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$2.95

A FAMILY’S RETREATBLOOMINGTON

COUPLE CREATESHOME FOR

TOGETHERNESS

HOMES & LIFESTYLES OF SOUTH-CENTRAL INDIANA

Also inside:• 1895 Franklin farmhouse

• Missionary work in Guatemala• Mother Nature Landscaping

• First Republic Mortgage Corporation• Three Chimneys Farm

PRSRT STDU.S. POSTAGE PAIDBLOOMINGTON, IN

PERMIT NO. 267

Down onRabbitville RoadMitchell-area scupltor’s fanciful home

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In a 6,000-square-foot house designed for family togetherness, sunlight flows in from all sides. “I like to experiment with things here before I try them on a house we’re building,” Micky Brafford says, and the experiments

are working. Micky owns Dream Builders, a Bloomington construction company that boasts 19 years of experience in custom home building. Much of that experience comes from working on this 10-year-old, two-story, built-from-scratch traditional home that features everything but a zip line—and you never know when that might pop up. This is house as vacation destination. It boasts a stone-and-brick exterior with a touch of French whimsy that includes fleur-de-lis, Napoleon bee designs, and a lot of French-like iron railings. “I love French things,” Micky’s wife Lisa says. “It’s very appealing. There’s a lot of French inspiration in the house. I’d love to go to France someday.”

A FAMILY’S RETREAT

BLOOMINGTON COUPLE CREATESUNIQUE HOME FOR TOGETHERNESS

By Pete DiPrimio, H&L

The Brafford family—Micky, Lisa, 14-year-old Hunter and 11-year-old Sydnee—have a home made for fun times together. Photos by Pete Schreiner

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Riding LessonsBeginner Through Advanced

2025 North Russell Rd, Bloomington812-333-0261 • www.RockyRiverFarm.com

We off er training, boarding, showing, sales, horse leasing and lessons for equine enthusiasts. Lessons are individually tailored for beginners, and can

carefully guide the intermediate and upper level equestrian to the next level of achievement.

Photos by Pete Schreiner

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The house rises from a spacious lot that was once a flat field. Mounds were built and landscaped. A black iron fence surrounds a swimming pool and a pool house (accentuated by a poured concrete floor stamped and colored to look like brick) that includes a well-furnished kitchen, fireplace and home theater. There is a basketball court, a volleyball area, a horseshoe area, a playhouse and a stone-cottage-like workshop. Micky uses that workshop for a variety of projects, including building outdoor furniture. Surrounding it all is a theme of family comes first. “Our family is unusually close,” Micky says. One highlight of that closeness, a Friday family pizza-and-movie night that combines their home theater and the latest comedies/action flicks. “It’s about how your family lives and how you enjoy hanging out,” Lisa says. “You build a house around that and what you enjoy doing. It’s a big bonus when you have your home and you’d rather spend more time there than go out or go on a vacation. “I feel like we live in a resort. It works for us. It’s not for everybody. Our goal was to make this a family retreat—and share with our extended family.”

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LuxuryHomes

Dan Rarey, Dan Rarey Real Estate 812-334-1252

Rob Ranard, RE/MAX Realty Professionals (812) 821-0290

U nbelievable Lake Monroe hilltop home. Built by the late Amish craftsman William Graber, this home has every imaginable feature and is full of charm and amenities. Huge entry with private study creates wonderful home office possibility. Great room has stone fireplace, built-in wine cabinet, and breakfast bar into kitchen. The huge gourmet kitchen is fully equipped and features custom cabinets, granite counter tops, double ovens, and walk-in

pantry. Spacious main-level master has luxury bath with double-sinked, marble-topped cabinetry, jetted tub, separate shower, and walk-in closet. Private second floor has two more large bedrooms, plus study and quaint bath with claw-foot tub and beautiful ceramic work. Lower level has family room with home theater possibilities, study, fourth bedroom and bath. Outside is a covered porch with a built-in gazebo that overlooks the countryside. Across Monroe Dam Road from Lake Monroe in beautiful Tailwater Estates on nearly 3.5 acres. MLS# 20121917

