projoHomes
House of the Week: Plenty of contemporary charm with a rural setting in Pascoag
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, December 20, 2008

The dining room looks out to the living room/kitchen area.
Joseph Volgyi, a commercial builder, picked a lot on secluded East Wallum Lake Road in Burrillville for the site of his family’s dream house. The rocky lot included the crumbling stone foundations of two former farm buildings.
Volgyi has used stones from the lot to border exterior walkways and to create several small sculptures on the front lawn, including a small-scale replica of Stonehenge.
A stone-bordered fish pond with a waterfall has been fashioned from one of the pits in the front yard.
Using a house design from the Internet as a starting point, Volgyi and his wife, Gabriela, designed the house they wanted to fit their unique 2.8-acre lot. The contemporary-style house has two levels with four bedrooms, three full bathrooms, and one half bathroom. With about 4,500 square feet of living space, the house has plenty of room for guests, including the couple’s 25-year-old twin daughters.
But today, the Volgyis, who were born in Hungary, have a different dream. They plan to retire in Costa Rica, where they own two homes, a beach house and an 8-acre banana farm.
Their Burrillville house, in the Pascoag section of town, has an open, airy feel, with modern design elements more often seen in an urban setting than in a rural village community. The house has bamboo floors and is decorated throughout with the Volgyis’ collection of primitive African art.
The main level is marked by a galley kitchen that overlooks a large vaulted living room two steps below. The ceilings are 16 feet high and a skylight lets in additional light.
The Volgyis said they saw a kitchen display that they liked in a showroom and had a contractor replicate it almost exactly. The kitchen has a built-in Sub-Zero refrigerator, light oak cabinets, black granite countertops and a decorative waterfall behind their Wolf range.
The counter closest to the living room has a raised section that can accommodate informal dining. The house also has a formal dining room.
In the summer, guests can also be accommodated on the outdoor patio, bordered by a wall with a built-in outdoor gas range, a sink and a Samuel Adams beer tap. Stone patio steps lead farther into the yard, which also includes a circular fire pit surrounded by benches.
Another dramatic space is the master bedroom suite, which also features a vaulted ceiling.
All three full bathrooms have luxury materials and deep, jetted tubs, but the master bath is special, with a large walk-in shower with a steam feature and a pebbled floor surface. The master bathroom’s whirlpool tub looks inviting, but Volgyi says he rarely uses it. Instead, he prefers the larger jetted hot tub in the solarium, which is another room that is entered from the master suite.
This windowed room faces the private backyard, and the hot tub is surrounded by tall plants. The lower level includes a large brick-lined wine cellar, where the Volgyis house their collection of wine, including a large selection from Hungary. Volgyi said he used antique brick for the wine cellar.
There is also a room that could be used as a den or exercise room, and there is a large walk-in closet.
Another large room downstairs is used as a game room, but it could be included in an in-law residence. There is a small kitchenette with a freezer and small sink that could be expanded, and there is a partially finished full granite bath on the lower level.
The basement level also includes a workshop, and plenty of storage spaces.
The house has a two-car garage, central air conditioning, a seven-zone hydro-air heating system and sprinklers.
Volgyi said the property’s long driveway is still not finished because work on the yard and stone walls has been ongoing, requiring the use of heavy construction equipment, and he did not want to build a driveway only to have it ruined. He said he would adjust the purchase price to give a buyer an allowance to get the work done.
The Volgyis’ house at 1651 East Wallum Lake Rd. in the Pascoag section of Burrillville is on the market for $689,000. Annual taxes are $5,956. For more information, contact listing agent Mary Cravin of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Smithfield, (401) 486-3771. A different House of the Week appears each Saturday in the projoHomes section of The Providence Journal. The feature tells the story of the house and the people who have lived in it. If you would like us to consider a house for sale as a subject of this news feature, send a photo, information about the house and why it is of interest, to Christine Dunn or Andy Smith, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com. For more information, call Dunn: (401) 277-7913 or Smith: (401) 277-7262.
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