thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. [ crowd cheering ] >> an underwater strange inheritance. >> we've had this in the family since 1899. >> their world's an oyster. >> do you want to try and shuck >> i would. it's all about the shuck. >> but their biz is belly-up. >> they pretty much said this oyster-planting business is over. >> they want to revive it. >> a couple drinks make anything sound good. >> so, will they sink... >> we looked at our debt for the first time, like, "whoa. it's, like, $350,000". >> ...or float? >> okay, here we go. come to mama. ♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, in virginia, driving along the chesapeake bay.

isn't it beautiful? i'm on my way to the town of topping to hear all about a strange inheritance that was literally stuck in mud. >> my brother billy and i inherited our father's oyster biz, which his father started farming in 1899. >> we didn't want them. the business was dead. hoping we could bring it back to life. >> hey, guys, i'm jamie. >> hey. i'm travis. this is my cousin ryan. >> nice to meet you. >> how are you? it's absolutely gorgeous here. before i crack open the croxton family story, you got to know a thing or two about oysters, which -- raw, baked, or fried -- have been a part of the north american seafood diet for thousands of years. i get the scoop from tommy leggett, a marine scientist and longtime commercial fisherman. so, were they always so popular? i mean, oysters are all the rage. is that sudden? >> no, no, no. native americans have been

eating oysters forever, all around the chesapeake bay. >> tommy tells me oysters were not a delicacy back then, but an everyday meal. >> when they finished eating them, whether they were raw or roasted or on a fire, they tossed the shells. and so you can find these old fossil shell piles from 1,000 years ago. >> oyster harvesting becomes a big business in the chesapeake bay -- more than 14 million bushels a year by the 1880s. the supply seems endless. >> it was a wild commodity that you would just go out and take, and there weren't a whole lot of regulations on it. so it created this leasing structure where the state went out and carved it up into real estate. >> in 1899, dirt farmer james croxton, grandfather of billy and jimmy and great-grandfather to ryan and travis, gets in on the new underwater real estate, leasing two acres from the commonwealth of virginia. >> when he got into the

oystering, that was to supplement his income in the winter. >> james' plots are located at the mouth of the rappahannock river, where it meets the chesapeake bay. each year, he and other oyster farmers are allowed to harvest baby oysters from reefs in the bay's public waters and plant them in the muddy bottom on their plots. >> he planted oysters on the bottom. so the bushels are there, and you wait 2 1/2, 3 years to retrieve them. and you hope that they matured and they all lived. >> croxton successfully farms oysters for more than half a century, then passes away in 1961 at age 85, leaving his oyster bed leases to his son bill, jimmy and billy's father. over the years, bill croxton takes on more bed leases, expanding operations to 200 acres and putting a name to the business, the rappahannock

river oyster company. he harvests about 7,000 bushels a year and sells to grocery stores, shuck houses, even the campbell's soup company. >> we really loved selling the oysters that ended up with campbell's soup because they wanted a small oyster, so we didn't have to leave them overboard as long. >> so it lessened the risk. >> but by the 1980s, decades of pollution and overfishing have taken a huge toll on harvest numbers -- less than 2 million bushels in the chesapeake bay in 1985, a mere fraction of the 14 million at the turn of the century. what happened? >> we took too many oysters, it got out of hand. >> you kill a whole ecosystem. >> that's what we did in the chesapeake bay and up and down the east coast. >> the croxton brothers say their father's ledgers tell the story of the oyster harvest decline, year after disappointing year. were there any significant losses? >> yeah, there's one that is

really sad. it's "total loss". he lost $100,000, which had accumulated over the years. it was a sad, sad experience. for about a week, he'd come to dinner, but he couldn't eat. >> their father dissolves the business but holds on to his 200 acres of oyster bed leases. did you want to take it on? >> it was sort of a dead business at the time. nobody was getting into it. but we had the oyster grounds, and we didn't want to give them up. >> bill croxton dies in 1991 at age 78 and leaves his sons, jimmy and billy, the rights to his 200 acres of oyster bed leases, along with a bit of advice. >> he pretty much said, "this oyster planting business is over". >> so for the next decade, the croxton brothers retain the rights to the oyster beds but let them lay dormant, paying about $200 a year to keep their names on them. in 2001, when it comes time to renew those leases for another 10 years or give them back to

the state, jimmy and billy decide to hand them down to their sons. >> ryan was actually at my house in richmond, and we were drinking beer. and my dad called and mentioned it i was, like, "hey, we should do this". >> just like that? >> just like that. well, it wasn't a lot of money, and it was, "hey, we've had this in the family since 1899". how can you let that go? >> had you ever thought about it before? >> no, but obviously, a couple drinks make anything sound good. >> one little detail -- the two cousins work in the banking industry and know zip about oysters, other than how to order them for lunch. [ splash ] >> they're about to have their hands full. that's them? >> here's a strange inheritance quiz question... the answer after the break.