T his home will take your breath away from the dark red oak hardwood floors to the vibrant colors. The home has a large stone fireplace with built-in bookshelves and hidden TV, and large glass door leading out to the balcony overlooking the gorgeous view of the golf course. The gourmet kitchen features Amish-built cherry finished cabinets, a kitchen island with prep sink with disposal, built-in stainless steel oven, convection oven/microwave, stainless steel

refrigerator, dishwasher and a pantry with pull-out drawers. The master bedroom is on the main floor with a great view. The master bath has built-in coffee maker, garden tub, glass-and-tile shower and large walk-in closet with built-in shelves. Downstairs you have the family/game room with wet bar, two bedrooms with adjoining bathroom, the gym/equipment room with double doors that lead outside, large oversized game room. You can walk out onto the patio to your own in-ground pool or relax in the hot tub. State-of-the-art technology with a top-of-the-line security system, including cameras and an intercom system. Truly an amazing home which could be yours today.

1520 E. Tailwater Court $549,900

4447 Newport Road $460,000

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Call Jim Regester RE/MAX Realty Professionals 812-323-1231

8055 Hardin Ridge, $1,099,000

B eautifully situated overlooking Lake Monroe! With direct access to the shoreline and your covered boat slip! Three Story home has over 4,000 fi nished square feet, the fi nest of everything with huge

Master Suite with see through fi replace and panoramic lake view from the private balcony plus two Guest Suites, Custom Cherry Cabinets and Stainless Appliances! Panoramic views from almost every room of the house and porch!! Two Story Great Room with Hardwood Floors and Two Fireplaces! MLS 20122375

3461 Maritime Court, $999,000

E xpansive 3-Story home in Terra Cove Estates sitting on 1.11 AC with over 7,600 fi nished square feet has it all with 6 Bedrooms plus a Study, 4 Full Baths and 2 Half Baths. The Main Level has hardwood

fl oors throughout carpet in the Living Room and Master Bedroom for comfort, and custom eat-in kitchen with granite tops. The walk out lower level features a custom bar, exercise room plus an incredible large screen Home Theater. Two covered decks complete with ceiling fans, plus a stone Fire Pit from which to enjoy the picturesque water view. MLS 20114714

Call Jim Regester RE/MAX Realty Professionals 812-323-1231

A SPECIAL FATE Togetherness has to have a beginning, and this one starts with sports. Lisa was a standout athlete at West Washington High School in southern Indiana, not far from Salem. She set school records for most 3-point baskets and best free throw shooting in basketball, as well as the mile and the 800 in track. That athleticism eventually led Lisa (after attending Louisville’s Spencerian College) to a gym in Bedford, where Micky happened to be working out. His family was from Bedford, but he was born and raised in Miami, Fla. His father had gone to Indiana University and Micky did too, for the Kelley School of Business. While attending college, he stayed in the family home in Bedford and joined the same Bedford gym as Lisa. “It was fate,” Micky says. Fate led to sparks, romance, vows and more. They have a 14-year-old son (Hunter) and an 11-year-old daughter (Sydnee), plus a 6-year-old beta fish (Crystal). For all this they needed a home. But it had to be special. Micky inherited his knack for dream building from his father Ward. Micky’s parents wanted to build a home in the Bloomington area. They’d never had a new house and Micky offered to build them one. They were 79 years old and for Ward, at least, the thrill of climbing stairs had long since faded.

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“My father told me, ‘Your mother (Freeda) wants an upstairs. Go ahead and build her one and I’ll go up there—once,’” Micky says. So Micky built them a 2,700-square-foot home with 1,900 feet of it on the first floor, including a master bedroom. The upstairs has three bedrooms, one of which is a sewing room, and a balcony. Throughout that process, Micky stayed true to his home-building philosophy. “Tell me how you live,” he says, “because no two houses are the same.” That’s especially true of his house. You don’t see much exterior wood. That’s by design. The Braffords prefer low-maintenance materials such as stone, brick and concrete. “We like things that can sustain themselves,” Lisa says. “You just clean it up.” Adds Micky: “We have a lot of stone. We want to make sure it looks like it all belongs together.” Wood is left for the oak hardwood floors and the cherry cabinets. That, too, is by design. The Braffords wanted a modern home with old-fashioned appeal. “We wanted it to be like walking into a house that was 150 years old, but still in style,” Micky says. “That you could walk into it a 100 years from now and not say, ‘Those cabinets were in style in the 1960s.’ Cherry cabinets are always in style.” The Braffords went for lots of windows to ensure light and more flowed in. “We wanted as many windows as we could get,” Micky says. “We don’t want to be stir-crazy. We want to see the outside.” The more-windows-are-better approach includes six transoms above many of the room entrances, plus those above every door leading to the outside. “We love the light and the look of them,” Lisa says. “They’re unique.” Micky says he “loves the building process,” but the moving process—not so much. “A lot of builders move every couple of years,” Lisa says. “We can’t do that.” Technically, they could. They own a lot across the street that has access to a lake. They could build another house there, but why mess with that when what they have works so well? “The kids say they want to stay home instead of go somewhere on vacation,” Micky says. “They say, ‘Can’t we just stay home this summer?’” And so they do.

