A place called home; Betteridges carefully renovate Barre Colonial.

Byline: Susan Spencer

Arlene and Russell Betteridge greet first-time visitors to their Revolutionary War-era home in Barre with an invitation to make three wishes. It's easy to imagine one wish would be to never have to leave this welcoming place. The Betteridge home, a stately white clapboard Colonial with gunmetal gray shutters, overlooks 38 acres of rolling hills, stone walls and woods. It is a haven of peace, history, family and art.

The 18th-century home, originally obtained by John (or Jonathan) Holden through a King's grant, still has the wide pine floors, post-and-beam construction and four original fireplaces built for an affluent landowner. The door frames are slanted - what Arlene calls a character feature and Russell calls misalignment - but the house stands strong and has been lovingly restored to primitive beauty with modern amenities.

The work of Arlene, a former teacher, businesswoman and retired executive director of the Performing Arts School of Worcester, and Russell, a water-industry consultant, is reflected in the smallest details of their family home.

Thirty-three years ago the Betteridges were living in an apartment in Northboro, Russell's hometown, when they spotted an advertisement for "a gracious old country home" on several acres. Arlene says, "I figured it was either out of our price range or falling down, but I said, `Let's see what their definition of gracious is.'"

The Betteridges wanted to start a family and create a homestead of their own, one where everyone would gather at the end of the day to make dinner together. Arlene says, "We made a deliberate decision that our work was not going to take us away from a place called home." And that home became the one they discovered in Barre, where they raised their children Jacob, 31, and Abigaile, 28.

"When we came up around the corner I said, `I'm going to buy that house,'" says Arlene. Russell counters, "I said, `Hold on, that's no way to go into negotiations.' But there was an immediate connection to the house, and we've never looked back."

The house was used as a summer home during the 20th century and had never been winterized. The beams in the cellar were rotten. But the solid fieldstones in the foundation and brick chimneys held up the house, and nothing was falling in.

Still, the Betteridges knew they had their work cut out for them. "I loved the bones of the house the minute I walked in," says Arlene. "But we had to live in it; we needed to make sure it was warm enough for children."

The Betteridges consider the most charming parts of the house to be its circular flow and light. Entering through the front door, there is an immediate sense of warmth as the pine floorboards with red and blue Oriental rugs beckon into the foyer. A large oil painting of inner-city sunflowers, by the late Worcester artist Tom Lewis, festoons one wall, a connection to Arlene's work in urban arts programs. The foyer leads into the dining room on the right, to the living room on the left and straight back into the borning room, a warm room between the kitchen and sitting room where women used to give birth.

The kitchen was the last room to be renovated and is perhaps the most original in appearance but modern in function. "When we came to the kitchen, it had been bastardized," Arlene says. "We wanted to bring it back to its original feel." She and Russell spent 120 hours on hands and knees removing battleship gray paint from the pine floor and refinishing the boards by hand.

The next challenge in combining 18th-century style with 21st-century convenience was how to disguise the kitchen appliances. The Betteridges wanted to work with local artisans to maintain the house's historic integrity, so using hand-planed white pine from a Petersham lumberyard, Russell built cabinet facings and countertop overlays to place in front of, and on top of, the stove and dishwasher. The room is lit by wall sconces from Hammerworks of Worcester, which give it an intimate glow like that of former oil lamps. "The task here was to bring it back to simple. It's basically a big, square room, with the centerpiece being the hearth," says Arlene.

The dining room, with distressed plaster walls and wooden pegs showing from the original beams, reflects generations of family life. Antique French-Acadian furniture, including a hutch, high chair and spinning wheel, recalls Arlene's Prince Edward Island heritage. The room is a favorite for festive holiday dinners.

Across the foyer from the dining room, the south-facing living room catches the sun in a cheerful surrounding of yellow walls and red upholstered Chippendale country settees, custom made by Angel House Designs in Brookfield.

A beehive oven next to the hearth suggests that this room, the warmest in winter, was the original kitchen. The Betteridges made a startling discovery when they jack-hammered through the concrete that had covered up the hearth: The bricks were laid on their narrow side, reflecting Mr. Holden's affluence.

Arlene says, "It gives you a sweeping flow, but it's also original to the house. The biggest challenge was bringing the hearth back."

A center stairway leads to the upstairs hall and four spacious bedrooms, a small office and a bathroom.

Throughout the upstairs, as in the rest of the house, original beams and pegs reveal

its roots. The Betteridges have personalized it with art pieces from their own lives, such as an oil painting by Frank Bly of Hardwick and museum-quality brass rubbings done in England by Russell's mother. The old is combined with the new in the master bedroom, where an LCD-screen TV is hidden in a primitive cabinet.

The Betteridges say the home gives them connections to the past and to their community. It has a sense of place. While they have devoted endless hours to restoring the property, they see themselves as one link in its long chain.

"We look on ourselves as caretakers for the next generation," Russell says. "We want our kids to say, `This is our home.'"

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Russell and Arlene Betteridge had their work cut out for them when they moved into their Barre home 33 years ago. (2) Upstairs are four bedrooms, a small office and a bathroom. Original beams and pegs reveal the house's roots. (3) A generous porch provides shelter for a wood pile in the winter. (4) The Betteridges love the circular flow and the light in their home. The rooms reflect generations of family life. (5) In the 20th century, the house was an unwinterized summer home. (6) Says Russell Betteridge about his home: "We look on ourselves as caretakers for the next generation. We want our kids to say, `This is our home.'"

PHOTOG: PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM RETTIG