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♪ >> only certain kinds of oysters typically produce valuable pearls. and by the way, they are not the edible kind. ♪ >> in 2001, cousins ryan and travis croxton take possession

of their strange inheritance -- 200 acres of oyster beds in and around the chesapeake bay in virginia. after their grandfather's oyster-harvesting operation dried up in the late 1980s, he warned his family not to get entangled in a dying business. but his grandsons ryan and travis, they weren't really listening. what'd you go to school for? >> english. >> women. [ laughter ] >> well done. >> not really. >> so, i have a master's in english, he has a master's in finance. us have, you know, marine backgrounds. i mean, we got into oysters as a way to kind of remember our grandfather, to kind of reconnect with our heritage. i don't think we got into it, necessarily, with this great business plan. it really was more of a passion project. >> at the time, both ryan and travis have steady, well-paying jobs at a bank in richmond. as they begin to talk about the possibility of dipping a toe back in the family oyster biz, their dads ask them to

reconsider. did your father tell you, "i want you to stay in banking and have a real job"? >> he definitely didn't tell us to go into oysters. and when we kind of broached the idea, they thought we were a little crazy. >> crazy because decades of overfishing, pollution, and disease all but wiped out the oyster population in the chesapeake bay. the cousins keep their day jobs, but in their spare time, begin researching the ins and out of 21st century oyster farming. >> we started finding people local in our community who were doing some really cool, innovative stuff. >> one of those people is the local oysterman and marine scientist tommy leggett, whom we met earlier. leggett and others have begun experimenting in the chesapeake with a cool technique for farming oysters called off-bottom aquaculture. >> that's where we put our oyster seed in a cage or in a bag or on a rack and the oysters are in one place and i know

where they are. >> unlike the old form of oyster farming, where young oysters were planted right on the bay bottom, the off-bottom technique allows for oysters to be suspended in cages or bags. the upside -- the oysters receive more oxygen and better nutrients when they're not buried in the mud. the family leases ryan and travis take over give them a place in the chesapeake waters to set out these newfangled oyster cages. but the rest of the operation doesn't come cheap. how much of your own money have you had to put into this venture from the beginning? >> all of it. we had to, basically, max out our credit cards. we looked at our debt for the first time, like, "whoa. it's, like, $350,000". >> ryan and travis' money buys cages, equipment, and their first crop of baby oysters. check out these little guys. so, what's here? >> we're at the point where we're growing them out in just a

protected environment. and they're super small. >> that's them? >> yeah, but this is huge relative to when we first got them. >> wait, wait, wait so, they start out microscopic, and they're already this big? >> yeah, so, when we get these as larvae, we can fit a million larvae in the palm of our hands. >> we tell our guys, "if you drop that, that's it. you're fired". >> wow. i bet. >> what's novel about the way we're doing it now is that we have a hatchery system. we're taking healthy oysters that are in the water, pulling them out, putting them into a tank and raising the water temperature up to 75 degrees, and we're creating millions of larvae. we can then take that larvae, and that's our next generation. so we don't go out and actually take from nature. we're actually, you know, propagating nature and putting it back. >> in march 2002, the croxton cousins re-seed their strange inheritance with their first crop of oysters using the off-bottom technique and re-launch the rappahannock oyster company name, started by their grandfather 40 years earlier.

it's one of the first large-scale aquaculture plots in the entire chesapeake bay. >> we kind of arrived at a time a whole lot of options, so it was open to some kind of a bold move. >> whether a bold move or a fool's errand, it'll take more than two years to see if their investment will grow into something they can sink their teeth into. >> when we first planted, we didn't really know. it was a bit of a nail-biter. >> this is the "up" button. >> okay, here we go. come to mama. >> here's another quiz question >> the answer when we return. every time a fund manager sells a stock

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>> oysters rockefeller are baked with a rich sauce of butter, green herbs, and breadcrumbs, while oysters bienville include parmesan cheese, sherry, and butter. ♪ >> it's the spring of 2004, and cousins ryan and travis croxton have begun farming oysters in 200 acres of the chesapeake bay in virginia that have been in the family for more than a century. having planted their first crop of oysters on the same spot their great-grandfather once farmed, they're waiting to see what their harvest will yield. they've kept their full-time banking jobs, so they're burning the candle at both ends. >> we worked probably 100 hours a week on oystering -- days, nights, weekends.

