They came together as a family When fire destroyed their home, the Neales rebuilt, improving on the original design Home Of The Week

They came together as a family

Story By Wendi Winters

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When fire destroyed their home, the Neales rebuilt, improving on the original design

Photos ByJoshua KcKerrow

Four years ago on Dec. 11, the Neale family was slumbering.

As they slept, the extension cord they used to plug in their kitchen refrigerator began sparking. Around 1:30 a.m. Lance Neale smelled something.

"Are you cooking?" he asked his wife, Sandra.

"Dad! It's a fire!" son Ryan yelled.

Their home was ablaze. Flames raced across the rooftop.

Ryan and his brother Evan ran out of the house, followed by their parents.

On the sidewalk, Ryan realized the family's beloved pair of Bengal cats were still in the home. He darted back inside.

He was followed, moments later, by his concerned father.

Lance discovered Ryan in the second floor hallway. Overcome by smoke, he'd collapsed. Lance carried his unconscious son to safety.

The frightened cats hid inside the burning Crofton residence. They perished in the blaze, which quickly consumed the home.

Mourning their pets, the family spent a year in a fully furnished, 11,000-square-foot luxury rental in Davidsonville owned by Rory and Janet Dickenson.

"We walked in like the Beverly Hillbillies," said Lance, "with trash bags filled with our clothes."

The Crofton community, church members from Mid Atlantic Community Church, friends and strangers reached out to help and support them. In return, the Neales hosted a big fundraiser at their rental home for the Niemann-Pick Disease Foundation Inc. to show their support for a young family friend, Dillion Papier, who suffers from the rare, incurable and often fatal disease.

With sons Ryan and Evan, both South River High graduates in their mid-20s, the Neale couple saw the fire as an opportunity to come together as a family, to gather strength and nurture compassion together.

A few months later, the Neales began rebuilding their home on the same footprint as their former house.

But it was not an exact duplicate of the old house.

"We expanded it and opened up the main floor," said Sandra, who retired in January 2011 after a 35-year career as a systems analyst for the federal government. "We got rid of the dinette space and put in a kitchen island."

The new Dutch Colonial, with seven front-facing dormer windows, now has a stone front facade. A cheery, bright red door greets visitors from beneath a portico. On either side of the doorway, the bay windows are shaded with plantation blinds.

The master suite was expanded out over the garage. Two walk-in closets with windows were added to the suite, and their new washer and dryer was moved to an upstairs space. A central vacuuming system was installed.

The basement in the four-bedroom, 31/2-bath house was completely finished, too.

A handsome deck on the rear of the house overlooks a small vegetable garden, and, tucked in a corner of the yard, a memorial garden for their cats.

The reborn, 3,500-square-foot house, once a mirror twin of one across the street, now has its own personality.

Love at first sight

Lance, an independent insurance agent of 40 years, swung open the front door and gave us a hearty greeting.

He explained he and his wife met when Maris Walker, a matchmaking friend, introduced them. Lance took Sandra out boating on the South River that day and, by the time they arrived back at the dock, the two had fallen in love.

Growing up, Sandra's father was in the Air Force, so her family moved several places overseas and in the U.S. before settling in Suitland. Her father, the son of missionaries, grew up in Japan. Through the years, she'd collected artwork and mementos from Japan, the Middle East and Europe. Lance's family are longtime residents of Morningside.

The Neales purchased their Crofton home in 1992.

"We love Crofton," said Sandra. "We moved here for the community, which is wonderful, and it's been a great place to raise our children."

When their boys were younger, Sandra was a Cub Scout leader of Pack 115 for six years. Lance coached basketball and soccer teams for Crofton Athletics.

Also greeting us was the family's watch cat, JoJo, also a Bengal.

JoJo has a multitiered cat house positioned right next to the door. Chez JoJo includes ladders, swinging ropes, a couple hiding places and - count 'em - two cat hammocks.

The staircase is directly ahead in this center hall Colonial. To the left is the dining room. It segues into the kitchen in the back rear of the house, circles on to the family room and into the living room, on our right.

