WHEN PAIGE AND JIM RUHL, CO-FOUNDERS OF CUSTOM DESIGN-BUILD firm DreamBuilt, had a moment to slow down from their busy work lives building some of the finest custom homes on Lake Oconee, they turned their attention toward building a home for themselves. Their daughter, residential designer Haley Patten, and her business partner, Jep Pound, had purchased the company a few years earlier from the Ruhls and their co-founders, Ann and Derek Welch.
The generational transition left the Ruhls with a little breathing room to focus on their next chapter. They chose an estate-size parcel in the new eastern shore enclave of The Homesteads at Reynolds Lake Oconee to build their personal home. The exclusive new community has a limited number of private, multi-acre parcels designed for building family-compound estates with multiple structures. While secluded and rural feeling, the land provides a short drive or boat ride to club community amenities, such as the area’s famed golf courses and restaurants, with dramatic lakefront topography.
The Ruhls’ dream turned to disaster, however, when 10 days before their planned move into the newly constructed home, a lightning strike caused the home to burn to the ground. A lone chimney was all that remained. With their deep construction background, the Ruhls and their team knew exactly how to turn their misfortune into another DreamBuilt success story. “They rebuilt the same home again, changing only the tiniest of details,” Patten explains.
The finished home is inspired by the look of English countryside estates, with a crushed slate driveway, Tennessee fieldstone, timber porches, reclaimed French cobblestones and flared roof details that mimic European style. “It has an intentionally rambling layout; this is a home that belongs on acreage,” Patten says. “A functional main level has both a primary suite and well-appointed guest quarters, and the interiors feel cozy and authentic to the home’s lake setting.”
The interior’s natural, neutral palette is intended to flow easily into the outdoor environment, with darker, moodier spaces that serve as transitions between the structures that contain the main living spaces and bedroom wings. “There’s a sense of discovery as you move throughout the house,” Patten says. “My mom and I are no strangers to shopping and collecting to fill multiple homes. We pulled from DreamBuilt’s resources for selections, and our longstanding relationship with Black Sheep Interiors allowed us to use them to provide soft goods and furnishings and orchestrate the installation process.”
The home has an open in-out flow, with window walls on the rear of the home that take in Lake Oconee and open onto an expansive, elevated outdoor living area. “My parents entertain a lot, and my brother and I bring our friends here, too,” Patten continues. “We designed the home so guests can flow in from the front courtyard to the back courtyard without going through the furnished interior spaces.”
Working with a landscape architect, a civil engineer and a pool designer, DreamBuilt elevated the lawn and pool so that traffic flows directly out of the back of the house, through the window walls and onto dual covered porches and the pool deck. “My mom and dad each claimed a porch to design,” Patten says. “They wanted a huge emphasis on outdoor living and a giant porch area where they could lounge, grill and dine.”
The exterior’s raised stone-walled garden beds around the pool enable the couple to maintain beautiful plantings without having to install an unsightly fence to keep deer from munching on their flowers. In lieu of the typical infinity-edge pool, they designed reflecting pools on each side of the swimming pool to add character. The reflecting pools feature river rock bottoms and copper water spouts to add a pleasing waterfall sensory experience to the outdoor living landscape. Beyond the raised space, an expansive green lawn surrounds the home and is romping space for fur baby Labrador retrievers, Sadie and Winnie. Out on the point at the lakeshore, a firepit is the designated gathering place for the family to watch the community’s weekly fireworks show.
From the interiors, there is equal opportunity to see the landscaped courtyards, lake, and surrounding woods line from large windows. The foyer, which is contained within a full glass breezeway accessible by huge, pivoting French doors, is one room where the landscape lives very closely with the interiors. “When you walk into the entrance, which is a connector to both the main house and the primary suite, you feel as if you are still part of the outside,” Patten says. “The goal was to experience an entranceway where you didn’t feel like you were walking into a big, open space.” The room’s materials palette reads the same inside and out, with natural boulders, a cobblestone floor, Tennessee fieldstone walls and a reclaimed cypress ceiling. The architectural design makes it appear like a structure that was added onto the main house over time, in close keeping with the feel of an old English manor.