>> that's what it takes. >> yeah, that's what it takes. >> we were working ourselves to death. i mean, we would get home from work to start work. >> on top of their time commitment, ryan and travis have shelled out more than 350,000 clams, maxing out credit cards and draining savings accounts. they know everything depends on their first year's harvest. >> when we first planted, we really an equation of, like,t's temperature and salinity and things like that. it was a bit of a nail-biter. >> out on the waters of their strange inheritance, travis and ryan show me what it was like pulling up those first cages. >> well, we're here, attached to our long line. each line has hundreds of cages attached to it. >> hundreds? i'm going to let you, actually, draw the honor. and meet the oysters? >> yeah. this is the "up" button. >> okay, here we go. >> not too complicated. >> come to mama. ♪ wow! >> there they are. >> that is so awesome. >> that's good. you can let it stop right there.

>> the cousins were relieved to find that nearly all of their first crop of oysters had not only survived, but had grown to market size. now, what do you look for when you're looking for one that is ready? >> you're looking for something that's a nice, deep cup, so a nice, thick cup. >> more meat? >> yeah, and you want a little bit more of a rounded shell. you want to make sure that there's not a whole lot of lip you want to try and shuck one? >> i would. it's all about the shuck. >> i got a perfect one for you right here. >> you got a perfect one? okay. perfect is good. >> oh you went in through the lip. >> is that wrong? >> no, that's, like... >> that's pro. >> i've worked in restaurants. you have to make it look pretty, too. voilà. >> [ chuckles ] >> here you go, babe. >> that was impressive. >> suck it up. and were you both standing there, travis, when you tasted that first oyster? and how did it taste? >> we're, like, "i really hope you taste good". and they did, so sure enough. >> right from the beginning? >> oh, yeah. mean, as far as we knew. it's like if have your own garden, you're going to think everything that comes out of it is terrific.

>> the area where ryan and travis grow their first crop produces a sweet-tasting oyster, something they think chefs and oyster lovers might go wild for. but the cousins know these beauties are not ready to sell themselves. >> no one was serving chesapeake oysters at the time. it was not seen as a viable, good product. so we had to educate lots of chefs and the public on, "hey, no, this is a pristine oyster, if grown the correct way. >> so ryan and travis hustle to set up tastings with well-known seafood restaurants on the east coast. their search leads them to the world-renowned restaurant le bernardin in new york city. >> we called the reservation line, and they said, "oh, we'll take a message". but then, yeah, they reached back out to us. i guess they thought the story was cute. they called us back and invited us up for a sampling. >> but when it comes time to introduce their product to the restaurant's culinary director, they're, well, fish out of water. >> we went in there, we were

having a hard time shucking ourd of new to us, right? and so he's like, "let me show you how to do it". >> such rookies. >> yeah.>> what nerve! >> i know, right? >> their shucking skills might not have been up to par, but the oysters themselves, they're right on the money. >> he said, "that tastes great. how much are they?" "i have no idea". like, "what are you willing to pay?" >> well, 60 cents apiece, and they want 200 a week. for ryan and travis, it sounds like the start of something big. and they may be right. are you making a living? >> we're making 400 livings. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. marco...! polo! marco...! polo! marco...! polo! marco...! polo! marco...! polo! sì? marco...! polo! scusa? marco...! polo! ma io sono marco polo, ma playing "marco polo" with marco polo? surprising. ragazzini, io sono marco polo.

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♪ >> now back to "strange inheritance". ♪ >> it's the spring of 2004 when cousins ryan and travis croxton get their first order for oysters harvested from their

strange inheritance, 200 acres of beds in the chesapeake bay. ♪ manhattan's renowned le bernardin wants 200 oysters a week. that only adds up to 120 bucks, but it's a start. >> we just had this determination to showcase virginia oysters as the best of the best. >> over the next four years, the croxtons land more high-end restaurant clients and rent more oyster beds, growing their operation beyond the 200 acres passed down to them from their grandfather. in 2008, they bring in 7,000 bushels, one of the largest hauls in the entire chesapeake bay. two years later, they leave their full-time jobs to go all-in with their oysters. do you get along? >> who, us two? >> i mean, it's hard to be in business with a family member. what kind of stuff do you fight over?

