Bruce and Diane Alexander moved from a four-bedroom house on one side of Dublin to a smaller, empty-nest abode across town. But it wasn’t much of a change, because they took some of their old home with them.

With their four children long gone, the Alexanders decided they didn’t need the nearly 4,000 square feet of living space in their home overlooking the Scioto River in Amberleigh. However, they liked many of the features of the Truberry Group-built house they owned for 10 years and wanted Truberry to build their next one with some similar features.

They chose the Cortona community in Tartan West, where Diane found a wooded lot that would give them warm-weather privacy out the back of a patio home. It could have a walkout lower level abutting a city-owned preserve that will forever be natural with no homes immediately behind.

Rather than work from plans from Truberry’s model home, the Alexanders outlined to the builder’s architect the features they wanted, including a wide open living area, high ceilings, higher than normal doors with arched panels and arched hallway openings.

The result is a two-bedroom, two-bathroom home, with an office, great room, kitchen with serving island, dining room and a sun room. The home is wide open and neatly tied together with interior design features. The overall effect creates an attractive setting for comfortable living in approximately 2,300 square feet.

A paver drive leads past the 2-car garage to an arched brick entryway and entry door surrounded by glass. Arched engraved designs in the story door’s full-length glass add to the interior décor.

To the right off the foyer is Diane’s office and to the left is a guest bedroom that’s served by a pullout bed. Also off the foyer is the powder room that’s actually a full bath. The bath has a unique solar tube to provide some light. Basically, Bruce explains, the device is a flexible tube about 1-foot in diameter that allows outside light to reach a round, opaque glass “window.” It was installed where roof lines join and a standard skylight couldn’t be built, he adds.

About 1,700 square feet of lightly stained oak flooring ties together the foyer and the expansive living area and the open, formal dining area to the right off the foyer. The Alexanders laid carpet only in the bedrooms and the office.

The back walls in the great room and sunroom are all glass, offering a pleasant view of the tree line. The Andersons note their former home was similar, but that the sunroom now adds more glass.

Ten-foot ceilings are used throughout except in the great room, which is enhanced with a 12-foot high tray ceiling. To complement the higher ceilings, all doors are 8½ feet tall. The kitchen, with granite counter and island tops, is on the left side of the great room. The high ceiling allowed space for windows above kitchen cabinets along the south outside wall to provide even more natural light.

A unique fireplace front entails woodwork Bruce says was “kind of outside the box.” Diane had seen a similar design in a magazine and Truberry’s finish carpenter readily agreed to build it. The Alexanders’ fireplace covers an entire wall with four base cabinets and double doors on either side. A wood edifice arcs from the top of the cabinets toward the ceiling. Painted white, with a black metal fireplace and a flat screen television above it, the creation is indeed eye catching.

The sunroom off the kitchen has a doorway to a deck where Diane sometimes works. While their other home had a screened porch, the couple decided it was not useful all year and opted for the sunroom instead.

Their master suite has a large window offering a view of the wooded area. The adjoining master bath has a shower with a wall and exterior window of glass blocks and ceramic tiles that reach the ceiling. The walk-in closet is to the rear off the bath. And another step away is a door leading to the laundry room and a hall to the family room.

A laundry room closet, with a thermostatically controlled cooling fan, is where operating equipment for electronic gear – television control box, computer modem, sound system – are stored. The home is pre-wired for sound throughout.

In their former home, the basement was finished. But they deliberately chose not to do that in their new home.

“We don’t need all that extra living space to keep clean,” Bruce says.

Eventually, though, the Alexanders expect to finish it. It’s wired and plumbing is roughed in to allow two bedrooms and a bath. It likely will be done as a resale feature, but Bruce projects that might be 10 years down the road.

Their narrow rear yard is adjacent to the city-owned preserve. As most residents do, they have encroached some by creating a garden-like setting adjacent to a stream bed while abiding by certain planting restrictions – such as no mulch – that apply to their own property.

Besides adapting to the smaller home, Bruce says they are “working on being snow-birds” by spending two winter months in Florida. That’s made simpler because the homeowners’ association takes care of all outside maintenance, another amenity the Alexanders also enjoy throughout the year.

Duane St. Clair is a contributing editor for Luxury Living.