The moniker given to a child can brand the child with identity, style or aspiration, and naming a great house is no different. Just hearing a name conjures a reputation – Fallingwater, The Breakers, Pemberley – and when Brent and Alisa Bigham christened their home “Rivendell,” they knew what magical imagery they would conjure. They had just spent eight years in a French country home they built and called “Narnia,” with a secret room accessed through the doors of a wardrobe.
When they built their next home, they didn’t set out to replicate the fictional elvish dwelling of author J.R.R. Tolkien’s lore, rather a well-crafted, warm, hospitable retreat in the mountains. It was only after the rambling residence of wood and stone came together that Alisa searched for a name.
“Your house is Rivendell,” a friend told her, since it was always full of food and laughter.
The couple had fallen in love with old-fashioned timber frame construction at a friend’s home, and it became the most influencing factor in their own home’s construction. Crafted in Virginia by Blue Ridge Timberwrights and assembled on-site using mortise and tenon joints, the home’s Douglas fir structure rises to 32 feet at its apex, where, from the seat of a bucket truck, Brent and his son put the only nail in the home’s frame to hang an evergreen bough for good luck. Dunlap stone wraps the foundation of the house, imbuing it with an ancient atmosphere.
One with its natural setting, the intrinsic beauty of the home’s exposed timber frame brings the richness of wood to every room, nowhere more so than the living room whose vaulted ceiling and stone chimney take full advantage of the home’s two stories. Pale shiplap paneling and a bounty of windows reaching almost to the ceiling bring in enough light to balance the wood’s deep hues. Taking in the tree-lined lake view, the back side of the first story is edged with sunrooms and a huge stone porch. A custom dining table here accommodates the large family by the back side of the living room’s two-sided fireplace.