>> everything. >> everything. >> but i think since we can't actually divorce because we are family, we have to talk it out, so it kind of works out. ♪ >> eventually, the cousins decide they don't just want to sell oysters to other people's restaurants -- they want some restaurants of their own. in 2011, they open merroir, an upscale tasting room overlooking the rappahannock river, where their great-grandfather got things started back in 1899. ooh! look at those babies! >> anything else i can get for you? >> not for now, but more of these. >> okay. enjoy. >> and the tasting room's just the beginning. starting in 2012, the cousins launch rappahannock, a full-service farm-to-table restaurant in richmond, virginia, along with more upscale oyster bars in washington, d.c., charleston, south carolina, and l.a. >> it's kind of funny -- the oystering was scary enough, and then restaurants was super scary. know, my dad was, like, telling my wife one time, "don't let him

do this thing. don't let him do this". but now he eats at the restaurant once a week. so it's fantastic. >> as we've moved into restaurants and it's become more of a way to interact with consumers, it's been just an awesome vehicle for getting direct feedback. >> will there be 10 restaurants, 20 restaurants? >> we're kind of taking it, so, like in the near future, we've got a couple more restaurants that we're opening, we're expanding the oyster farms, and then we'll kind of see where it goes. >> not only are the cousins now making a living in the oyster biz, but they're playing a major part in reviving a way of life on the chesapeake bay that was once written off as dead. >> i mean, the nice thing is we're making 400 livings, so that's kind of been the beauty of it. >> 400 people? >> throughout the restaurants and the oyster company. >> wow. the world is, indeed, their oyster. they're now farming 2,000 acres in the chesapeake bay and harvesting 21,000 bushels a it's a long way from the business their great-grandfather

and grandfather ran. what would your dad say? could he have ever dreamed? >> no. no. jimmy and i have both talked about -- just brings tears that he could see this. >> well, it just makes you feel good to see them succeed in business like this and work hard, taking over what their grandfather and great-grandfather started. i know my father would be so proud of them. that's probably more important than anything else. >> was he always in the back of? >> oh, always, yeah. >> what do you think your grandfather would say? >> he'd be pretty impressed, i think.i think he'd be happy. hopefully, he'd be really proud. >> as fast as ryan and travis are selling oysters these days, they might want to hire this guy. in june 2017, patrick mcmurray shucked 39 oysters in one minute in a contest against celebrity chef gordon ramsay -- good enough for the guinness book of world records. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching

"strange inheritance". and remember, you can't take it with you. ♪ oh, yeah. >> a classy french import... >> they tore it down, put it on a ship, sent it here. >> what? to jersey? >> new jersey, yes. >> ...stuffed with priceless antiques. >> that chandelier is spectacular. >> yes, it is. and this is my favorite piece in >> so, you come along... >> yes.mr. fix-it. >> ...collapse in a money pit? >> but it's not his inheritance. it's yours. >> yes. >> you could've stopped it. >> i could've... but i didn't. ♪ [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ]

>> i'm jamie colby, on my way to visit a grand, old french chateau. and you got to wonder -- what the heck is it doing right here in central new jersey? i'm sensing a story on many levels. >> i'm sandy perkins. when my mother passed away, she left a magnificent, strange inheritance, which almost sent us to the poorhouse. >> hi, sandy. i'm jamie. i meet sandy, a retired special-ed teacher, and her husband, tim, who taught shop class. they take me for a stroll through their grounds -- 100 acres of trees and sprawling hills on the outskirts of princeton. this is your inheritance. >> yes, it is. >> every house has at least one story. the perkins' strange inheritance is a collection of several. story number one starts in the

late 1800s, when american tycoons go traipsing around europe, scooping up relics of royalty and shipping them home to their mansions in america, says architect ronald berlin. >> it was important for them to be able to display their wealth. this was a very showy period. >> lot of gold leaf happening. >> right you are. >> one such family -- the vanderbilts. in manhattan, william henry, son of railroad tycoon cornelius, purchases an entire block along 5th avenue to build a legendary mansion dubbed "the triple palace". there are grand entryways, sconces, and fixtures dating back to the reign of french king louis xvi. story number two starts after world war ii, when yet another generation of well-heeled americans regard europe as the standard of refinement.

