherwin-Williams Iron Ore, and brick and other features in a contrasting white.
“It gives it a modern touch,” McKayla says. “It’s amazing how far it’s come.”
The Hales still live in Florida but are looking to live in Akron during the summers. For Aaron, fixing up houses in his hometown has been fulfilling, and he’s excited to continue the journey.
“It’s something that’s fun and rewarding,” he says. “It’s also a way to give back to our community.”