Walking down the breezeway, visitors can access the living room, where reclaimed wooden ceiling beams, previously in an old factory, continue the European vibe. A bank of floor-to-ceiling windows at one end of the room looks over the lake. Behind the living room, the dining room’s showstopping multi-pendant display hangs from a vintage wooden ceiling and lights up the room like a starry night. “We sat outside to decide on the placement of each one of those 54 individually hung lights,” Patten says. “It was a feat to get the right height for each one.”
The Ruhls integrated a wine room near the dining room, since they are partial to sharing a bottle of vino with friends and family. A deep-set window in the living room serves double duty as a peephole into the wine room and a focal artistic feature.
A bar fills an entirely separate room, with an antique walk-up bar front. A wall of painted vertical cabinetry provides ample hidden storage, while custom steel-and-glass bar cabinets hold the Ruhls’ collection of handblown glassware. Like the other public entertaining rooms, there is a view to the lake out of a wall of windows, which slide open to pass beverages to those who are lounging poolside.
A custom vent hood and the leathered and honed soapstone countertops and backsplash in the main kitchen are earthy and organic. Behind and beside it, a keeping room offers a comfy respite within close proximity, while a mudroom and scullery with quartzite countertops provide a place for housekeeping activities and extra storage.
The primary suite, also on the main level and a short walk down one side of the glass breezeway, takes advantage of the waterfront. The bathroom is outfitted with his-and-her closets, zero-entry showers and water closets, which are all united by a central, freestanding tub placed on natural stone tile. At the full-length picture window behind the tub, the DreamBuilt team was able to take advantage of a huge naturally occurring granite boulder to provide privacy for the tub. “People speculate that the boulder fields in the Homesteads likely came from ice-wedging over 20,000 years ago,” Patten says. “It’s the only lake community that has these large boulders. We uplit it at night to create a focal point.”
The Ruhls created a special retreat for their guests in a wing that has its own spa bath and steam shower. “It’s a private oasis that is separated from the rest of the main level,” Patten says. “Guests walk out of the main house onto a covered porch to continue to the guest suite.”
Like each of their other projects, this DreamBuilt home reflects the history of the individuals who call it home. “Our projects are highly custom builds; building a DreamBuilt home is not just a transactional experience,” Patten says. “We are a true design-build firm; all of our team members sit under one roof. We handhold our clients throughout every step of the design and construction processes. Since our builders have commercial construction backgrounds, they are naturally attentive to scheduling and project pacing. Our clients’ homes are not sitting and waiting on subcontractors to show up; we always have one or more trades working on a home at the same time.”
While emphasizing workflow, DreamBuilt also has developed a roster of loyal subcontractors that it consistently uses on each of its projects. “We are blessed with great clients and interesting projects, so we want to honor that by taking good care of our homeowners,” Patten adds.
In addition to a deep knowledge of both design and construction practices, the DreamBuilt team members each have a different part to play in constructing a home, whether that’s tracking the budget or serving as a concierge to take homeowners to showrooms to choose fixtures and finishes. The company focuses heavily on building homes that are as low-maintenance as possible and have livable layouts just right for each family.
Now in its second generation, DreamBuilt continues its legacy of building the most high-end, custom-focused homes on Lake Oconee. This home is no exception. “I got engaged and was able to host my wedding at the newly rebuilt home,” Patten says. “We had a big party in the backyard that our team designed and built.” *
Dana W. Todd is a professional writer specializing in interior design, real estate, luxury homebuilding, landscape design, architecture and fine art.
The finished home is inspired by the look of English countryside estates, with a crushed slate driveway, Tennessee fieldstone, timber porches, reclaimed French cobblestones and flared roof details that mimic European style.
