The price is only a dollar, but the urban homesteading program isn't necessarily the city's most affordable housing.

"It's some of the most expensive housing we offer," Lynchburg housing director Les Faircloth said, chuckling. "That one dollar is just Dollar One.

"... If you have all the materials and can do all the work yourself, (then) all it costs you is a dollar."

The homesteading program offers aging, dilapidated houses - many of them once-gorgeous homes dating to the 1800s - to buyers who will fix them and live in them. The Lynchburg Redevelopment and Housing Authority charges only $1 for the homes. Rehabilitation costs are the real expense.

Delores Fowler, the first buyer approved for the year-old program, said she expects 1018 Wise St. to cost around $60,000. That includes new wiring, plumbing and a heating system for the 149-year-old structure, plus structural repairs that include restoring sagging brickwork and replacing the front porch.

She said that when finished, the Victorian home will be much like it was years ago, with high ceilings uncovered and the paneling that masked moldings and other details removed. There will be three bedrooms and two full baths. An addition on the back of the building, built during its time as a rooming house, will be replaced with a deck.

"Right now it looks rough but I see so much in it," said Fowler, who works at the health department and currently lives just three blocks from the house. "People say you're crazy but it's just something I feel like challenging."

The housing authority accepted Fowler's proposal to restore the house in May, but it wasn't until this month that her financing plan was approved. Last week the authority's commissioners accepted two more buyers pending approval of their financing plans.

Deputy director Ed McCann said the housing authority takes a deliberate approach to the program for a reason.

"We want to avoid someone getting three-quarters of the way through the renovation and running out of money," he said.

Other conditions for buying homesteading houses include approval from the city historic review board for exterior or major structural changes. Buyers have to finish renovations within three years and live in the house for five years.

Paul Kitchin, who submitted a renovation proposal in partnership with engineer and architect Sam Roskelley, said he'd had his eye on the small, Federal-style home at 911 Sixth St. for years.

"It could be a very nice little jewel," Kitchin said.

Known as the Phaup house, for builder William Phaup, the six-room, three-story brick building was built in 1818 on land bought from John Lynch. Kitchin and Roskelley estimate that restoring the Phaup house will probably cost around $30,000, with Kitchin doing most of the work himself and eventually living in the house.

"As much as possible, we're going to put it back to the way it was with the advantage of running water, which it wouldn't have had," Kitchin said.

Like Fowler's house, an addition on the back will be turned into a porch, and new wiring, heating and plumbing will be installed.

It's not the first house restoration for Fowler or Kitchen, and Kitchin worked on renovations to the Jones Memorial Library (now the Patrick Henry Institute) and the Academy of Music.

Faircloth said it's the sort of background the authority is looking for.

"There's a certain type of person who's attracted to these projects," he said. "... That's what urban homesteading is about - matching the house to the person."

Fowler said that though she won't be able to live on Wise Street until at least Christmas, a newly built house wasn't an option. "I just like old things. I like piddling," she said.

Kitchin said for him, there's satisfaction in saving buildings that would otherwise be torn down.

Faircloth said that's the goal of the homesteading program. Part of the housing authority's urban renewal mission, rather than its public housing initiatives, the homesteading program is a way to ward off the bulldozers.

"A premature or thoughtless demolition is an uncorrectable mistake," Faircloth said.

Kitchin echoed the sentiment: "None of these houses are too far gone. All of these houses are historic."

McCann said the program has attracted hundreds of inquiries from across the country and overseas. The housing authority has run advertisements in "Old House Journal" and "Preservation Trust" magazine, and Lynchburg bed and breakfast owner Tom Hughes posted information about the program on his web page.

"We got an e-mail from somebody in the Czech Republic," McCann said.

A woman from Detroit sent a $15 money order and said she'd take all the houses then available, McCann said. He returned it. "It was a little premature. She did not complete the application in all respects," he said.

So far, the widespread interest has resulted in only one contract, Fowler's, and the two pending proposals - Roskelley and Kitchin's, and one from a couple interested in 1000 Wise St. Several other buildings were removed from the homesteading program and transferred to agencies like the Lynchburg Historical Foundation for restoration.

Faircloth attributed the low approval rate to the newness of the program. As the authority continues to make adjustments, more proposals will be accepted, he said. Eventually, proposals to renovate houses for rental use or immediate resale may be accepted.

But for now, only prospective homeowners need apply.

On Friday, P.J. Kienast drove down from the Northern Neck to look at the homesteading houses.

"I think it's a wonderful opportunity," she said after touring several. "There's a lot of work to be done on them -"

She hesitated.

"But the price is right."