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By Christine Cooney, The House Designers Staff writer
Now that Bob and Lenore Ball are both retired, they decided it was time to build a second home on their family farm to allow for long, leisurely visits. They travel 650 miles from Missouri to visit their 428-acre family farm in Ohio. Founded in 1952, the farm is a "certified family forest” within the American Tree Farm System.
“We’ve known all along that we would continue living in Missouri after we retired but were willing to make the effort to drive to check up on the farm operation, so we needed a second home,” said Bob. The couple enjoys the conveniences of living in Missouri, but also loves spending time relaxing at their farm.
Lenore had purchased several house design magazines, but it wasn’t until she discovered online blueprints that she found the Lewisburg Ranch House Plan. “I looked at hundreds of house plans and kept coming back to this one,” said Lenore. “Everything we need is on one level and it’s a very efficient floor plan with a surprising amount of storage and room to expand.”
They purchased the plan with a walkout basement to ensure they would have extra living space as well as the materials list. “This was the most efficient plan that we looked at and it had tons of room and extra space,” said Bob, who had built a second bedroom and bath in the future space and had plumbing added to the basement. “The materials list with the plan was pretty incredible and accounted for every dimension.”
An old friend of the family put them in touch with contractor Rick Hogue of Rick Hogue Construction. “Rick has built hundreds of luxury homes and commercial projects, many of which were multi-million dollar projects,” Bob said. “Initially he was not overly excited about building from architectural plans because he always finds mistakes but he found our Lewisburg plans nearly perfect and was extremely impressed with the quality of the design.”
When it came time to design the interior of their home they went to Home Depot®. “We were so fortunate to work with an excellent kitchen designer from Home Depot® in Columbia,” said Lenore. “He found working with the Lewisburg kitchen floor plan interesting and we enjoyed and appreciated his expertise." For their kitchen cabinets they selected Thomasville Cabinetry®, which is sold exclusively at Home Depot®.
While shopping for appliances Lenore was thrilled to discover the selection and pricing of Whirlpool® Appliances from Lowes®.
All of the interior trim was made from medium-density fiberboard with spray applied paint to avoid brush marks. A local Amish flooring company installed the beautiful hickory flooring.
When it was time to choose paints, they decided on Sherwin-Williams for the exterior finishes and the Enchant Forest: The Nature Collection from Pittsburgh Paint® for most of their interior rooms.
For outdoor entertaining, they built a large deck to enjoy the scenery and spend time with family and friends. “This home was perfect for us and had the right footprint and extras that we were looking for,” said Bob.
The couple choose Jeld-Wen® windows for their selection, durability, service and support. They loved the placement of the windows in this home design for its beauty and how it allows for lots of natural light.
Since the couple only visits the family farm six or seven times a year, they wanted to make sure that their new home would be secure so they selected and installed an electronic security system from ADT® Home Security Systems.