The walls throughout the house are subtle, neutral colors of pale gray and cream trimmed with white molding, with pops of red and aqua as the main accent colors.

After the house was rebuilt, the Neales went shopping for new furniture and furnishings. The dining room furniture and recliners in the entertainment room in the master suite were purchased at Shofer's Furniture in Baltimore. They found the living room and family room furniture in Laurel, Delaware. The Neales also discovered items in the Annapolis shops Furniture Consign & Design, Echoes & Accents, HomeGoods and the online catalog Ballard Designs. They bought Lance's office furniture at the Model Home Furniture Clearance Center in Gaithersburg.

Surviving accents

The home is accented, throughout, with framed family portraits, part of a collection stored in the basement that survived the fire. A black lacquered Japanese chest with hand-painted details and turquoise tassels is another fire survivor, as is the stone sculpture that rests atop the chest.

"It's my favorite piece," Sandra said.

Several vintage Japanese hand-painted silk prints were not destroyed, though many were.

A handsome table made of an oversized Moroccan copper tray set on a German-made base also emerged intact from the fire. It rests near the flat-faced, stone tile gas log fireplace.

In the new kitchen, the countertops and island are topped with snow white and cream quartz slabs, veined with dark gray.

"Granite retains red wine stains," said Sandra. "And it's cold so I can do pastry rolling. I love to make tarts."

The kitchen backsplash is sheathed with Conestoga Tile, as are the walls of the home's bathrooms. The streamlined cream wood cabinets, with brushed stainless steel pulls, are Merillat Classic.

On the wide ledge above the kitchen sink swims a school of Lalique glass fish in rainbow hues, a gift from Lance's late brother Heath Neale. Above the fish, several stained glass stars shimmer, given to the Neales by another family member. Two kitchen shelves hold Sandra's collection of deep blue wine glasses and art-glass vases.

A painting on a dining room wall turns out to be a framed quilted artwork by Susan Bolivar.

"We lost three of Susan's quilts in the fire," Sandra said. "She made one more for us."

A black iron shelving unit in a corner of the dining room is a temple for a utensil holder with a bit of personality. It's a ceramic piece depicting a woman with flying strings of beads for hair. A large pocket in her dotted red apron holds utensils. On the shelves above and below her rest several red ceramic bowls and pots.

A look upstairs

Upstairs, we see the guest bedroom and the master suite.

The double bed, covered with a cream-colored spread, in the guest room has a curvy, carved wooden headboard. Above it is a print depicting a portrait sketch of a large lion mingled with smaller portraits of a young boy, several lambs, a leopard and a pair of wolves.

The bed is mirrored in the large mural-sized mirror set, on an even wider '50s modern bureau.

A reading and TV room is part of the master suite.

Two leather recliners flank a table fashioned from an antique cast iron sewing table stand. High above JoJo's collection of second- floor beds, hammocks and toys, is a giant flat-screen TV.

Lance proudly noted his wife custom-made all the valences and cushioned window seats throughout their home.

One of Sandra's favorite spots in the house is her walk-in closet. In addition to neatly arranged clothing is her collection of costume jewelry necklaces her husband and sons have given to her since the fire - and pieces in which she's indulged. High on the metal wire shelves are caricature portraits drawn of her parents in the late 1940s and old family photos that were not damaged in the fire.

In one of the rare departures from a neutral wall color palette, the wall behind the king-sized bed in the master bedroom is a deep plum. The color is echoed in the velvet-textured throw and patterned cushions placed on cream-colored bedspread.

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The residence must be located in the readership area of The Capital or Maryland Gazette. It cannot be for sale or being readied for sale. The photography and interview session usually takes place on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday at 10 a.m. We must have access to the full residence, and the homeowner or resident must be available for the interview and a photograph.

To see your house, town home, condo, apartment, cottage or cabin cruiser featured, email Wendi Winters at [email protected].

A 2011 fire destroyed the Neales' Crofton home and they rebuilt it. See the results in the video and slide gallery.