turning - Miranova

PubDate: 06-03-07 Page: 1 H Edition: 1 Replate:
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Tinkling chimes delight in the garden H9
City Hop profiles condos
Dispatch.com
HOME&GARDEN
SUNDAY
JUNE 3, 2007
H
For breaking news, visit Dispatch.com.
CHRIS RUSSELL DISPATCH
Salvia attracts a bee at the Ohio
Division of Wildlife garden.
SHARI LEWIS
DISPATCH PHOTOS
The master bathroom of the Heitmeyer Homes’ entry in the Parade of Homes features a large one-way glass window overlooking landscaping.
Gardens
please
the eyes,
Earth
By Jenny Jacobs
TURNING
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
INSIDE OUT
By Kevin Kidder
Parade of Homes
designs focus
on bringing the
outdoors indoors
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
T
Stringtown Rd.
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GROVE CITY
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W h i te R d .
2007 Parade
of Homes
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PINNACLE
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THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
The Windsor Homes family room features a two-sided fireplace that also can
be used from the brick patio.
his year’s Parade of Homes is in the lush
countryside of Grove City, surrounded
by rolling golf-course fairways and the
occasional lake.
Bringing those views, that atmosphere, that
fresh air, into homes would be ideal.
Many of the builders for the Parade of Homes
seem to think so, and they’ve done their best to
integrate the outdoor environs into the houses
they’ve constructed.
Eleven homes ranging in price from $540,000
to more than $1 million will be showcased at
this year’s parade, which runs June 9-24 at Pinnacle Estates in Grove City.
At Heitmeyer Homes’ southern California
mission-style home, the outdoor patio is designed as an extension of the first-floor living
space.
“Basically the growing trend and what a lot of
consumers want is to bring the outdoors into
the home,” said Jason Heitmeyer, vice president
of Heitmeyer Homes.
Windsor Homes features a gathering room
with more than 12 large windows facing the
course, along with an indoor-outdoor fireplace
in the lower-level room.
See PARADE Page H2
PRIVATE SPACES
RICART STUDIO
Caterpillars nestle between the
fingers of the pearly everlasting
plant as bees tickle the tops of purple salvia flowers.
Such scenes aren’t rare at the Ohio
Department of Natural Resources
office in Grandview Heights, but
they are easy to overlook in the
midst of everyday tasks and schedules.
Between noon and 5 p.m. today,
the public will have an opportunity
to peek inside eight public and private gardens — including the Division of Wildlife creation — and enjoy
the sights and sounds of nature’s
heartbeat.
Simply Living, a group that educates the public on how to live sustainably with the earth and with
others, organized today’s Simply
Elegant Garden Tour.
The tour focuses on gardens that
are aesthetically pleasing as well as
environmentally conscious.
The event was planned in conjunction with the Friends of the
Lower Olentangy Watershed and the
local chapter of the National Wildlife
Federation.
“We hope to show that environmental responsibility and beauty are
not mutually exclusive,” said Jen
Lucas, the group’s tour coordinator.
See SIMPLY Page H10
Rose festival
to show off
blossoms of
stalwarts
By Kevin Kidder
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
Ricart strums to the beat of Downtown
Once a month, Home & Garden
visits a central Ohioan’s home to peek
at the room most readily associated
with his or her line or work or play.
By Kevin Kidder
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
His guitar-strumming is about as
famous as his car-selling.
Anyone visiting Fred Ricart’s homes
would have seen how serious he is
about his music — with the elaborate
$35,000 studios that he installed and
the guitars lying around.
He has studios in his homes in
Florida and Granville.
And he has a studio in his newest
home, in Miranova. But it isn’t as
obvious.
The suite includes a contemporary
living room with a glass wall that
overlooks Downtown Columbus.
Some errant guitars and a mandolin
are the only sign that someone might
like playing.
A golden antique-looking table,
inset gas fireplace and two plush
couches belie the fact that, behind
closed doors, there are amps, speakers and more amps. The entire western wall of the room is a large cabinet
housing the electronics along with an
80-inch Hitachi plasma television.
On a rolling glass cart, a flat-screen
display connects to a Power Mac G4
computer, with the audio program
Pro Tools running on the screen. This
is Ricart’s new recording studio — the
room where many of those folksy
commercials are acted out.
The decor has been handled by his
wife, Lynne, but the choice of electronics was Ricart’s.
