Our Idea of Outdoor Living…a right dogleg along the Bulle Rock Golf Course first fairway.
A signature of the Bulle Rock community is carefree living. That was a compelling attraction coming from a Baltimore suburban home with 2 acres, a pool, a 100 foot long driveway and the landscaping to complement it.
We were in Green Spring Valley for about a dozen years—beautiful horse country. While neighboring Aberdeen is the boyhood home of the Ripkens, our former place there was a (real) long fly ball from the gated Cal Ripken estate.
The distinctive feature we enhanced in our former residence was a covered porch with a cathedral ceiling effect. It enabled us to enjoy outdoor living and dining even with inclement weather. It was complimented by a screened in porch which was a helpful retreat in the height of mosquito and stink bug season.
In our move we knew we would not miss the pool maintenance, weeding or trimming shrubs in the summer or shoveling a long driveway in the winter. However, we did want to carry the legacy of outdoor relaxation of our last home with us.
After selecting our home site and home design in the spring of 2012, groundbreaking occurred in the fall. We arrived at our new Bulle Rock home in the early summer of 2013.
The covered porch of our former residence was designed and built by T.W. Ellis. We were most pleased with their work. In fact, when we had our final going-away pool party bash for 100 of our closest friends in the summer of 2012, the Ellis brothers Barry and Tim (the “T.W.” in T.W. Ellis) were among the guest list who partied with us. How often do you have YOUR building contractors come to a friends and family celebration?
We were thrilled to be reminded that T.W. Ellis was a Harford County based business—and actively offering home improvement services to the residences here in Bulle Rock. And they were an established sub-contractor approved to work with a number of the home builders in our community.
We took the best-of-the-best from our last outdoor space and replicated it here in Bulle Rock. Trex maintenance-free decking…steps to the lower level with riser lighting…outdoor stereo sound…a suite of 6 Casa Blanca ceiling paddle fans (3 on the main and 3 on the lower level)…tasteful lighting and landscaping…and “dry space” under the covered porch to enable this to be a living area too. We improved upon that earlier project—with white maintenance-free railings, black railing spindles to give better open space visibility, removable screens for ease of cleaning and future replacement, decorative interlock pavers on the lower level and access steps and landscaping from parking apron to the lower level.
The project was completed late fall 2013—offering limited use in the shoulder season. But 2014 brought three seasons of use with the million dollar view of the Bulle Rock golf course first fairway in the foreground and the big sky backdrop of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay along the horizon.
We thought of setting up a lemonade and brownie stand to serve the golfers as they passed by. But we quickly realized that being on the first fairway, golfers wouldn’t likely be thirsty or hungry until the back nine, so we scratched that idea. But the stray off-course golf balls that are orphaned in various parts of our back yard are generally brand new one-hit-wonders. And, we have the most comfortable seating for watching the Havre de Grace aerial fireworks display on our sofa under a blanket sipping espresso.
This past summer the Ellis brothers asked if they could submit the project they completed for our home in the 2014 Maryland Building Industry Association (MBIA) 2014 competition. They hired a professional landscape photographer to conduct a day-long photo shoot in our back yard. We ended up being the volunteer set designers bringing out props—place settings…pitchers of ice water to help better set the shots. They spent more time here than a photographer spends at an average wedding.
On November 6, 2014 T.W. Ellis was awarded first place in the outdoor living project category for the entire state of Maryland. While we paid for it, T.W. Ellis made it look great. Time for another party…
—David Wiener
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