among them -- wall-street lawyer maurice smith and his wife, who fall in love with a century-old french chateau. >> they vacationed in the loire valley and bought this home and had it dismantled brick by brick. >> the smiths tore it down, put it on a ship, sent it here. >> what? to jersey? >> new jersey, yes. very unique. >> to make it a real jaw-dropper, the smiths fill it with architectural relics, salvaged from other grand mansions -- in particular lavish trimmings and even entire rooms from that fancy vanderbilt pad on 5th avenue, which, in the late 1940s, is razed to make way for high-rises. >> mrs. smith collected the materials at auctions, and they had interiors put in the house. they all go back to louis xvi-era. >> was sandy part of the smith family? >> no, not at all.

>> which brings us to story number three, featuring another new yorker from a well-to-do family named george garfield. >> george himself was a unique individual. he never went to college, but he got a law degree. he went to the new york city library and studied on his own and passed the bar exam. >> and he was a practicing lawyer for a number of years. >> and apparently a successful one, at that. one day in the early '60s, george shows up in princeton, looking for some prime acreage, and spies the grand chateau, which the smiths have put up for sale. george buys it. >> it was about 18 acres and this house, and then he bought two adjoining lots and then he bought five acres across the street. >> okay, so, i'm wondering -- how do these tales of wealth and opulence lead to our retired teacher's strange inheritance? that's the fourth story. it involves a working-class

family, an untimely death, and a chance encounter. sandy, this is your inheritance. oh, my goodness. and it begins after the break. >> which gilded age mansion remains the largest private home in america? the biltmore in north carolina, whitehall in florida, or hearst castle in california? the answer when we return. at the investments, which we can't control, and let's now look at our goals. in other words, we only want to take as much risk as is necessary to achieve our goals.

>> so, which gilded age mansion remains the largest private home in america? it's the biltmore estate in north carolina. >> it may not be the retirement home you'd expect for two high school teachers sandy and tim perkins -- a grand mansion on 100 acres outside princeton, new jersey. and the more you hear about it, the less likely it seems. an antique chateau dismantled in the 1940s and shipped from the french countryside across the atlantic by its new american owners. >> and they brought back the artisans to put it back together.. that's really cool. >> yes. >> not only does the wealthy wall street lawyer maurice smith put it back together, he fills it with historic interiors, salvaged from the vanderbilts' demolished gilded age palaces on

5th avenue. so this is not just chateau style? this is the real deal? the real. >> in the early '60s, the smiths sell the chateau to another prosperous new yorker named george garfield. and if you got all that, we can now tell you the story of how the chateau became sandy's strange inheritance. that one sat across the hudson from wall street and park avenue in working-class carteret, new jersey, hometown of sandy's mom, betty sebina. >> she grew up first-generation hungarian-american. she had to quit school when she was 16 years old because she needed the money. >> for two years, betty works as a housekeeper in manhattan. her employer -- a branch of the well-to-do garfield family. she then marries and has three children, including sandy. but in 1963, her husband dies of

a heart attack. >> she was very sad and kind of lost. >> and left with three children. >> yes. >> betty, in need of an estate lawyer, reaches out to her old employer, the garfields. they put her in touch with thei. he's 61 -- 21 years older than betty -- and yet, romance blossoms. betty and george marry and retire to george's majestic jersey estate in his french chateau, stuffed with antiques from the vanderbilt mansions. >> she liked it for the solitude. she said, "my heart sings". >> another person will secretly feel the same way. no, not sandy, but the man she gets engaged to in 1986 -- shop teacher tim perkins. >> he would come here to visite. he would say how he would redo everything.

>> sandy and tim actually hold their wedding here at the chateau. it was tim's idea. he wanted to have the wedding here. >> you think in the back of his mind from the very first time he saw this house, he thought to himself, "i'd love to live there"? >> perhaps, but he didn't tell me that. >> george dies in 1996. betty inherits the chateau. by now, the home's original glory is fading. french neoclassicism meet american '70s rec room. >> they were both elderly, and they really didn't keep it up. >> you don't buy an interior of a vanderbilt mansion and let it decay. >> i just think he probably had a different set of priorities. he would fix things as they broke, but it never really was done properly. >> she gets this house, which is huge and overwhelming for one person. >> we had encouraged her to sell it and move to a smaller home, but she just felt this was where she wanted to be.

