Worth The Wait

After years of planning, one North Carolina home goes from dream to reality.

- Roger Wade

Deciding on a dream home design is almost never an easy feat. After all, it’s most likely the culmination of months — even years — of collecting ideas, researching companies and planning that “just right” space that pairs perfectly with your lifestyle now and in the future.

For Stephen and Ann Aylward, though, coming up with a design for their North Carolina “mountain modern” retreat took even more time than most. The challenge? “We had no idea how to explain what we wanted, but we knew what we didn’t want,” says Ann with a laugh. “We knew we didn’t want a traditional house like we lived in before and we knew what we liked once we saw it.”

For the home’s exterior, what they liked turned out to be a style created by Brett Schwebke of Tynecastle Builders in Banner Elk, North Carolina. “We actually had an old issue of Timber Home Living and one of Brett’s houses was featured on the cover,” explains Stephen. “We both loved the style and knew that was what we wanted to shoot for.” Within minutes of finding the article, Ann had contacted Schwebke and set up a time to visit his office the very next week — a quick decision that ultimately drove the entire project.