natural wood tones throughout this lengthy bathroom. Dual vanity with marble backsplash over floating cabinetry places mirrors between lengths of window, while all glass shower takes up end of the room." alt="Sparkling mixture of bright marble and natural wood tones throughout this lengthy bathroom. Dual vanity with marble backsplash over floating cabinetry places mirrors between lengths of window, while all glass shower takes up end of the room." width="1024" height="681" src="src" />
Read article : Home Tour: Remodeled Anderson Township barn becomes gorgeous modern dream home
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Jerry Whitney wasn’t looking to move, but he was looking for a clear route from his Anderson Township home to the airport on a day when interstate traffic was heavy. So he cut down Five Mile Road toward Kellogg Avenue.
“I didn’t want to miss my flight,” he said. “And then I saw this place and said, ‘Oh, my god, look at that barn.’ And then I saw a ‘for sale’ sign and Five Mile Creek behind it.”
He fell in love. When his wife of 14 years, Karen, saw it, she fell in love, too.
On Dec. 31, 2012, seven days after that first sighting, the Whitneys bought the 30-year-old horse barn and its seven acres at a 30 percent discount from a motivated seller. It cost them $300,000.
Fast forward 18 months and the Whitneys – who had no previous home construction experience – moved out of a 300-square-foot trailer on the property into a home like no other, a dream house they played a big role in designing and decorating.
The shock of the unexpected experience has worn off, but not the excitement and contentment they feel for their fully modern, energy-efficient barn house. Also still strong is their appreciation for their project partners – among them architect Marc McConnell, builder Paul Kapitula, Keidel Supply, A&S Lighting, Tate Builders Supply, Cooknee Cabinets, KBR Countertop Specialists, Home Depot, IKEA, The Container Store and Peoples First Savings Bank.
All these forces came together to produce a four-bedroom, three-bathroom showcase of modern architecture and engineering that surprisingly fits inside a big, old, round-top home originally built for horses.
Not only does the place run on a geothermal energy system that held down last summer’s utility bills to $90 per month, it is designed to be the Whitneys’ "forever home." The couple asked for and got what architects call “living in place” features that will allow the Whitneys, who are in their 60s, to stay in their home permanently.
The house’s hallways and doors are extra-wide. There’s a 4-foot-wide shaft just behind a door off the entry hall where an elevator to the second floor and its master bedroom can be installed if and when it is needed. Next to the shaft is a laundry room with a chute from the second floor. The master bathroom’s shower door is wide and wheelchair-accessible. Even the landscaping is designed to require minimal maintenance and no chemicals.
There are picture windows in every main room through which the Whitneys, for the rest of their lives, can watch the water rush down Five Mile Creek, lots of wildlife – deer, cardinals, doves, woodpeckers, nut hatches, tufted titmice and blue jays – and the moon and stars.
Take the Tour
The Whitneys – she’s from Bridgetown and is a University of Cincinnati graduate, he is from Lima, Ohio, and is a Xavier University graduate – wanted to retain the bones of the barn. And there’s no mistaking what it used to be when you turn off Five Mile Road onto their curved driveway. The house’s Quonset hut shape is enhanced by two second-floor dormers, a glassy grand entrance and the original cupola poking out at the roof’s center.
The barn’s industrial-strength foundation passed inspection with flying colors and was retained, but most of the interior – the stables, tack room and hayloft – was gutted to the arched laminated beams that support the rounded roof. To keep it water-tight during a 100-year flood, the entire house had to be raised 14½ inches.
Architect McConnell was so inspired by the place, Jerry Whitney said, that he sketched the floor plan in eight hours and then started marking off the layout with blue tape.
What strikes visitors upon entering the Whitneys’ home is its whiteness, its angular walls and windows, and its uncluttered, modern décor. Yet hints of the barn are there in the entry in the form of a frosted two-paneled sliding door that leads into the living room and a long, floating ledge made of chocolate walnut Jerry Whitney picked up on a one-day drive to Kansas City, Missouri, and back.
The Whitneys had hoped to repurpose two sliding wood doors in the old stable, but their condition was too poor.
“So we were in IKEA one day, and we saw those panels on some cabinets and said, ‘There’s our barn doors,’” said Jerry Whitney, a sales executive with a logistics software company.
The doors might leak a little heat, but the gas fireplace and heated, polished concrete floors keep the living room warm.
