Visitors to Richard Boucher and Carolyn Brehm’s second home near Yellow Spring, W.Va., have to follow the directions carefully, watching for numbered electrical transfomer boxes, gravel roads and the occasional tree stump. Cell phone and BlackBerry reception disappears about nine miles from the house, and pay phones are few and far between. Getting lost could mean a long drive around this very rural area just over the Virginia border, where families have owned their land for generations.
That’s intentional. When Boucher, 56, and Brehm, 53, wanted a place to get away from it all, they had several requirements. Their second home had to be within two hours of Bethesda. “Given our crazy schedules,” says Brehm, vice president of global government relations for Procter & Gamble, “we figured that the only way we’d use the house frequently was to make sure it was relatively close and an easy weekend trip.”
Boucher, a career diplomat with the State Department, says the couple wanted a mountain setting where they and their children, Madeleine, 21, and Peter, 17, could hike, fish and canoe. In 2005, after an exhaustive Internet search for property, the couple made several trips to Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia to look at land and houses. When they walked the 20-acre parcel of wooded land near Yellow Spring, an estimated 40-minute drive from Winchester, Va., they knew they wanted to build a home there.
Boucher and Brehm decided a log home would best blend into the densely forested setting. They turned to family operated Cabin Run Contracting in Romney, W.Va., which sells and assembles kit log homes. Brien Shreve, one of four brothers who own the company, says Cabin Run uses only northern white cedar for its homes because the wood is more energy efficient and insect-resistant and it weathers much better than other types of wood.
The log homes are manufactured in Maine; Boucher and Brehm had multiple models to choose from. In the end, they selected a popular 2,500-square-foot chalet style with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and floor-to ceiling windows on the peaked sides of the house, which, according to Shreve, make the most of the mountain views. “One of the things I like best about this place is the feeling of living in a tree house,” says Brehm. Even in the winter with the branches bare, the views are spectacular, with the ridges of the Allegheny Mountains visible.
Boucher and Brehm made numerous changes to the home’s layout, extending the second-floor loft and switching the location of the master and guest bedrooms on the first and second floors. The master bedroom, built with the same light-colored floor planks as the rest of the house, is open and airy. A sliding glass door leads to a private balcony. The casual furnishings in the room reflect the easy-living style of the rest of the house.
Wanting a simple, open floor plan on the first level, Boucher and Brehm removed a wall from the builder’s design, incorporating the kitchen into the great room and creating a unique ceiling for the kitchen area that recesses into the bottom of the loft overhead. The kitchen cabinets are mounted in a corner of the house, topped with granite and flanked by top-of-the-line appliances. An island that contains the cooktop and additional counter space faces into the great room. “I love to cook on the weekends,” Brehm says. “Opening up the kitchen meant that I could have a conversation while cooking.”
With its fireplace and large dining table with benches, the great room provides a comfortable space to gather family and friends, who visit often. Nine people is the largest group they have ever had at the house, Boucher says, but they could sleep 12.
The house has a relaxing, laid-back atmosphere, Brehm says. She describes the furnishings as a mix of Asian antiques and Design Within Reach modern. “It sounds strange, but it works,” she says. Throughout the house are pieces collected during the family’s overseas assignments in Asia, including an intricate hand-carved Chinese bed in the second floor loft. Asian lamps and other Eastern decorative pieces provide an element of surprise in this country setting.
The home’s most unusual feature is the deep, soaking tub on the deck outside the great room. “The tub is my personal favorite feature,” Brehm says. “The contractor thought we were nuts, but there’s nothing like a bubble bath under the moon, stars and trees on a summer evening.”
Boucher and Brehm tend to stay put in Yellow Spring. “We park the car when we get here and usually don’t get back in [it] until it’s time to go home,” Boucher says. The family fishes and canoes nearby on the pristine Cacapon River, designated a West Virginia Wild and Scenic River.
They hike the trails that lead to the Tuscarora- Big Blue Trail, a 250-mile Appalachian Trail connector that stretches from Pennsylvania’s Blue Mountain to Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. Some days, the couple is content just to sit in front of the fireplace in the great room and read and talk.
Although Boucher has no doubt he could retire in Yellow Spring, with the nearest neighbor three-quarters of a mile away, Brehm thinks the location is a bit too remote for daily living. There’s no cell phone or television reception (unless you count the cell phone reception Boucher sometimes gets while standing on a stump on a nearby trail). The couple let the outside world in last year by purchasing a satellite dish and service.
The restorative power of a visit to Yellow Spring keeps Boucher and Brehm returning. The nights are dark and quiet and there is something special about waking up out here, says Boucher. The Bethesda native makes the trip about twice a month, while Brehm fits visits in between work-related travel. Their children stop in a few times a year. After Brehm’s recent two-week business trip to China, a stay at Yellow Spring offered the perfect antidote. “The house provides a real break from the rat race. We only wish we could spend more time there,” she says. “It’s amazing how long and restful even an overnight feels.”
Writer Gabriele McCormick is a frequent contributor to Bethesda Magazine.
