Dave and Sandy Schmitt love living among the rolling hills of Saint Joseph in the county. It’s where they grew up and reside today in their cottage-inspired home on Saint Wendel Road. “We’re proud to live out in the country,” Sandy says.
The Schmitts bought their corner lot in 1978, and five years later, Sandy approached H.G. McCullough Designers with photos of regional homes she liked. The Schmitts moved into their Bill Gries-built home with their two children, Jacinta and Phillip, in January 1984; their younger son, Joseph, was born after they were settled.
Sandy says its cozy and inviting feel defines their home, with cream trim highlighting the red brick, tall windows, light cyan door, and chimney. “We wanted it to look like a cottage with a courtyard out front,” she says, but it “took us a while to plant anything.”
She wanted an English garden feel for the landscaping and was inspired by TV host and garden designer P. Allen Smith as well as articles in Victoria Magazine, a women’s lifestyle publication. In 2013, Sandy had hyacinths, lenten roses, peonies, hydrangeas, a ginkgo tree, and a yellowwood tree planted. A fountain in the front courtyard, outlined by boxwoods, also was installed. In late winter, “the lenten roses are the first flowers that bloom,” she says. “I always look forward to that because I know spring is coming.”
In 2015, the Schmitts expanded the footprint to 4,000 square feet by adding a breezeway and a three-car garage featuring a louvered cupola and horse-topped weathervane. They installed a brick mailbox using extra masonry from the original homebuilding, plus pine trees, a sundial, flagpole, and Old World cobblestone path leading to the front courtyard. A gate with brick columns opens to the backyard, which Sandy calls “the canyon.” Brian Wildeman, who founded Wilde Horticulture in 2016, maintains the landscaping. Dave mows the lawn, emphasizing manicured, back-and-forth lines and rotating directions with each mow.
“He loves the outdoors and plants,” Sandy says of Dave, who learned by helping his grandfather and parents tend to their gardens. “Over the years, we’ve had a lot of compliments.”
