This French countryside home was designed by local architect Lee Rumora, AIA. A circular driveway paved with tumbled brick winds through the property, accentuating the rustic ambiance of a French countryside style of home framed by courtyard entry garages and carriage house doors.
Several impressive exterior details complement this design, including a copper-topped eyebrow dormer, cupolas and weathervanes, and a standing seam copper roof over the front and side porches. Bronze finials along the ridge of the roof serve as grounded lightning protection. Wood shutters complete with shutter dogs accompany a stone and stucco veneer while brick accents bring the window headers and sills to life. A stone water table and coping provide reliable support for the structure.
A couple of two-car side-loading garages flank the left side of the drive — one attached to the home, the other not. These contribute to an “estate feel” on the large one-acre lot. The attached two-car helps to keep the front of the garage more in line with the home’s front porch. It doesn’t push the house back on the lot the way a three-car side load garage often does.
Approaching the custom-built double mahogany front door reveals opaque glass in radius stiles — a beautiful, true divided light entryway that doesn’t sacrifice privacy. Stepping onto the marble floors of the foyer, the eye is drawn to a beautiful custom-built staircase with wrought iron balusters. Poplar wood handrails grace both sides of the bridge on the second floor, bending along the open radius treads before finishing in a full volute over the newel post above a wide starting step.
One of the most important interior sight lines shoots straight through the foyer, stretching from the centerline of the front door to the centerline of a window or door on the back of the home.
This unobstructed line of sight characterizes the overall accessibility of the floor plan. To the right is the home’s study. To the left is a formal dining room where a built-in buffet lies below an open-arched header, providing a wide view of the great room and a charming introduction to one of the finest French countryside homes in Ohio.
The two-story foyer immediately inside this French countryside home welcomes guests with a curved staircase and inlaid marble and stone floor medallion. The foyer lets out into a two-story family room with a coiffured ceiling and custom-made limestone fireplace.
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