>> so, betty remains here until her death at age 79 in 2000. that's when the house and the land it sits on are passed down to sandy and her siblings. >> i never thought about ever living here. it just never occurred to me. >> how about your brother and? did they dream of living here? >> forget that decades of neglect have transformed the grand chateau into an outdated, rundown, drafty, old place. it would take a fortune to fix plus, it sits on 100 acres a developer would kill for, so it's a no-brainer. sell it, and fast. >> but then, there's the family's retired shop teacher. so, you come along... >> yes...mr. fix-it. >> i never intended on buying the place. then we started thinking about >> you it.. >> well, i guess it was me. >> interesting. so, you thought this was a good opportunity.

>> a good investment, yes. it's a one unique kind of property. >> he's more optimistic. he considers the glass half full, and i consider the glass half empty. >> tim keeps pushing his d-i-y scheme. sandy finally surrenders. how did he convince you? >> he was very persistent. so, i kind of believed in his vision. >> he convinces you, but it's not his inheritance. it's yours. >> right, yes. >> what was it worth then? >> it was around $2 million, so we had to pay two-thirds of that. >> and you had it? >> not all of it. we sold our house, and then we both had stocks and bonds and other investments, so we sold everything. >> well, there goes the nest egg, right down a gilded age money pit. how did you sweet-talk sandy and have her not say, "this is not the life i chose"? >> she said that. >> here's another quiz question.

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>> it's "c", rhode island, with 12, including the vanderbilts' breakers, in newport. >> sandy and tim perkins have sold everything they own to buy out sandy's siblings and take sole ownership of their strange inheritance -- a french chateau here in new jersey, stuffed with gilded age antiques. >> they begin by camping out in a two-room guesthouse while they start sprucing up the main

house. >> how did you sweet-talk sandy into moving into a little two-room place and have her not say, "this is not the life i chose"? >> she said that... but i made a promise to her that if she was unhappy here that we would sell it and move on. >> tim figures the renovation will take, mm...six months. ha! >> we thought we could just tweak it a little bit and we could move in, but it wasn't that way. it was just a big, big project -- much bigger than i anticipated. >> it seems every small problem hides a really big one. switch out a switch plate, uncover a fire hazard. turn up the thermostat, break out the checkbook. >> the heating and air conditioning were gone, the plumbing was gone, the electrical -- everything. absolutely everything. >> yikes. >> we even had a section in one of the walls collapse, so we had to jack that side of the house up and rebuild the wall.

>> but with every costly surprise comes some unexpected delight. in the barn, tim finds carved plaster medallions, fancy iron work, and antique brass fixtures, all salvaged from the vanderbilt estate. in the dining room, an old, painted chandelier is coated in grime, but tim's sure some elbow grease will reveal a gilded treasure. and this pair of wrought-iron doors, which once hung at an entrance to the vanderbilt home in new york? crusted with layers of old paint. they're an irresistible project for tim. tim learns that fixing those antique pieces costs him more than money -- time, too. >> they all have to be hand-done. you can't do it with machines. we very carefully had to restore it. >> tim's feeling caught in a financial vise that gets tighter by the day. sandy suggests they take a break

and watch a movie, but the comedy they pick about a couple fixing up a dilapidated house hits too close to home. >> we were getting depressed, and we decided we would watch "the money pit". and as we're watching it, we look at each other and we go, "this is not funny". >> yes.s is us". >> is it time to sell and move on? truth is, they're finally admitting to themselves what they probably knew all along. this was never really an investment. it's their dream home. they also finally admit the job is too big for them, so they contact an architect -- the one we met earlier, ronald berlin. problem is, ron's blueprints don't make the job more doable, but less. they call for a new sunroom, fancy kitchen, remodeled guest house. tim's first thought -- "i love it!"

>> he saw the vision of what the it was very obvious he was the one. >> it's a grand vision, no doubt, but how in the name of louis xvi would the perkins pay for it? ron has an idea if tim and sandy are willing to take one more risk. >> i kind of made a deal with tim. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. ♪ ♪ we've always put safety first. ♪ ♪ and we always will. ♪ ♪ for people. ♪ ♪ for the future. ♪ ♪ and there has never been a summer when it's mattered more. wherever you go, summer safely. get zero percent apr financing for up to five years on select models and exclusive lease offers.

