The story below is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
What began as a childhood dream comes to life in a home that will forever feel like paradise.
Taylor Reschka
Warm lighting, cozy furniture and gorgeous paint colors create the home Alicia Smith dreamed of.
A dream planted in the heart of a young girl has come true. Alicia Smith, of F&S Building Solutions, grew up on construction sites and spent decades helping others create their perfect home. Now she has used the flexible rolling design process she recommends to clients to construct her pièce de résistance: her own forever home.
Family Business in the Blood
Taylor Reschka
Smith wanted a combination of stone, wood, angles, arches and lines for an original look, starting with the outside and working its way in.
Smith’s father, Gary Feazell, is a contractor who tenderly remembers her as a little girl with a strawberry-blonde ponytail and hammer in her hand. She “enjoyed driving nails into wood and learned the construction business from the ground up” by accompanying her father to work. Her future profession was obvious, even when she was small, as she was “always interested in designs and architecture.”
Smith’s first job was, unsurprisingly, in the family business with her dad. She soon managed a steel company, where she developed a firm command of engineering aspects. Because she’d always “had a knack” for decorating other people’s homes and architecture, she also obtained a certified interior designer certificate.
Taylor Reschka
Traditional meets modern with tufted seating and candelabras in the dining room.
A Slow Start
Smith was therefore well-equipped to combine her framing and engineering knowledge with aesthetic talent to design her family’s home in 2021. Her husband, Jeremy, trusted her design sense and had only one request: a three-car garage. Other than that, she had free rein in every choice.
But there were setbacks.
Smith’s design philosophy is to take things as they come. She explains, “My goal as a designer is never to tell people what they want. I believe in a rolling design process. I want them to arrive there.” For the Smiths, that arrival didn’t happen in a straight line.
The first two properties they purchased for their home wouldn’t perc, meaning the soil wasn’t suitable for building the home they had designed, so they had to change their plans.
While searching for the perfect property, Smith, her husband and their two daughters lived on the family farm in the home where her grandparents had lived. The land, 300 acres in Bedford County, has been in her family for seven generations.
Both of Smith’s sisters already lived on the property. While spending so much time with them, Jeremy told Smith, “I think we’re supposed to be building here.”
Building on the family land wasn’t what either Smith or her husband initially wanted. Yet, after more thought and prayer, the land still called to them. Consequently, Smith applied her rolling design philosophy and altered the vision she had for her home’s location.
Unique Aesthetics
1 of 4
Taylor Reschka
The fireplace features a specialized finish. Light from the vaulted ceilings and second floor windows pours into the first floor during the day.
2 of 4
Taylor Reschka
3 of 4
Taylor Reschka
4 of 4
Taylor Reschka
Once the home’s placement was settled, Smith got to work. A childhood spent around construction and years designing other people’s homes gave her a clear aesthetic preference. She says, “I love huge windows, cut up roof lines and angled ceilings. I got so excited about these elements that I realized as I was working that I had ‘architecturalized’ myself out of huge decorating walls, but that’s okay.”
Taylor Reschka
The oven backsplash is Canvas Sky 12x24 vertical pattern.
Smith’s dad, with his decades of experience, approves. He finds the house “really unique because it has so many architectural features inside and out” and “almost no straight lines.”
The front of the home features a narrow A-frame entryway with a mirror A-frame behind it, two types of stone and eight-foot white board and batten siding on the exterior. In the back, an elevated porch has TimberTech decking and a Keylink cable rail system wrapped with TimberTech for a finished composite look.
Inside, visual interest is similarly striking. The paint is of a neutral palette with dark blue accent walls. The geometry of multiple cathedral and coffered ceilings, open rail stairs, open floors and trapezoid windows keeps the eye pleasurably moving around the space.
The countertops are all white quartz, the bathrooms have concrete vessel sinks and a 28-foot fireplace warms the grand space.
Just prior to starting the vertical construction, Smith had to adapt and employ her rolling design process once more when she realized the tall ceiling in the great room afforded a second story. Because she didn’t want to waste space, Smith added her own office and her husband’s office on opposite sides of the house.
Luxurious Living
As for the actual living space, Smith used her free rein from Jeremy to create something fit for a queen to reign over. As a self-described clothes and shoes enthusiast, the crème de la crème for Smith is the master bedroom, master bathroom and master closet.
Her master bedroom has a 235-square-foot en suite bathroom. The shower provides choice in relaxation with a standard shower head, handheld sprayer, body sprayers and rain head. A separate 78-inch soaking tub looks out onto a peaceful view of nature through huge windows. “I needed a nice tub because that’s how I end each day,” she explains.
Barn doors with full-length inlaid mirrors lead into the closet, thereby combining a design element with functionality.
1 of 6
Taylor Reschka
The master bedroom features a slightly different hue of blue, as do all of the rooms.
2 of 6
Taylor Reschka
The bathroom vanity was custom designed and made by a woodworker that Smith found on Etsy.
3 of 6
Taylor Reschka
4 of 6
Taylor Reschka
5 of 6
Taylor Reschka
6 of 6
Taylor Reschka
And the closet itself? It’s so spacious that Smith’s dad thought it was another bedroom when the house was framed. At 272 square feet, she can spread all of her clothes and shoes out in her new fantasy-turned-reality closet.
Smith’s teenage daughters have also experienced a dream come true with this construction: they have their own floor of the home with their own en suite bathrooms, walk-in closets, living room and kitchen.
They already have plans to invite all of their friends over, which delights Smith. She says, “I like having my kids host everybody at our house. It makes it a lot easier to know where they are and know that they’re safe.”
Extended Family Fun
Smith’s daughters aren’t the only happy kids. The property is a one-stop shop for extended family fun, and quality time is never in short supply. Because Smith’s sisters live across the street, her nieces and nephews are able to hop from one home to the other for a snack and a chat.
Four-wheelers rove around the property, dirt bikes speed along trails and jet skis occasionally zip across the pond as cousins enjoy growing up together. For less adrenaline-fueled adventures, they relax in the cabin, cruise around on paddle boats and gather around the firepit while watching others fish.
In the future, Sunday lunch will likely also become an extended family tradition. Smith grew up anticipating Sunday lunch that her mother prepared each week after church. She hopes this home will be the Sunday lunch spot for the next generation. Having planned the home with features such as a zero curb shower (in case a wheelchair is ever necessary) and laundry rooms on both levels, the Smiths are prepared to comfortably age in place with the family as it grows and changes.
Smith is proud of the technical elements of her home but knows that having it filled with good food and happy kids is more important. She says, “I want my home to look like a designer’s home, but I also want it to be comfortable and functional. I want everyone to feel, ‘Ah, I’m home!’ at the end of the day.”
The story above is from our May/June 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!