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"Location: Califon, New Jersey       A down-filled leather sofa by Mitchell Gold anchors the seating area in the double-height octagonal living room. Cherrywood Mission-style furnishings throughout the home are by L. &amp;amp;amp; J.G. Stickley.    City slicker by day and country squire during his leisure hours, Larry Witt splits his time between work in New York City and rural life in west-central New Jersey, about 60 miles away. The commute is nearly two hours each way, but that&amp;#039;s okay. A sublime location and a sprawling, 4,300-square-foot home there make it worthwhile, says the high-energy Witt, who is vice president of sales and marketing for Oxo International, maker of Good Grips and other stylish, user-friendly cooking and cleaning tools. I enjoy nature and grew up in Michigan surrounded by grass and trees, not cement and tall buildings,&amp;quot; he explains.       Personal touches lend a lived-in look to this new home. Witt and fianc\u00E9e Gretchen Holt painted the dining room walls a deep teal blue popular in early Arts and Crafts architecture. The room&amp;#039;s two-sided fireplace also opens to the living room.    Old-growth oak beams, salvaged from century-old tumbledown barns, visually lower the height of the kitchen&amp;#039;s vaulted ceiling. The aluminum seating echoes stainless steel appliances.     Of course, finding a bucolic property within commuting distance was no easy task. Until, that is, a property he&amp;#039;d passed and admired many times on fly-fishing excursions, suddenly came up for sale. It&amp;#039;s what he calls his own &amp;quot;slice of paradise,&amp;quot; a rocky hillside overlooking the south branch of the Raritan River and the Ken Lockwood Gorge Wildlife Management Area, a 260-acre nature preserve. After purchasing the rolling 5.6-acre tract, Witt began searching for a house plan-something comfortable, simple, and well designed that would mesh with the river valley setting. He found it in a German design magazine that featured the work of Michigan-based architect John Allegretti in an article about American dream houses. Allegretti&amp;#039;s two-story, L-shaped design hinges on a double-height octagonal living room. The master bedroom and bath and all the main living areas are conveniently grouped on the first floor, with two guest bedrooms and a guest bath above.       Simple sheer window treatments and cherrywood furniture in a light natural finish ensure that the master bedroom maintains its bright appearance. When you go to sleep, says Witt, you feel as though you&amp;#039;re lying outside under the stars.    To prevent the Alaska yellow-cedar shingles on the exterior of the house from turning gray, Witt will reseal them every two to three years.      Click here to see the floor plans \u2026Continued in the November 2003 issue of Home Magazine  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elledecor.com/design-decorate/house-interiors/a1021/a-natural-fit-17534/>