6 minute read
Briley
Briley builds farmhouse on family land
Country home features personal touches
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Rachel and Heath Briley can see wide spaces and dramatic sunsets from their white farmhouse near Warner.
Such views are familiar to Heath, who grew up in that area.
He said the family always had cattle and recently got into horses.
By Cathy Spaulding • Photos by Mandy Corbell
Rachel and Heath Briley’s farmhouse sits on a broad 40-acre spread between Warner and Webbers Falls.
Heath and Rachel Briley enjoy farm living with their daughters, Kaya, 10, and Aubri, 8.
Heath said he had always planned to build a house on their 40-acre spread.
“Just seemed like the time was right,” he said.
Rachel Briley began looking through house plans until settling on a farmhouse plan she liked.
“Our main thing was, if a farmer’s going to build a house, they’re going to do things straight and plumb, we wanted straight lines. We wanted everything clean and neat,” Heath said. “One thing about our contractor is that he’s very good about getting a feel of what we like. He has a knack for it.”
Heath said the contractors were Chance Parker and Danny Eichling White.
— heath Briley
“We had seen some of Chance’s other work,” Heath said. “I grew up with Chance and a lot of the subcontractors he uses, I knew several of them.”
The house’s white exterior features flat stone around the base and wood beam trim around the windows, garage doors, back patio and entry.
An 8-foot-tall knotty alder entry door opens onto a spacious living, dining and kitchen area. A cathedral ceiling unifies the areas. Old windmill blades find new life as ceiling fans. Ceramic tile floor
A stone fireplace rises up to the living room’s cathedral ceiling.
throughout the house looks like wood.
Eufaula bluestone surrounding the fireplace and hearth rises to the living room ceiling.
Some of the furniture is custom.
“All these dining tables and end tables and coffee tables and entry table, a guy by the name of Jamie Caudle built all these by hand,” Heath said. “This is actually maple that comes out of semi trailers. It’s got that distressed look to it. It’s very heavy.”
Antique iron sewing machine treadle stands are the dining room table’s legs.
— heath Briley
Caudle’s wife refurbished all the dining chairs, he said.
A barn door slides open for a walk-in pantry. When weather threatens, the pantry becomes a secure safe room, Heath said.
The kitchen island features two levels of granite counter tops. Four stools line the higher serving counter; food is prepared on the lower one.
The counter along the kitchen wall is leathered granite, Rachel Briley said.
The vent over the gas range looks like cast iron, but is actually treated wood. White subway tile lines the backsplash.
Display shelves by the kitchen sink, the living room fireplace and in a
ABOVE: The kitchen island features a two-level granite countertop. Leathered granite is along the wall.
RIGHT: A barn door opens onto a spacious pantry that doubles as a safe room.
half-bath are supported by iron plumbing pipes. But no water goes through them, Rachel said.
The inside doors are knotty pine with what Heath calls “farmhousy-looking square door handles.”
On one side of the house, the two daughters share a hall that has a desk, cabinets, shelves and places to hang coats and stash boots. A blackboard has the girls’ schedule, including a lunch menu. They also share a bathroom.
Aubri, the 8-year-old “princess,” has the pink room with dainty furniture, paintings of royal kittens, unicorns and flying horses.
Kaya, the 10-year-old “cowgirl,” has the more rustic room, with square plain wood furniture and quilt-print bedding.
A laundry room has shelves and cabinets, plus places to hang and fold clothes.
The girls use an upstairs bonus room for playing, watching TV and hanging
ABOVE: The dining area looks out onto acres of farmland.
RIGHT: Refurbished chairs surround the dining room table.
LEFT: The dining room table is topped with maple wood that came out of semi trailers.
BELOW: Old sewing machine treadles supports the bottom of the dining table.
A free-standing tub sits in a bathroom nook and has antique-looking pipes and faucets. Rachel Briley’s walk-in closet includes a vanity.
out. It, too has a cathedral ceiling.
Like other parts of the house, the bonus room has storage spaces of various sizes.
The office opens into the master bedroom, where the bed faces a big screen TV.
The master bath features a sweeping free-standing tub. Antique-looking faucets come up from the floor. A massive window by the tub offers a view of the farm. The tile shower features dual rain shower heads.
Rachel’s walk-in closet features a vanity. Heath’s walk-in features room for his for his caps and cowboy hats.
From the simple back patio, the Brileys can see acres across the farm, which turns many colors when the sun rises and sets.
“Here lately, especially with the clouds and things, it’s pretty majestic,” Heath said. “All kinds of colors.”
Rachel listed “pinks and oranges and purples and blues.”
“We’re up high enough we get a real good view,” she said.
Heath said he especially loves how quiet the farm is.
“And our neighbors, excellent neighbors,” he said.
Those neighbors include wildlife.
“When we first moved in, on a full moon, we would have probably 10 to 15 deer that would bed down outside our patio,” Heath said. “Lots of deer, coyotes, bobcats, a few turkeys.”
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