Photos by Pete Schreiner

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Fall is just aroun

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MUMS

DUTCH BULBS

PUMPKINS

CORN SHOCKS

GOURDS

SQUASH

INDIANA CORN

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315 W. Kirkwood Ave.TheKirkwood.com812.330.7302

Choose comfort, style and convenience.Live close to the heart of downtown Bloomington, near bus routes, restaurants and retail shops.

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VISUALIZED CREATIVITY Micky gets visions. No, he doesn’t see the future or ghosts—he sees a room the way it is, sometimes even before it is, and envisions the way it will be. “It sounds silly, but when laying it out I can visualize the room and see it,” he says. “For our whole house I had it in my head.” Lisa trusts what’s inside Micky’s head. “It’s harder for me to visualize things,” she says. “When I see something I like, I tell Micky and he pulls it all together.” Togetherness starts on the first floor. It’s like one big circle with a wide open kitchen-breakfast-nook-family-room that flows into a black-painted half bath, a study, living room and a dining room. “We wanted it open,” Lisa says. “I didn’t want to be in the kitchen and be cut off from everybody. We enjoy hanging out together.” For the living room Micky knew he wanted a fireplace. Not just any fireplace, but one that would draw your attention because of its style and attention to detail. It’s built of Coronado culture stone and rises from floor to ceiling. Micky and Lisa go to home shows and look through magazines for inspiration. They

saw white cabinets surrounding a fireplace and installed that in their family room on either side of the fireplace. The cabinets store kids toys and a TV. “It’s all about combining ideas to get what you like and what your style is,” Lisa says. “We’d see different white cabinets. We took it and combined it.” Next is a study that looks more like a well-stocked library. Many of the books come from Easton Press. They include, Lisa says, “all the classics” and more. Authors range from Charles Dickens to John Glenn, the former astronaut and senator. There’s a sitting area and another fireplace (the house has five of them). “I do paperwork here,” Micky says. “It causes me to think more outside the box. Our daughter gets up early, like me, and loves to write stories and draw here.” Crossing the foyer you enter a living room dominated by windows (“I love it in here,” Lisa says, “because it’s bright.”) and a see-through fireplace that leads into a dining room featuring French doors and crimson walls. “The house is all warm colors,” Lisa says. “We have a lot of deep reds, sage greens and browns.” Throw in the white ceiling beams and you have what Micky calls, “rustic elegance.”

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The upstairs has four bedrooms. Hunter’s room showcases a large mounted wahoo fish (wahoos are fast and sleek, and can grow to 8 feet long) caught by his grandfather. Sydnee’s room offers plenty of stuffed animals. A guest room has a safari theme. The master bedroom includes a large sitting area with an armoire and a TV. Micky uses it to do paperwork late at night, “so I can be on the same floor with everybody,” he says. As usual, there are plenty of windows, “so it seems like we’re outside when we’re inside,” he says. The finished basement features a large home theater insulated with 12-inch poured concrete walls. There’s also a karaoke machine because, Lisa says, “this is a fun, family room.” Fun is evolving. The Braffords will add a workout room, a brick-and-stone wine cellar, and a craft room to the basement. “I love scrap booking with Sydnee,” Lisa says. As for Micky, he just loves building. “The building part relaxes me. It allows me to use my hands and help people.” That part, it seems, will never change.