“My parents came here for two weeks in October, and they were so warm. My mother learned how to work the thermostat and kept it at 70 degrees. We practically had to kick them out,” joked Karen Whitney, a longtime physician’s assistant.
To the left of the entry hall and beyond the elevator shaft, laundry room and mechanicals closet are two bedrooms that share what the Whitneys call their “spa room.” The bathroom features sparkly, speckled gray quartz countertops, a dual-sink vanity with matching mirrors, a standalone soaking tub and a glassed-in shower with grass-like textured tile. Chrome is the metal of choice for the hardware and fixtures.
To be added to the “spa” features later this year is a fenced-in outdoor shower.
While family photographs in the bedroom at the front of the house stir memories, the bedroom in the back is filled with a mix of family-made art and heirlooms and images from vacations the couple and their four adult daughters have taken.
A glass door from the back bedroom leads to a covered concrete deck that stretches almost the entire length of the house. The deck faces Five Mile Creek and the woods of Withrow Nature Preserve and is accessible from the living and great rooms as well as the 2½-car garage.
Across the hall is a stairwell that reaches to the roof. It features a light oak staircase with stainless steel chords and rail and leads up to two more bedrooms, the kitchen and a beamed great room. The vaulted room includes a sectional couch and two stuffed chairs, a glassed-in wine closet, recessed lighting and one floor lamp, a 9-by-6 picture window, a gas fireplace, a big-screen television and a separate dining area with chandelier that faces the front yard.
The great room is where they wind down on weekends with wine and the Wall Street Journal or watch birds – on sunny or gray days.
“Even if it’s raining, we don’t care. With all these windows, it doesn’t matter,” Karen Whitney said.
Three bird feeders hang off the fully plumbed, second-story deck where the couple grills out with friends and watches the ever-running creek and forest.
“It’s a fun, fun, fun kitchen to cook in,” she said. “We hosted Thanksgiving last year, and I couldn’t believe how easy it was to cook the meal. There’s so much space and convenience.”
To the side of the kitchen and overlooking the stairwell’s cathedral-shaped window is a quartz-topped desk that the couple uses as command central, to pay bills and handle other household business.
Two bedrooms are situated down a hall behind the kitchen, but before them is an inviting, steel-railed spiral staircase. Karen Whitney uses the slanted-wall and naturally lighted bonus room – which has two large cubbyholes behind doors for storage –for yoga, Pilates and TRX workouts. The third floor’s balcony hovers over the kitchen and great room and provides an up-close view of a special light fixture suspended inside the windowed cupola.
“My parents gave us that,” she said of the brass and crystal chandelier. “It came out of the old Shubert Theatre in Cincinnati.” It lights up the great room like a stationary disco ball, her husband said.
A guest room with full bath and the master with bath and massive walk-in closet are back down the spiral staircase and below the bonus room. The couple outfitted their closet with a system purchased at the Container Store that holds all their clothes and accessories. There is no dresser or wardrobe in their room, just open space and a clear view from the bed of the backyard and the rising moon.
“It’s the most wonderful bed to sleep in, until you have to get up,” Karen Whitney said.
'We Took a Gamble on it'
The Whitneys had just remodeled their contemporary house on Little Dry Run Road, which sat on a half-acre and was what they thought they always wanted. Leaving it was far from their minds – until they spotted the old horse barn on Five Mile.
“We took a gamble on it,” said Jerry Whitney, whose experience rebuilding vintage cars equipped him with mechanical skills and gave him confidence they could build their own home.
“Our financial adviser said, ‘You guys are crazy if you don’t do it,’” he said. So they did, but not without sacrifice. Living in a trailer during the treacherous winter of 2013-14 and storing their belongings in a nearby 20-by-30-foot shipping container for 18 months weren’t the only challenges they faced.
“We’d never built a house before or made all the decisions we had to make, sometimes instantaneous ones like when your builder asks, ‘What do I do now?’ and you’ve got to have a decision right then,” he said.
“We turned it into an adventure that we could write a book about,” Jerry Whitney said. “Karen’s quote is, ‘We never thought we would live in a dream house, and now we own one.’ To go from a normal house to this is just amazing. I swear we were meant to be here.”
Chance to See the Whitneys’ House
The 2016 green living tours by the Cincinnati chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council includes the Whitney house on Sept. 17 ($15 for non-members). To join the Green Living Member Circle, click here. The group will tour a modern house in Northside on Jan. 16.
