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It’s as if a plein-air artist captured a moment in time and painted the landscape surrounding Fieldstone Farm in Loudoun County, VA. The rolling hillside, the hundred-year-old trees, and the paddocks and fields create a scene that a prominent landscape artist, Lucien Powell, may have painted years ago. Powell was born and raised in this area, studied in Philadelphia and Paris, and was recognized for his artwork by President Franklin Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover. Now Mitchell & Best Homebuilders LLC is dotting the scenic setting with Wellingtons, Westports, and Eagle’s Nests – three of the seven home designs offered by the builder on sites ranging from 1.5 to more than 11 acres. This equestrian community includes a restored original stone wall along Airwell Court, an early 1800s manor house, maintained outbuildings, a pond, and riding trails. These new dwellings are buyers’ country homes, weekend residences, and ultimate dream houses.
The Trail of Quality
When Bob Mitchell started his business 31 years ago with Lou Best, he and Best touted an in-house philosophy that “quality must be fundamental in each house we build,” says Mitchell, founder and CEO of Mitchell & Best. Building more than 4,000 homes in the Washington metropolitan area since 1975 with an average of 100 per year, Mitchell says a key component to the company’s success is the reputation it has built.
“That is part of my profit,” he says. This approval of the quality constructed in each home brings buyers back for repeat purchases as well as strengthens the number of referrals and the possibility that owners will mention who built their home if they sell it. “It’s a brand name people are proud of,” says Linda Ellington, vice president of sales and marketing for Mitchell & Best. “Without quality, there is no true value,” Mitchell adds. “Quality is timeless.”
Among those currently contributing to the long-time success of the company are Mitchell’s four children. “I am very blessed to have all four children work in the company and further blessed that they worked elsewhere before joining Mitchell & Best,” the CEO says. Robert Mitchell Jr., Martin Mitchell, Linda Ellington, and Kristine Mitchell Sullivan each bring a different set of experiences, education, and disciplines to Mitchell & Best, Mitchell adds, and team with John Corgan, Mike Boies, Scott Gormley, and Louise Atkins to make the key players at Mitchell & Best.
As a 2006 inductee into the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Hall of Fame, Mitchell says the DC area is the best market to be in today and looks forward to growing the business and continuing the tradition of building quality residences, such as those at Fieldstone Farm in Purcellville and Fox Knoll of Middleburg.
The Master Plan
While the quality of Mitchell & Best homes remains consistent, the designs are constantly being updated and changed to meet the needs of home buyers. Corgan and Ellington are “hands on” when finding out what consumers want in a home design and then they pass the information onto the architects. For more than 20 years, the late Wil Worland was the main architect for Mitchell & Best, but now several external firms are utilized, depending on their expertise, to design the latest floor plans, including the cityhomes and single-family residences offered at a number of Mitchell & Best neighborhoods, such as Maple Lawn in Howard County, MD, as well as the larger residences at the new golf course community of Oak Creek in Maryland’s Prince George’s County.
At Fieldstone Farm and Fox Knoll of Middleburg, sprawling interiors are standard, ranging from the 3,970-square-foot Ashton II to the 6,055-square-foot Wellington, which is the model at Fieldstone Farm. As a rule, Mitchell & Best targets the move-up market as seen in these two communities, but also builds within planned neighborhoods and is looking at expanding into the condominium and infill markets. “We want to fit our product into different or tight sites to create quality of life,” Mitchell says.
Custom Components
While the standard designs and amenities, such as family entrances from the garages, 10’ ceilings on the main floors per plan, upgraded hardwood flooring in many first floor rooms, and oak main staircases, are impressive at Fieldstone Farm and Fox Knoll of Middleburg, it’s the ability to customize that sells many buyers on Mitchell & Best homes. One purchaser at Fieldstone Farm added more than 200 custom features to the Wellington, says Bob Parnell, project manager in charge of sales at this community. It’s unusual for a builder to offer so much customization, he adds, such as built-ins, high-tech entertainment features, and upgraded finishes including Eterna’s Harmony red oak border inlaid in the entry foyer’s floor.
“We pay close attention to our exteriors,” Ellington says. Mitchell & Best looks at all sides of the house, not just the front, including roof pitches, architectural details, windows, and colors. As day turns to night, the Wellington model glows with the extensive interior lighting flooding through the abundant windows. Lampposts and lanterns light the path to the well-appointed model featuring more than 9,500 square feet of finished space.
The Wellington’s Appointments
Bill Carroll, executive vice president of Model Home Interiors, and the Model Home Interiors team of Kris Karas Fisher, senior designer, and Mandy Rankin, junior designer, worked with Mitchell & Best to make the Wellington feel inviting and livable. “Bill is superb at staying abreast of changes in colors and trends,” Ellington says. “He’s a good listener.”
The equestrian theme is subtly approached, Carroll says, as is the black, red, and gold color scheme. “The reds are in a variety of shades, not the same hues … it’s more assembled than matched,” the designer says. Carroll created a home with traditional, classic furnishings with a twist. He wanted it to look fresh with furniture that appears to have been passed down from generation to generation with clean 18th century lines. “The model has a clean, elegant look,” Fisher says.
This is especially true in the kitchen, family room, and morning room wing of the Wellington. Carroll is seeing a resurgence of black and white kitchens and worked with Caryn Berry and John Kromis of Stuart Kitchens to design a cooking center reminiscent of turn-of-the-century houses. The reflective surfaces of the high-end Wolf, Sub-Zero, and Bosch stainless steel appliances complement the White Carrara marble backsplashes, the Absolute Black granite counters, and rich pearl-colored cabinetry. Model Home Interiors filled the glass-front cabinets with collections that look acquired, not recently purchased, Fisher adds.
An archway frames the family room beyond the kitchen’s expansive island, while the morning room is tucked in a corner and opens to the covered back porch. “The model has a lot of areas to sit or read or look outside,” Fisher says. The setting is very tranquil.
Building Communities
“No one will listen to you about any subject unless you care,” says Mitchell, who founded Home Builders Care, a program administered by NAHB to aid those in need. This program demonstrates area homebuilders’ ability to make a difference and reach out to the community, including donating funds to military families, distributing toys to needy children during the holidays, and building homeless shelters. Mitchell & Best is also sensitive to environmental concerns and strives to beautify communities by saving and planting trees and enhancing the natural surroundings.
Skyrocketing costs of land make development difficult today, but Mitchell & Best plans to bring more opportunities to purchase a Mitchell & Best home to the inner ring of the suburbs between Washington and the Beltway. “We’re going to build more homes as we go forward,” Mitchell says.
History Repeats Itself
Tucked along the hillside off Snickersville Turnpike in Purcellville, the Fieldstone Farm manor house and outbuildings hint at the history of a place with stone exteriors and walls, hand-hewn boards, and rustic red colors that say this is a country setting. Now the scenic surroundings include Mitchell & Best’s equestrian homes, a total of more than 80 when the community is complete, on homesites averaging 10 acres. It’s a setting that makes one forget about everything but that moment in time.
