Cummins Ferry ComfortSensible country living in Mercer County
It was a love of the great outdoors that brought Emily and Robbie Byrge together with their building site in Mercer County.
Seven years ago they were on their way to the Cummins Ferry Campground for a weekend of family fun when they spotted a vacant pasture.
“There was a pushed over ‘For Sale’ sign that had fallen,” said Robbie. “We just happened to see it.”
Fast forward to the present to see the Byrge’s four bedroom, three bath, 2,794 square foot home on four acres at 1391 Cummins Ferry Road.
“Just listen,” Robbie said when I asked what attracted him to this particular area. Other than a few distant bird chirps, there was only the sound of silence.
“My favorite thing is to be able to sit out on the back porch and enjoy the quiet and the peace,” Robbie said.
“We like the location because you can hop on the Bluegrass Parkway and be in Lexington in 30 or 40 minutes,” said Emily.
With Robbie a Project Manager in the building trade and Emily the Architectural Director at Lexington’s REB Architects, they were a good team for attending to the home’s construction.
“I had in my mind the style of house I wanted,” Robbie said. “A country setting with a porch all the way around the house. We sort of sat down and started putting it on paper.”
“A lot of what we looked at was efficiency,” Emily said. “The size of the house and the footprint of the house was based on certain measurements so that we weren’t wasting a lot of material.”
“One of the things I really wanted to put in this house was closets,” Emily said. “I feel you can never have enough closets.”
Emily and Robbie’s love of nature and the outdoors is a theme that runs throughout. The many windows of the living room bring the outside in with views of the front, side and back yards. It’s not unusual to spot deer in early morning hours.
The warmth and beauty of 3/4 inch hardwood flooring provides a cohesive look between the home’s rooms, upstairs and down.
“There’s no carpet in the house, which I love,” Emily said. “Other than some area rugs everything is hardwood except for tile in the kitchen, bath and laundry.”
The spacious kitchen is appointed with custom built cherry cabinets and stainless steel appliances. “Even though our house is very country as far as the design, I wanted the cabinets to have a clean look,” Emily said. “We chose not to have cabinet hardware, just finger pulls.”
“I wanted to invest a lot in the kitchen so it would be nice and big, and I think we accomplished that,” Emily said. “In the mornings there’s plenty of space for all of us to be packing lunches and eating breakfast without feeling crowded.”
Similarly, the three bay garage was designed to be roomy. “I wanted a big deep garage,” Emily said. “We’ve got kayaks, bikes, a Big Green Egg, a mower, a freezer and so much stuff. In a lot of houses you’re barely able to squeeze out of your car.”
Changing job demands are pulling Emily and Robbie closer to Lexington. The move will also put them closer to the school daughter Kylie attends. But the lure of the outdoors continues to call.
“The funny thing is we still go to that campground just down the road from us,” Emily said. “We show up and they joke ‘How was your drive?’ when we’ve only traveled five minutes.”
This week’s feature home is listed with Stephanie Adams of Rector-Hayden Realtors. To see more images of the home, visit the Homeseller gallery at Kentucky.com.
This story was originally published April 5, 2020 at 7:54 AM.