Bob Stewart - Dwelling

Home was Corunna, Michigan from 1948 to 1966. Then it moved around between college in Rochester, Michigan, an apartment in Detroit the summer of 1967, and a trailer with my new wife in Pontiac until 1968, when we moved to Ann Arbor. Digital Equipment Corporation moved us to Concord, Massachusetts in 1976. We bought our first house in Groton, Massachusetts in 1980.

In 1992 we bought land in New Hampshire and began plans to build a house. In July, 1993, we moved in, after living about 9 months in a rental house in New Ipswitch, New Hampshire while it was built.

We have 15 1/2 acres of heavy woods with steep hills, a brook, and a small pond. The driveway is a quarter-mile long, steep down and up, putting the house deep in the woods and mostly out of sight of the road or any other houses. Look for the lamppost in the picture from the woods. I'm a fan of C.S. Lewis' Narnia stories. Technically the house is contemporary, but it has a strong Victorian influence and overall look. It's light yellow with white trim and a dark brown roof. The pictures are a bit out of date. The porch posts and rails are white now, and the latice yellow.

Coming down the driveway, it has a two-car garage underneath a big bay window on the left, and the front door, octagon tower, and wrap-around porch on the right. The garage holds a Plymouth Laser and a Mitsubishi Montero, both four-wheel-drive.

Coming in the front door the house has a greatroom at the end of the entry hall and an octagon room through an opening to the right, hall and both rooms have vaulted ceilings. The greatroom is the living room, with a diagonal exposed beam, and a stone fireplace. It has french doors leading to two steps down into the octagon room.

The octagon room is the music and game room. It has exposed beams 18 feet up with clerestory windows just under them halfway around, a wood stove and an octagon game table in the center. It's 18 feet across, and half the walls have big windows.

A full, covered porch wraps around both rooms, from front door to back door of the house. Both of those doors have stained glass windows. In the front are a lute, lyre, and round horn entwined with vines, flanked by a torch and a sword. In the back is a multi-color basket of flowers.

A light, sunny, dining area with a bay window separates the big, open kitchen from the shaded great room. In the entry hall, open stairs go up to a landing overlooking the great room where you enter the bedroom area. Off that hall are the master bedroom, a bathroom, and two other bedrooms each with half a bay window. One of those is my office, the other is for guests. The entrance to the master bedroom has double doors flanked with tall, narrow, stained glass panels with fuschia, morning glories, and humming birds. The master bedroom has a bay window and vaulted ceiling with a fan. The master bathroom also has a vaulted ceiling and a chandlier and is slowly becoming a tropical forest grotto, with its dark green floor, big tiled shower, and black fixtures, including a two-person corner Jacuzzi with a little, built-in waterfall.