330 Homes Fall 2023

dream house

FOUND OASIS by VINCE GUERRIERI photos by ASHLEY IRIS PHOTOGRAPHY A sprawling retreat brings vacation vibes to a Franklin Township family.

R andy and Emily Knapp lead busy lives. He’s a sales repre sentative for a medical device company — a job that requires him to scrub in for procedures in Cleveland-area hospi tals. She’s a school guid ance counselor. They have two daughters both playing soccer, fill ing up their weekends year-round. They don’t get to go on vacation as much as they would like. So when they started thinking about a new home, they made it a goal to bring vacation vibes to them.

“We had a crossroads point,” Randy says. “We

Township. The Knapps were looking for a more pastoral setting — “I was a country girl all my life,” says Emily, who grew up near Sugarcreek, in Amish Country — and built a home that allows them to get the same relaxation of being in vacation mode. “It really does feel like I’m on vacation on Saturdays,” Emily says. “I’ll drink my coffee and open the sliding doors and listen to the birds.” The Knapps were looking for an indoor outdoor feel. The double glass-paned wooden

front doors — dark to contrast with the white exterior and naturally stained wood beams — open into a 961-square foot open dining room and living area with high ceilings, a gas fireplace that stretches two stories high and clerestory windows. “The main entertaining space flows well and creates a lot of nice views,” says Marc Benedict, partner of Fidei Architecture. “It’s a fairly large space

had a nice house in Kent, but it was in a

subdivision on a teeny lot. We saved enough money where we could maybe buy a vacation house somewhere, or we can sell everything and put it into one big, nice house. That led us to say, Why don’t we have a place where we feel like we’re on vacation when we’re at home? ” The result is a

3,500-square-foot modern farmhouse

but doesn’t feel overwhelming.”

style home designed by Fidei Architecture on a 1.5-acre lot in Franklin

33 O HOMES fall 2023

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