Dream house changing with the times
On Naperville's far-east side, in the heavily wooded Brenwood Estates, is a house that gets plenty of gawkers -- people who think they see a church that has been converted to a house. But while the Schnittker house has many features of a church, it is their own design and has never been anything except their home.
Samantha and Bill Schnittker's home began as the couple's idea, designed over many years on cocktail napkins. And after having lived in Naperville since it was a town of 20,000 people, they knew a perfect place for their home. And when that property was up for sale in the late 1980s, the timing was right and the eight acres -- which had a farmhouse, a two-bedroom house and stables on it -- was theirs.
(Danielle Gardner/Staff Photographer)
"It's my dream house," said Samantha Schnittker, 58. "(My husband) likes more farm stuff. I like older architecture. It was a meeting of the minds."
After living for three years with three children in the two-bedroom home on the property while their house was being built, the Schnittkers' vision was complete. It resulted in an about 11,000-square-foot home, with five large bedrooms, a third-floor recreational room and a number of smaller, intimate rooms on the main floor.
"We use our house," said Schnittker, who has five children and five grandchildren. "During the holidays, we have about 30 people who stay here. And there is not one area that's not used."
From the stained-glass windows, cross on the front of the house and gothic shaped windows, the qualities that give the home the look of a former church are designs of Samantha Schnittker, but not with the intention of replicating any sort of cathedral.
The stained glass throughout the home provides a variety of functions. Schnittker -- who owns a software business with her husband but has a background in decorating -- designed stained glass for her transoms to provide more light in the front of the house, which faces east. The stained glass also brings the level of the eye down in her oversized doorways.
"We have so much foliage, and it's so dark," Schnittker said. "I wanted it to be open and airy and light."
After coming up with a design for the stained glass that incorporated beveled glass with hand-blown roundels and small jewels to add color, Schnittker took her ideas to United Art Glass in Lisle.
"I'm a contemplator," Schnittker said. "I have an idea in my head of what it looks like, and I live with it there and then I start sketching things out."
The stained glass in the master bathroom serves a different purpose. Schnittker did not want to put up draperies in the bathroom. But because it faces the street, she came up with a design for stained glass that allows privacy and light.
"(It's how) I envisioned my bathroom to be," Schnittker said.
The cross that adorns the front of the house is a German cross, which was something, along with the Gothic windows, that Bill Schnittker -- who is German -- absolutely wanted incorporated in the home.
And while the Schnittkers love their home, after living in it for two decades, they are undergoing some renovations to open up some rooms and make changes that reflect their lives today. So Samantha Schnittker is once again coming up with ideas of what she wants her home to look like.
"It's been wonderful being able to be creative and use that part of my personality in a more artful way," Schnittker said.
Columnist Angela Bender lives in Naperville. Contact her at abender4@wowway.com. Naperville Living