>> now back to "strange inheritance". >> tim perkins convinced his wife, sandy, it would be a good investment to hold on to her strange inheritance -- a century-old chateau shipped over from france to a sprawling expanse of the new jersey countryside. but what they hoped would be a for four years. >> once you start digging away, it got bigger and bigger and worse and worse.

>> they also get more and more attached to the place. their cash and sweat-equity wearing thin, they hope architect ron berlin can help. it's a good news/bad news kind of thing. they love his plans, but see no way to pay for them. but the architect has a clever idea. >> i kind of made a deal with tim that i would take on this project if he would be open to the possibility of permanently preserving the acreage. >> ron points them to a source that could solve their money problems -- the state of new jersey. >> new jersey has the densest population in the country -- as dense as india. we are really on the cutting edge of needing to get out there and preserve as much land as we can. >> linda mead runs the state's farmland preservation program, which gives landowners money if they agree to never develop their property. it's called a "conservation easement".

>> tim and sandy can pass this property on, they can sell the property, but whoever's here -- 20 years, 50 years, 100, 200 years from now -- will have to abide by the conservation easement. >> so, is it worth it? because, tim, you could have sold off some of those parcels and run. well, it wasn't about the money, it you know.f having the house and something very special and unique. >> it's an easy decision. the perkins keep their land and still get a seven-figure windfall. >> the conservation easement was appraised at over a million dollars.the perkins sold the eao d&r greenway land trust for something less than that, and for the difference, they received a tax deduction. >> now tim and sandy have enough cash to hold on to the estate and keep improving it. remember all those architectural relics salvaged from the vanderbilt mansions in new york? as they scrub through layers of grit and paint, those lost

treasures emerge. >> these doors came from the vanderbilt mansion on 5th avenue in new york city. >> the real vanderbilts? >> the real vanderbilt house. these were the side doors, so it's all handmade, and they're all installed with screws. they didn't have welding in those days. >> and there are more treasures inside. as if the outside of this house wasn't enough, the inside's taking my breath away.what's th? >> this room is called the "favor room", which was anderbiy received guests. it was located on the second floor of the house, and today it's our dining room. >> that chandelier is spectacular. >> yes, it is. and this is my favorite piece in the house. >> wow! >> and i just really love it, and i think it sets everything >> it's off. all the light that streams through is great. there are even more opulent treasures upstairs in the restored ballroom. for real? a ballroom?

>> yes. this room actually was pretty much the way you see it. we did move the wall sconces, which are all vanderbilt. >> and this fireplace? historic? >> yes, that also is vanderbilt with the mirror. this room pretty much was the way it was when we got it. >> why is the ballroom on the top floor? >> well, this is how they built the houses in europe at the time. the ballrooms or the large living rooms were on the second floor overlooking the backyard of the estate. >> may i? >> yes. >> oh, my goodness! this is all your land? >> yes, it is. >> unbelievable. this is sweet. after more than a decade of remodeling, it looks like a storybook ending. and sandy says tim is the author of it. >> everything that's done here, it's because he envisioned it. >> she's amazing. i say she's a keeper.

>> so, you married well. >> i did. >> of course, a tale of a french chateau needs a denouement. so, picture our retired schoolteachers living in their breathtaking home, hosting fancy parties and hobnobbing with princeton big-wigs. >> they love it, and they just think tim is amazing. they ask me to have parties. >> i bet. you know, he went from shop teacher to, like, man of the manor. >> right. he's always surprising me. >> tim has enough gilded age relics still in the barn to keep him rehabbing for years. so, he's always discovering more details about that original vanderbilt mansion on 5th avenue. seems the servants would roll out a red carpet to signal that mr. v. was present. nice touch, timothy. very classy. i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching

"strange inheritance". and remember... you can't take it with you. dagen: good morning, i'm dagen mcdowell in for maria bartiromo. monday july 6th, 6:00 a.m. eastern. coronavirus cases rising at alarming rate. world health organization saying cases hit all-time high topping 200,000 in just 24 hours this assigntists warn of an airborne spread of the virus. futures are looking to kick off the week with rally. strong gains across the board after u.s. markets posted big gains last week with the nasdaq closing tout week with another record high. the 2020 race getting a bit more crowded, question mark, kanye