History Maker

This Cape Cod has a sweet history. It stands on 2 acres that were once part of a farm cosmetics giant Jesse Grover Bell purchased in the 1940s. The founder of the Bonne Bell Co. — maker of the Lip Smackers flavored lip balms beloved by generations of teens — christened the spread Bonne Brook Farm and used it as a family weekend retreat. The house was built in the early '60s on the farm-turned-subdivision property for Bell’s daughter, Virginia Bragg, and her husband, Richard. They equipped it with upscale features of that era including a dumbwaiter and intercom system.

But Amy and Brad Bowers associate a different history with the property. The couple bought the 3,500-square-foot abode from Amy’s family in 1993 because it was the happy home in which Amy grew up.

Amy fondly remembers picking blackberries, playing kick the can and hunting for tadpoles in the yard. The house her parents purchased in 1965 was in a prime location yet still secluded, the perfect place for her and Brad to raise their three kids in a familiar setting.

“There’re probably 35 homes in our neighborhood, and seven of them are [owned by] second-generation people,” says 54-year-old Amy, who co-owns the Akron document-management service company Casnet with her husband. “I grew up with these people or their parents.”

“It [had] a beautiful yard,” adds 54-year-old Brad. “We felt fortunate at a pretty young age to buy it.”

But as the years went on, the first floor became too small for the many cocktail parties, dinners and fundraisers the Bowers hosted as members of organizations. Amy currently sits on the Akron Children’s Hospital Women’s Board, Bath Township Trustee Advisory Board and Bath Park Board. She also serves as Bath Volunteers for Service home tour chair and Bath Horse Show committee chair. Brad is vice president of nominating for the local Boy Scouts of America Council, an Old Trail School trustee and volunteer court-appointed special advocate for Summit County children.

In 2003, the couple embarked on an extensive remodeling project with Akron architect Stephen Leuenberger and Akron builder Steven Moore that added roughly 2,500 square feet and turned the four-bedroom, 4 1/2-bath house into a 6,000-square-foot residence.

“It’s the family homestead,” Brad explains, “so we were committed to staying.”

The first phase involved tearing down a screened-in porch and adding a 1,400-square-foot great room. A sitting area surrounds a massive Maryland river stone fireplace, a sunken area offers cozy television viewing and a wet bar stands on a quirky rubber floor — all under a vaulted ceiling with exposed Douglas fir beams and skylights. A spiral iron staircase by the bar descends to a 1,500-bottle wine cellar that houses Brad’s collection and a tasting room below.

“The addition is almost as big as the rest of the house,” Brad says. “That’s why we angled it towards the back — so it didn’t look like an aberration from the street.”

The Bowers worked with Akron interior designer Alan Garren to finish the space in a rustic-yet-refined earth-toned decor. The bar and the knee wall surrounding the sunken area, like the bulk of the other built-ins, were custom made in cherry wood and topped in Madura gold granite from Custom Creations Woodworking of Stow.

“We’re outdoorsy people, skiers and that,” Brad says. “So we like a lot of wood to feel like we’re in a ski lodge.”

Contractors also pushed out a portion of the first floor at the back of the house off the existing kitchen, dining room and living room, reconfiguring those areas to create a spacious kitchen and dining area separated by a wall with a two-sided Maryland river stone fireplace. The kitchen boasts beech floors, cherry cabinetry and a hefty central island with a sink set in granite and iroko-topped prep and dining areas.

“Fifty people can stand in the kitchen, eat and hang out,” Brad says. “A lot of times, we’ll use the island as a buffet.”

Banks of built-ins separating the kitchen from the great room provide additional counter space. “We’ll usually put desserts and coffee on there when we have people over,” Brad says. The Madura gold granite countertop on the dining-room buffet sits on units that heat the stone to keep serving dishes warm.

The home’s back exterior was transformed beyond recognition. A simple staircase from a first-floor door to a bluestone patio off the walkout basement was replaced by a pergola-shaded deck, turning that bluestone patio into a partially covered space. Another patio was added off the back of the great room, and a new screened-in porch adjoins its front. Those outdoor spaces combine with the property’s grounds to provide plenty of room for outdoor functions like the couple’s annual Oktoberfest.

The second phase of renovations gutted the second-floor master suite, removing the ceiling to create a vaulted counterpart where the attic once was and eliminating the tiny office to expand and reconfigure the bedroom, bath and closet.

The vaulted master bath may be the most eye-catching room in the house, in part because of its 8-by-8-foot travertine marble shower. The absence of a curtain or door makes its glass-tile wall inlay a focal point for the room. The couple used the same red onyx for the shower floor and bench as they did for the back-to-back his-and-hers vanities that jut out on a floating divider wall.

“It’s really a very dramatic, cool piece of stone [that] makes a statement,” Amy says.

Completed after four years, the remodeling project was intended to create venues for large-scale entertaining, but their thoughtful attention to details in these private spaces reinforces the fact that the spacious house is still a home — where they spend Sunday afternoons watching football in the great room, throw Thanksgiving dinners for over 30 people and host weddings for friends and relatives in the backyard. And they still have plenty of their own history to make in it.