The massive granite fireplace rises 55 feet from the foundation to the chimney.
"Its grand scale," says the architect, "is what the house requires.’
The second premise for the home’s design was Lavonne’s affinity for culinary and life-essayist M.F.K. Fisher and her description of her last home in Sonoma, California.
"I put forth her idea that the soul of the house is the kitchen," says Lavonne, "a place to live, to work, and to play in. And that you need small cells in which to sleep, a place for the storage of wine, and that’s about it."
The architects integrated that concept in constructing a home that would work equally well when Ashton
and Lavonne come up aloneor when many family members congregate.
"It was designed with the understanding that on many occasions it would be just the two of them here," says Epps. "The house works,whether there are two people or eight people, without people stumbling over each other."
The entryway and staircase function as the central axis to the house, dividing the large communal spaces from private rooms—the grand living room from the master bedroom and bath on the top level and the kitchen from the smaller guest quarters on the second level.
Epps calls this axis a "possum trot"—an old term, he says, used particularly in farm buildings for the open passage through the middle.
The stairway and hall act as a
"possum trot" or open passage, dividing the large communal spaces from private rooms.
That idea influenced this design. The openness of the stairs in relation to the upper level allows the rooms and the people within them to communicate."
The staircase, covered with family photos, curves down to the second-floor kitchen.
Literally the heart of the home, most of the living happens here. User-friendly and informal per Lavonne’s instruction, the clean lines of the boxed white tiles, simple wood cabinets, and