Georgetown property features lovingly designed landscape, offering a park-like feel

Todd and Tresa Short’s children and grandchildren – who live in Hart County – view visits to the couple’s home at 117 Fairfield Farm Road in Georgetown as a retreat, and it’s easy to understand why.

The stately two-story brick home, which the Shorts had built in 2013, sits on a roughly six-acre, park-like lot that includes two stocked fishing ponds and hundreds of plants and trees hand-planted by Todd with care.

“This house is really about the experience of nature,” says Todd, who began installing more than 60 rose bushes and dozens of varieties of trees – including roughly 30 fruit trees and a lush, cedar thicket that is a favorite of birds and other wildlife – before the couple even built their home. “I did things a little reverse from most people,” he admits. “But it turned out to be a good plan.”

For 14 years, Todd spent his evenings after work designing and tending to the lot’s expanding landscape, while Tresa studied HGTV and scanned home plans in magazines and online for ideas to incorporate into their dream house.

The Shorts, retired from careers with the state Cabinet for Families and Children, worked with Scott County builder Doug Rogers to construct their 5,000-square-foot home, which Tresa designed and decorated herself. “I wanted to have an open floor plan. I wanted a bedroom on the first floor for my mom, when she came to visit, and I wanted a house big enough that when our two children and four grandkids came, they all had their own space,” she says.

When the couple isn’t hosting their family, they enjoy quiet moments on their large back deck, enjoying views of frequent animal visitors, sprawling sunsets and starry nights.

“Two evenings ago, I was sitting in my chair, and there were deer in the field,” says Todd, who worked as Midway University’s softball coach following his career with the state. “Just below them were some Canadian Geese with their five goslings and a Great Blue Heron that comes every day to hunt. As a young man, I always dreamed of having some land and a farm pond. Dreams do come true.”

Room to spare

Inside, the Short’s home features an open-concept living room and kitchen on the first floor. The living room –painted a grayish blue that pops against the crisp white architectural molding – feels open and inviting thanks to its vaulted ceiling and gas fireplace with stone surround, while the adjoining kitchen boasts a center island, granite countertops, stainless steel appliances and a gourmet range hood.

Other than the bathrooms, which have ceramic tile flooring, the entire first floor features hardwood floors and includes panoramic views of the home’s park-like lawn – the result of Tresa’s incorporation of 38 windows into the home’s design.

One favorite spot is the couple’s master suite, which includes an adjoining sitting room and a spacious, spa-like bathroom highlighted by granite countertops, a soaker tub and a stand-alone shower with rainfall fixtures.

The first floor also features a second bedroom, a formal dining room, a utility room and access to the home’s oversized, three-car garage.

Upstairs, the home includes two additional bedrooms, each with their own walk-in closets, and a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with granite countertops and basin sinks, which the Shorts’ granddaughters share when they are visiting. A bonus room upstairs could be used as a TV room, a craft room or a home office.

Storage abounds in the house, allowing Tresa two spare upstairs closets dedicated purely to holiday décor and her collection of heirloom quilts, many of them made by her aunts and grandmothers.

The home also features a walk-out basement and a theatre room wired with surround sound. Outside, the property includes a 30x50 metal barn, the perfect spot for storing Todd’s lawn care tools.

While the couple has relished living on the property they so lovingly designed, they’ve recently decided to put their home on the market in order to relocate to Hart County to be closer to family.

“There are definitely things about this place that we are going to miss,” says Tresa. “The sunsets from the back deck are absolutely breathtaking – they take up the entire sky. And if you’re sitting outside in the early evening and the aerators on the ponds are going, it sounds like a river or the ocean. It’s so relaxing.”

“We’re very proud of how everything turned out,” says Todd, who has planted several bird boxes and bird feeders around the property to encourage wildlife to make the lawn their home. “This house is more than just brick and mortar, it’s about the experience of the setting.”

This story was originally published June 11, 2017 at 6:00 AM with the headline "Georgetown property features lovingly designed landscape, offering a park-like feel."