When we were kids, the best gifts underneath the Christmas tree always required some sort of assembly, be they bicycles, wagons or dollhouses. The anticipation of the finished product, patiently assembled by Mom or Dad, bordered on excruciating. And though we were always delighted when the moment of completion arrived and we could finally enjoy our special gift, there seemed to be just a tinge of disappointment when we realized that moment was now over, not to be relived again until next year, if we were lucky. Happily, the Open Range 3X349RLS by Highland Ridge RV recaptures some of that Christmas morning excitement, and the good news is, you can reassemble this toy again and again.
The living area is well laid out with a large flat-screen television, electric fireplace and audio system. Space between the dinette and sliding door is a bit tight but manageable.
Certainly, all fifth-wheels require some setup, which most of us look forward to as a sort of ceremony leading up to a weekend, or several weeks, of relaxation with friends and family. But this particular floorplan offers an optional exterior deck that folds down from the curbside slideout, which not only adds to the entertainment space but provides a feeling of openness few RVs can match.
The idea of an outdoor deck is not a new one, but as with all RV components, the success of a feature depends on its overall execution, how well it complements the floorplan as a whole, and in general, if it is truly useful or just a gimmick. In the case of the 3X349RLS, the concept works whether you’re enjoying it in the summer or winter months. The residential-style sliding-glass door admits welcome light from the outdoors, which prevents feelings of claustrophobia on rainy or snowy days. And in the summer, the door can be opened and the screen left shut to bring the fresh breeze inside. Of course, the deck itself would be essentially worthless if it couldn’t support the weight of a few guests, so Highland Ridge built it to hold up to 1,500 pounds — more than enough capacity for a few revelers.
handsome vessel sink highlight the roomy bathroom." width="200" height="300" />A residential-size shower and handsome vessel sink highlight the roomy bathroom.
As you might expect, a trailer as unique as this one requires some consideration when planning trips. The Open Range 3X349RLS starts out with a wide, 102-inch exterior, then adds two giant opposing slides. This alone makes the 3X349RLS big enough to fill most RV park sites, but add the deck, and the width roughly equals one-and-a-half fifth-wheels. For our test, we reached out to our friends at Pechanga RV Resort and Casino in Temecula, California, who set us up with a large deluxe site bordered by a grassy area featuring a picnic table. By moving the table and folding down the deck, we had just enough space to fully deploy the slides and deck but not much more. So, make sure wherever you plan to stay has adequate space. If there isn’t enough room, you can still enjoy this floorplan, but you’ll have a windowless curbside slideout, as the deck floor will cover the glass slider.
Once we leveled the fifth-wheel with the automatic jack system and deployed the slides, the extra work began. The deck floor unlatches easily from the side and lowers without much effort, thanks to spring assist. Once down, the integrated stab jacks are lowered and adjusted; it takes some practice to guess how long the jacks need to be to provide a level deck surface, not to mention crawling under the deck a few times to make sure the jacks are properly placed. This could become messy if the ground is wet or muddy, so you may consider carrying a plastic tarp with you to crawl onto if necessary. If the ground is dry and comfortable, it’s just a matter of a few adjustments that shouldn’t be a problem for those with a good back and knees.
decorative backsplash add upscale flair." width="375" height="250" />The kitchen features a movable island with a matching solid-surface countertop. Stainless-steel appliances, a dual-bowl sink with pull-out sprayer and a decorative backsplash add upscale flair.
Once this step is completed, it’s time to put up the railing. Open Range cleverly provides an extra bin underneath the forward storage compartment in which to store the railing sections and pins. It slides out like a large utility drawer and is secured during transit with a pin. Made of black plastic, the drawer is not the prettiest thing, but it’s a far better solution than having the railings tangled with your other belongings in the main storage area. The railings are marked so you know which side they go on, but even then it takes a bit of time to organize, install and secure them. We recommend you complete this step before the sun goes down.
Once set up, this fifth-wheel is quite a spectacle and drew more than its fair share of interested RVers at the park. The white, gray and blue exterior graphic scheme with frameless windows is handsome, and both power awnings feature LED lighting, which makes for a cool-looking party pad in the evenings. The unit seemed well-constructed and offered nice features, such as a heated and enclosed underbelly, a Trailair pin box and landing jacks featuring JT’s Strong Arm jack stabilizers for a solid, shake-free foundation. We also appreciated the small details, like TV prep on the exterior wall adjacent to the deck area, which allows you to mount a small TV once the deck is deployed.
