- When Darrell and Paula Borders inherited the old Haines Farm, with its Italianate-style home in the heart of Jay County, they had two choices:
"We could either restore the house or bulldoze it," said Paula, a science teacher at South Adams Junior/Senior High School in nearby Berne.

Paula grew up in the two-story, brick home. Her mother and father had died in it. And though she had not lived there for years, her heart remained.


"They said we'd just be pouring money down a hole," added Paula. "It probably would have been cheaper to tear it down and build something new. But I couldn't do it. This place has so much soul. It became of labor of love for us. A healing process."
So, the couple, who had been living in nearby Portland, went about restoring the 1884 home to its original grandeur - touted at the time as "among the largest and best-constructed farmhouses in this part of the state," according to one report.
"It was Paula's idea to make it a bed and breakfast," said Darrell, her husband of 31 years.
The home contains 75,000 bricks, each fired at an onsite kiln from native clay shoveled from the 400 acres of land originally owned by James Haines.
The style epitomizes Italianate architecture of the mid-1880s, and there are several similar structures throughout Jay and Adams counties in eastern Indiana, about a 2½-hour drive from downtown Cincinnati. Landscaped gardens, a goldfish pond and 50 acres of woods surround the structure.
The Borderses did their best to replicate what once was - from the detailed turned posts on the front porch and the pressed-tin hoods over the windows to the plaster and lath walls and ceilings.
Guests at Hilltop Farm Bed and Breakfast have a choice of two rooms.
The main-floor bedroom has a four-poster king bed, the room upstairs has two doubles. There's a roomy bathroom with updated plumbing. There's no shower, but there is a deep, clawfoot tub with a shower attachment.
Guests have the run of the downstairs, which includes a family room with a TV and the kitchen for late-night snacks. "Our home is your home," says Paula.
Breakfast is casual, Paula fixes "just what's on hand." On this particular day, it was made-from-scratch Belgian waffles, sausage and fresh melon.
One of the reasons we came to Hilltop Farm was because it is dog-friendly and kid-friendly, too. A B&B opening its doors to a dog is about as rare as an Australian shepherd that won't herd sheep. And because the Borderses also run a working sheep farm here, we thought it would be interesting to see how our citified Aussie took to herding.
The couple has a couple of dogs, a Jack Russell terrier named Shrek and a border collie named Tina, and they welcomed our Aussie.
Ozzie also was welcomed into the sheep stall, but probably because he was unsure of the two donkeys that stood watch over the 35 sheep, he showed no interest in mixing it up with the wooly ones.
Within Jay and Adams counties, we found lots of cool places for dogs - and kids - to wander. The Loblolly Marsh Wetland Preserve near the Jay/Adams border is a 428-acre area being restored to original watershed conditions.
Weary from the hikes and the strolls in Berne, we headed back to the Hilltop for a good night's sleep.
For Ozzie, there would be no need to count sheep.