Couple Look to Retire and Sell 'Work of Art'

From the moment a real estate agent took Chuck and Jeanetta Miller on a tour of a center-hall colonial at 146 Taunton Hill Road nearly 20 years ago, the couple knew this was a home they would pour their time and energy into on their way toward transforming it into something special.

Now as they look to depart from Newtown – Jeanetta Miller retiring as the head of the English department at Newtown High School and Chuck Miller as an editor of a well regarded Taunton Press publication – the couple is looking for buyers just as passionate about the home as they are.

Chuck Miller will readily admit there was some added pressure on him beyond what a typical homeowner might face when he first began renovations on the house. After all, he was the design editor of the Fine Homebuilding magazine published by Taunton Press for more than three decades and had been inside some of the most incredibly well-designed homes in the country.

“My business is to go around looking at great houses,” he said.

So it was important for him to be “living up to my teachers” and creating a home worthy of his job title.

The result has earned rave reviews, including from Barbara Snyder, a sales associate at Caldwell-Snyder, a William Raveis real estate office in Newtown.

"They designed and built a home on Taunton Hill Road that is a work of art," Snyder said in an e-mail.

One of the first places to which the couple turned their focus after purchasing the house in 1992 was the kitchen. Both love to cook and they wanted to make sure the area was designed to their specifications.

For instance, the large kitchen features two areas connected in the middle that allow for the two of them to work in the same kitchen at the same time.

They also outfitted the kitchen with a used commercial grade gas stove top and below that installed an old proofing drawer that they turned into storage drawer for kitchen wares, using stainless steel cutouts from the counter top to line a knife drawer.

The house is relatively small at slightly more than 2,700 square-feet. But through design touches, such as a narrow short hallway opening up to the much larger flow-through kitchen and dining area ideal for dinner parties, the Millers sought to maximize the space in the house.

They also have added onto the house, including a 400-square-foot area that includes a nook where they take most of their meals. A simple table is placed against large sized windows that look out onto their rest of their property, allowing them observe the wildlife within the comfort of their home.

The home renovations have been a labor of love for Chuck Miller to which Jeanetta Miller described herself as a “fan and enthusiastic supporter.” But now, the couple, both in their 60s, said they are looking to sell and leave Newtown behind for their retirement in California where their children live and where the couple has kept another home since the 1980s.

“That’s been a long distance relationship for way too long,” Jeanetta Miller said of her relationship to her sons.

At the same time, Chuck Miller said he will miss his job at the magazine while Jeanetta Miller said she will miss her colleagues and students at the high school where she has taught for 18 years.

“This is bittersweet,” Chuck Miller said.