One morning he shared his
thoughts on life and the new hightech studio that vanishes into the
cabinetry when it must.
See RICART Page H2
TOM DODGE DISPATCH
Fred Ricart sits next to his amplifiers and computer at his home in Miranova,
with his Martin guitar in hand.
Forget their reputation.
Not all roses have to be babied,
local experts say. Some new varieties
look majestic without the need for
constant spraying.
The new Earth Kind roses, including a Yellow Knockout variety
that hasn’t been released to the public, will be on display at the 2007
Columbus Rose Festival, which will
take place Saturday and next Sunday
at the Park of Roses in Whetstone
Park.
The free event will run from
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. both days at the
park, 3923 N. High St.
The new exhibition garden of
Earth Kind roses was planted in May,
said Jim Barraco, president of the
Columbus Rose Club and the Central
Ohio Rose Society.
“It’ll give the public an idea of how
easy it can be. No care, no spray, no
water — these are the kinds of plants
that survive under extreme conditions,” Barracco said.
See ROSES Page H3
PubDate: 06-03-07 Page: 2 H
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H2 THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
RICART
FROM PAGE H1
Q: So this is your studio?
A: This doubles as a living
room and a studio for me. This
deal here on the end (pointing
to speakers and amps) kind of
disappears into the cabinet. It
closes, and you don’t know
anything is there at all.
I used to have a 16-track
Scully (tape machine) with
2-inch tape in it, like what the
Beatles used.
We had to get that thing
ramped up — get up to speed
before you did your thing. If
you messed (with) it, which
I normally did, you had to
spin it backward, hit the brakes,
find your mark and then redo
it.
Well, that system, which took
an entire room, is on a computer now.
Q: Is this where your commercials are recorded?
A: If I’m doing a radio voiceover, a lot of that stuff is done
right here, watching TV, playing
guitar all afternoon.
I’ll put it right in my computer. This is the new world.
And I can e-mail it to my guy
Alex down at Ricart.
Or let’s say I don’t like it; it’s
just not hitting. I e-mail it to
Danny Green in Hilliard at
Amerisound, and he’ll e-mail
it back to me an hour later.
All of the radio stuff you hear,
it’s done right here on this
machine (motioning to the
Power Mac).
Q: What about TV commercials?
A: We’ve got a camera here.
There has been stuff shot on the
green screen. The green screen
puts you anywhere. The goal is
to inexpensively do all of this;
we’re not paying any talent
costs.
Q: When did you start playing?
A: I went to Case (Western
Reserve University), and my
roommate played, and when
Neil Young’s Harvest came out,
we ended up playing at a place
called the Olive Tree in Cleveland.
I did the Neil Young set for a
year there, and James Taylor,
Fire and Rain, (Neil Young) Old
Man, that whole thing, and,
when I came home to Columbus from Cleveland, I ended up
playing with different bands
around town.
Q: When do you play?
A: I play guitar when I’m
watching TV.
I’ll be watching 24, and I’ll be
online and playing the guitar.
And I start to calm down.
Q: You have said you’re a
night owl. How late do you
play?
A: Four o’clock sometimes. I
think about things, and I can’t
sleep, so I wake up at 3 o’clock
or 3:30 every morning. It’s nice
having this view out here. It’s a
killer shot at night.
I’ve done that all my life. I’m
kind of an insomniac.
Q: Do any of your neighbors
ever complain?
A: No one has ever complained, and either they really
like it, or they can’t hear.
They probably can’t hear it;
the walls here are thick.
Q: Who handles the decor?
A: It would be fair to say
Lynne does all of it.
Here’s the deal: I can have
all of the amps and everything
as long as I can go and put it
away when my mother-in-law
visits.
Q: So why did you move
here?
A: I think we’ve been here
three years. I like being Downtown. We’re always going back
and forth (between Florida and
Columbus).
kkidder@dispatch.com
HOW TO REACH US
HOME & GARDEN EDITOR
Cindy Decker .............................614-461-5027
cdecker@dispatch.com
E 060307 C14846-1
Home & Garden fax ...................614-559-1754
Home
SUNDAY, JUNE 3, 2007
BREAKING NEWS: DISPATCH.COM
PARADE
FROM PAGE H1
At the Tuscan-themed house
built by Dani Homes, the
buyers will be able to watch
projected theater movies either
from inside or outside.