Stepping inside, the living area feels massive and is a treat for the eyes with Stone decor (one of three available) featuring light wood cabinetry and faux wood-plank Beauflor vinyl flooring that seemed durable and was easy to clean. Providing visual contrast were the rear couch and streetside theater seating, which were finished in embossed black upholstery with white stitching. Both were very comfortable and perfectly placed for watching the flat-screen television, mounted in an entertainment hutch in the corner of the curbside slideout. The hutch also offers an electric fireplace, making for a cozy environment ideal for kicking back and relaxing during the evening.
The forward kitchen is somewhat unorthodox, in that it offers an optional island with casters that can be located wherever it’s convenient for you, although overhead pendant lighting suggests it should be placed in the center of the floor space. The island features a dark brown finish, complemented by a solid-surface countertop, and cabinets and drawers with brushed-nickel pulls. During travel, the island stows on the backside of the dinette and is secured with straps (there are anchors in the floor), and the dinette chairs reside upside down on the theater seats so they don’t interfere with slideout operation. It’s a little extra work, but once you get used to it, setup goes pretty quickly.
A 12-cubic-foot RV refrigerator with wood-panel fronts is located in the streetside slideout, and next to it is a stainless-steel three-burner stove with an oven and a residential-size microwave mounted overhead. We found that the corner-mounted stove was rather confining when cooking meals, but the reality is that cooking is only a small portion of meal prep. The bulk of your time is spent chopping and slicing, and the forward wall, with its large solid-surface countertop and dual-bowl stainless-steel sink provide plenty of space. There’s also an abundance of cabinet and drawer space, and a nice-size pantry on the curbside slideout, next to the entertainment hutch. Moreover, we found little to complain about, though everyone who walked through the Open Range had negative comments about the floor register located dead center in the living area floor. This is something Highland Ridge should consider locating in a less conspicuous area.
Next to the forward cabinets are a small coat closet and angled stairs that lead up to the bath and bedroom. The entry door has an obscured glass treatment that makes the area feel more open and is just more pleasing to look at than a solid door. The bath area is well executed with plenty of space where you need it most. There’s lots of elbowroom around the toilet, and the opposing vanity, with its glass-vessel sink, is an elegant touch. We particularly enjoyed the residential-size 48-inch x 30-inch shower with molded seat and appreciated the drawer space between the shower and bedroom entry. Above the drawers are a mirror and a pull-out counter for extra space, which allows two people to get ready for a night out at the same time.
mirrored wardrobe features large drawers beneath to store folded items." width="400" height="266" />he bedroom has plenty of walk-around space, and the mirrored wardrobe features large drawers beneath to store folded items.
The bedroom features a 72-inch x 80-inch bed, bordered by shelves that are perfectly sized for books, water glasses, etc. There is plenty of walk-around room and enough space near the headboard on either side, so making the bed in the morning is not a struggle. A mirrored wardrobe up front easily accommodated our travel essentials, and a cabinet on the curb side offered washer/dryerprep. At the foot of the bed are a chestof drawers for more folded items and space for an optional TV.
Make no mistake about it — the Open Range 3X349RLS isn’t for everyone, particularly those who just want to press a few buttons and kick back once they get to their campsite. But for those willing to do a little extra work, this fifth-wheel rewards with a lot of entertaining space and a fun factor that will make you the talk of any RV park.
Highland Ridge RV Open Range 260-768-7771 | www.openrangerv.com
The living area is well laid out with a large flat-screen television, electric fireplace and audio system. Space between the dinette
handsome vessel sink highlight the roomy bathroom." width="200" height="300" />A residential-size shower and 
decorative backsplash add upscale flair." width="375" height="250" />The kitchen features a movable island with a matching solid-surface countertop. Stainless-steel appliances, a dual-bowl sink with pull-out sprayer and a 
Stepping inside, the 
The forward kitchen is somewhat unorthodox, in that it offers an optional island with casters that can be located wherever it’s convenient for you, although 
mirrored wardrobe features large drawers beneath to store folded items." width="400" height="266" />he bedroom has plenty of walk-around space, and the