I See Green Pastures... I See Horses w ritten by SHERIL BE NNE T T TURNER photo g raphed by KRIS DECKER
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see green pastures. I see horses. These are the words entwined in the twin wrought iron gates in front of the drive that leads to the home of Dr. and Mrs. John Hugill. Not so unusual at first glance because their home is surrounded by the green pastures and horses of the Motlow Creek Equestrian Farms community located in picturesque Campobello, South Carolina. But for John and Chloe, originally from Brazil, these words hold a special meaning. Once firmly entrenched in his plastic surgery practice on the gulf coast of Florida, neither John nor wife Chloe had any plans to move away from their ocean view. But one day, a patient of John’s predicted otherwise. “I had a patient in Florida who was supposed to be clairvoyant,” John remembers. “One day I was changing her bandage and she looked at me and said ‘I see green pastures.’ Chloe interjects, “John was a little depressed because of so much work and the plastic surgery expectations of the patients. When this patient told him that everything was going to be OK, that cheered John up.” John laughs. “I was fine and dandy for about two hours then I began to worry again.” Then one day, when Chloe came to take John to lunch, the same patient grabbed her arm. ‘I see horses,’ she said. Chloe told the woman that she used to ride horses when she was a teenager but no longer. But the psychic insisted. ‘No, no, no. I see horses in your future.’ John and Chloe both laughed it off and continued with their busy routines. They soon forgot all about the strange prediction. But as is often the case, fate had the last laugh. “Much later,” John says, “we started looking for a summer home so we could get away from the Florida heat and humidity.” Chloe continues. “We started looking in the Carolinas because it was centrally located. Our kids, John and Claudia, do business and travel everywhere so we wanted to be close to major airports like Atlanta and Charlotte so we could drive and pick them up when they visited.” Contacting local realtors who e-mailed the Hugills regularly, the couple soon found what they were looking for. “Everyday I’d come home and my e-mail would be loaded,” John laughs. “In those days of dial-up internet, you’d sit there and scroll forever. But one day, a realtor sent us a picture of the house next door to this one. The minute Chloe saw it, it was sold.” “But,” Chloe adds, “when we saw the house on the internet, we did not know it was in an equestrian neighborhood. The house had a few acres, but not enough for horses, so they never advertised it as such.” Much to their amazement, after they purchased the home they realized that, indeed, they could see green pastures and horses. The original home never really became a summer place for the Hugills because in 2002, Chloe gave John an ultimatum. “I knew it was time for John to slow down and retire so I gave him a date— this Thursday at 5:00 p.m. you will retire. It is before my birthday, GreerNow JULY 2008
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we are going to Europe, and we need a day before to pack.” When they returned they sold their Florida home and moved to Campobello. “We lived in the original house for a year and a half,” John explains, “and that’s when we got this crazy idea to build a barn here. This home was just going to be a barn for the other place—then it got bigger and bigger and bigger. We decided to put a guest suite on top of the barn for our children and their families when they came to visit. Then we decided to actually make it taller and add two lofts.” “When they were constructing it,” Chloe explains, “I was able to get up on ladders and we started seeing the whole 360 ° view. We thought it would be a nice place when the children visited.” Chloe, a very talented artist, designed most of the house herself. She challenged Dave Taylor with the construction of her dream. “I would do rough drawings and tell Dave how to go about it. He was very good at following my plan. He did for us what another guy probably couldn’t have done. We really wanted this place to be totally unique so everything is custom built.” Three years later, when the house was complete, the Hugills realized that they had, in truth, built the house of their dreams. They decided to sell their original home next door and move into the barn home themselves. The first floor of their new home is currently being used for John’s medical records retrieval business, and still shows evidence of its brief prior life. “If you look,” John says, “there is still a drain in the floor here, a water tap on the wall there.” His two employees, he teases, are in stall number 1 and stall number 2. “When we eventually stop working completely,” Chloe says, “the offices downstairs will then become another bedroom suite.” The living area of the home is located on the second floor, with lots of windows that capture the beautiful mountain, stream, and field views that so captivated the Hugills. An intricate wooden stairway leads up to a large open room where the living and dining room adjoin a spacious central kitchen, perfect for entertaining. “The concept I got,” explains John, “is that anytime you go to anyone’s house, you just park yourself in the kitchen. So I said I just want to have a house that’s a kitchen.” Gleaming granite countertops and plenty of cabinet space make this kitchen as functional as it is pretty. Brazilian cherry hardwood floors add warmth and congruity to the open floor plan. Glancing up in the center of the room amid custom oak wood ceilings and mouldings, an opening allows plenty of light to stream into the room and
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offers a peak at the barn-like cupola on the roof. Directly off of the living area is the master bedroom suite, complete with breathtaking views and a spacious luxurious bath. Beyond the kitchen near the front of the house is a guest suite, also known as the nap room because of its soothing, peaceful vistas. Another bath is conveniently located for guests. As they were constructing the new home, the couple decided to add loft areas on either side, creating two third level rooms. One side is a sitting room, reachable by a magnificent handcrafted wrought iron spiral staircase. Across the room is another stunning staircase that leads to Chloe’s private art studio and powder room. “As an afterthought, we decided to add an elevator for when we get
immigrated to Brazil where later John and Chloe met as teenagers on the beach. “At that time in Brazil,” John remembers, “if you were single, a young lady could not just talk to a boy. You had to be introduced. Chloe and I would see each other at the beach, because in Brazil everyone goes to the beach. I went to medical school during the week, and on the weekends went to the beach with my friends. You’d stick your umbrella, put your towel down, and claim your five square feet of beach. I would be there with my friends and Chloe would be there with hers. The next weekend, we’d be over here and she’d be over there. I would notice where she was and one day one of the guys
too old to climb the stairs,” John says. “Right now we have a dog who’s pretty old, so we put her in the elevator and I get her downstairs. People find that hilarious.” The home also features several balconies where you can escape outside to enjoy the fresh country air and tranquil surrounding landscape. Prominently displayed on the walls of the home are Chloe’s stunning paintings, other cherished art pieces, and pictures of the family. The home is lovingly and comfortably appointed with treasured antiques and mementoes, inherited from John’s parents, who were originally from England, and Chloe’s, who came from Portugal. Both of their parents
said, ‘Hey! I met one of those girls at a party last night. Come on, I’ll introduce you.’ So, all the guys got up and we all walked over there and were introduced. So I finally got to speak with her because we’d been introduced. When we started dating, I’d pick her up around 2:00 p.m. to go to the movies and have her back by 8:00 p.m. We eventually got married in Brazil and I practiced there for a couple of years.” In 1972, the couple decided to move to America. “We were the proverbial immigrants that arrived here with a couple of suitcases,” John says. “Since I wanted to do some more training as a doctor, I went to Cook County GreerNow JULY 2008
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Hospital in Chicago where I found out that I would have to start all over again as a resident.” Later John would specialize and become board certified in Plastic Surgery. Chloe, who speaks five languages, was teaching languages when they lived in Brazil. “When we arrived here in the United States,” she says, “I had a 2 ½ year-old son, and then I became pregnant with my daughter. I raised my family, taking care of the kids and their education, and I also helped out with John’s practice.” Chloe also continued her painting, and when the couple moved to Campobello, rediscovered her passion for gardening, extensively landscaping their original home as well as the new one. Even though the Hugill’s barn never materialized as such, their three horses and two donkeys now have their very own smaller barn to call home. And today when John and Chloe glance out their windows, they can very clearly see the green pastures and horses that were meant to be.
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