Heitmeyer built a wet bar
under the covered porch of a
carriage house. The porch also
shelters a plasma television.
Another plasma television
will be installed on a covered
patio off the main house, and
ceiling fans have been mounted on the porch ceilings, both
to create a breeze when there
isn’t one and to keep bugs
away.
“It’s literally another room of
the house,” Heitmeyer said.
(The televisions must be
covered when not in use so
they are protected from weather.)
Speakers for the integrated
entertainment system will be
placed around the patio —
including several that look like
flowerpots.
From the great room, a
double-sided indoor-outdoor
gas fireplace and twin double
doors open onto the patio to
allow for entertaining indoors,
outdoors or both.
At least four of the homes on
the tour have fireplaces that
bridge the division between
inside and out.
“Integrating the see-through
fireplace helps connect the two
areas,” Heitmeyer said.
Inside, two cupolas have
been designed to bring natural
light into the heart of the
ranch-style home. The master
bathroom features a wall of
one-way windows that will look
out on gorgeous landscaping,
Heitmeyer said.
The liberal use of windows is
just as pronounced at Dani
Homes’ Tuscan-themed house,
where a back window provides
a view of the backyard and
serves as a giant movie screen.
A projector inside the casual
SHARI LEWIS
entertainment room on the
lower level will throw the
image onto the specially designed window, which has
motorized blinds to help it act
as a screen. If a homeowner
flips a switch, the projector will
invert the image so viewers can
watch the movie from outside
the home, said Nilay Bhatt of
Dani.
The patio includes a fire pit,
and an adjacent deck includes
an indoor-outdoor doublesided gas fireplace.
Adjacent to the entertainment room, a large hall that
can house a pool table connects to a bedroom complete
with its own bathroom.
Bhatt said he asked customers what they were looking
for in a lower-level area.
“Some of the things they
said: They want a game room;
they want a theater room; they
want storage; they want a bedroom,” Bhatt said. “Here, you
don’t have to sacrifice anything.
House watch
Single-family houses in Franklin,
Delaware, Madison, Morrow and
Union counties and some of
Fairfield, Knox, Licking, Logan,
Marion and Pickaway counties,
according to the Columbus
Board of Realtors.
DISPATCH
The Windsor Homes entry in the parade includes large windows that offer a view of the golf course.
5/31/07 6/1/06
Houses on market 18,548 17,407
Average price
$224,902 $224,865
Days on market
117
103
More statistics on Page H4
View a slideshow of the
Parade of Homes at
Dispatch.com/multimedia.
home for casual entertaining,”
Libertini said.
Windsor owner Pat Zimmer
presents a patio that merges
with a lower-level room via an
indoor-outdoor fireplace and
We wanted it open . . . casual.’’
rustic stack-stone walls that
Adjoining the patio will be a
blend with the outside stone.
bocce-ball field.
“It marries the two rooms
From the top floors, large
together,” Zimmer said. “You
windows were specifically
could easily entertain 40
placed so the homeowner
people in the house.”
could take in the Columbus
He has used those indoorskyline.
Before starting the American outdoor fireplaces in other
homes.
Heritage house, builder Gary
“It was a big hit,” he said.
Libertini wandered the lot. He
Like other homes on the
considered the views the site
parade, he built the house with
would have — sheltered from
a lot of windows to take
the clubhouse by a finger of
advantage of the panoramic
woods, a lake to the left. He
views. A gathering room, which
knew the design had to take
is just off the kitchen, features
advantage of the setting.
12 large windows with views of
“We obviously had a great
the course.
view of the course,” he said.
Upstairs, the master bedOff the master suite, he built
room is designed to take
a large balcony, designed to
allow a breeze. If nature doesn’t advantage of its two windows,
looking out on a pond and
cooperate, a ceiling fan can
trees beyond.
take over.
“The first thing you see is the
Below the balcony, a patio is
outdoors,” Zimmer said.
sunk 2 feet into the ground,
In fact, that’s true of most
surrounded by landscaping
designed to create a 3- to 4-foot every room in the house, Zimmer said, especially the kitchen
barrier.
and gathering room.
Inside, most of the wall fac“Anywhere you sit in that
ing the course is windows,
area, you have great views. In
taking advantage of the views.
the kitchen, the cook will have
“We wanted to do a multigreat views, too.”
level home, geared toward a
kkidder@dispatch.com
50s-plus couple that wanted a