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'House Hunters' targets the Lake
By REBECCA JACKSON, Smith Mountain Eagle
Elena's Dream is a sprawling, cedar-sided lakefront home the hue of daffodils and buttercups in spring, a welcoming sunbeam of a getaway with squirrels darting across its generous, level lawn and pleasing birdsongs echoing from nearby trees.
The azure waters of Smith Mountain Lake are just steps away.
Although the vacation home owned by Washington, D.C. restaurateur Craig Merrill and his Colombian-born wife, Patricia, is just a four-hour drive from their century-old, downtown row house in the nation's capitol, the peaceful retreat seems a world away from the frenetic pace of a major city.
The couple's search for a place of respite was the subject last week of an episode of the Home and Garden Network's popular "House Hunters" series, which aired across the country Tuesday. The show is produced by Pie Town Productions, based in North Hollywood, Calif., with an office in Chicago. Founded in 1995, Pie Town has a notable list of clients, including HGTV, Lifetime, The Food Network, The Weather Channel and more.
The Merrills, now parents of a seven-month-old daughter, Elena, for whom the vacation home is named, first visited Smith Mountain Lake last summer.
It was love at first sight, they admitted.
"It's a secret spot that not too many people seem to know about," in the D.C. area, Craig Merrill said of the Lake, as he and his wife lounged on a soft sectional sofa in the spacious great room of Elena's Dream.
Smith Mountain Lake was selected for the show by Pie Town Productions after a national search. "I was hiking with my son in the mountains when I first received a call from Pie Town," Lake realtor and author Paul Moore stated. "I was a bit stunned, to say the least. They said they were doing a weeklong special of waterfront homes to include oceanfront, river, beachfront and a lake home. Smith Mountain Lake was chosen as the lake destination."
Pie Town Productions had looked for a lake with panoramic scenery and a variety of waterfront homes. Katie Hall, field producer for the show, found Moore's website, www.SmithMountainHomes.com, which features a photo gallery. "They were impressed. But they were stunned when they viewed the Lake in person during their shoots onsite last fall," Moore said.
After conversations with Moore, the producers selected him as the agent for the episode.
Moore, with Wainwright and Company Realtors, guided the couple on their journey through SML's generous lakefront property inventory and ultimately helped them find Elena's Dream. The couple did a video presenting themselves and their search for a home, and sent it off to Pie Town, which contacted them immediately.
"Paul had seen 'House Hunters' before, and also thought the story would be good for Smith Mountain Lake," said Patricia Merrill.
Production involved four intense days of filming, with shots of the couple's Washington home, their restaurants, and the home at Smith Mountain Lake.
"It was brutal," said Patricia Merrill, who was nearing the end of her pregnancy when the filming took place.
"It was fun, but tiring," her husband admitted.
Moore, the couple noted, was very accommodating to the Pie Town crew, lodging them at his home and taking them on tours of the Lake by boat.
Three houses, including Elena's Dream, were included in the House Hunters segment. All three were in the same price range, but home and lot sizes varied, as well as views of the Lake.
The Merrills spotted their yellow house while viewing another across the Lake and jumped at the chance for a tour when they learned it was for sale.
While the home they chose, constructed in 1985, had many fine attributes, it had some drawbacks, such as dark paneling, in vogue 20-plus years ago, and dated bathrooms. But the Merrills decided they could live with a few details they could later change in a home that was architecturally pleasing, spacious, structurally sound, with a level lakefront lot and quiet cove where family and friends could swim without fear of being struck by a speeding boat or jet ski.
"The dark paneling," plus rock fireplace, "are cozy in the winter," Patricia Merrill said.
"The house was well-maintained," her husband added. "We could just come, and enjoy the house. Some homes at the Lake have a fabulous view, but this was not an issue. This house was perfect for us, the perfect fit."
Located on Mockingbird Hill Lane on the Bedford County shore of the Lake near the Virginia Dare Marina, the 4,000-square-foot home is clearly a spot to relax, with comfortable getaway cabinesque furniture throughout, knotty pine paneling, hardwood floors, large windows that afford a view of the waterfront, a big deck and boat dock ideal for entertaining friends and family, recreation room with bar, a two-car garage and workroom, plus a sunroom with hot tub. Right away, the couple added a fourth bedroom and fourth bathroom on the terrace level of the house, plenty of room for four families to share the house, Merrill pointed out.
"I've been a Washington resident since 1987 and until last summer, had never heard of Smith Mountain Lake," said Craig Merrill, a former stockbroker who's now a partner in the Front Page restaurant off Dupont Circle, a new Front Page eatery recently opened near Ballston Mall in Arlington, and the Mad Hatter, a 30-year-old Washington establishment in the metro area.
was looking for reasonable land somewhere on the waterfront.
"He told us about Smith Mountain Lake. Last summer, we came to spend a weekend and fell in love with the Lake," Craig Merrill said.
"We never thought in our wildest dreams that we'd find just the right property," said Patricia Merrill, who met her husband through mutual friends while vacationing in Washington from her home in Bogota. There, she'd been in charge of marketing and distribution for Aretame, a poultry processing and distribution firm.
"I don't envision us living here full time," because of business demands in Washington, Craig Merrill explained. We're pretty tied to D.C. When we come here," twice a month, "we leave work behind. It's all fun here," water skiing, boating, wakeboarding, jet skiing...and eating."
"I love to sleep in and I love to sit on this couch," noted his wife. "With the big windows, and nature all around, it's so relaxing. The energy of the house is wonderful...we enjoy the house at any time of the year," not just the summer months. "We're really happy here. It's an investment, but we also wanted to have something special for family moments, to create wonderful memories here."
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