CChris and Susan Hearn loved their view lot on Wimer Street in Ashland. But the house? A decade in the "boxy, unimaginative split-level home from the ’70s" was more than enough.

So last year the Hearns moved into a trailer in front of their home. They tore off the house’s vinyl-sided front, added three bedrooms and an office upstairs, stuccoed the outside in sandy tones, added Craftsman-style details and called in a feng shui master.

"The house was simple, plain, a tad shabby — let’s put it that way," said Susan Hearn. "You know something’s wrong but you don’t know what it is. Two things made it work — feng shui and Craftsman style."

"It’s fabulous, much more homey and livable than the common, 1976 ranch box it was," said Chris Hearn, a lawyer and Ashland City Council member. The remodeled house, he said, is "very Craftsman, almost mountain chalet, but without going overboard."

Consulting an art book on the Craftsman style, which encompassed the first four decades of the 20th century, Susan Hearn fed architects details of the period. It emphasized strong, simple lines of the skilled woodworkers of the day and used the most basic materials: timbers, rocks, shakes, columns and wide, flat window trim accented by squarish light fixtures with mica windows.

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The Hearns pushed out the living room wall by six feet, lifted the ceiling to nine feet and added a lot of vertical glass, another Craftsman touch.

On the advice of feng shui master Sugeet, who goes by a single name, they culled furniture and knickknacks and opened up the great room (kitchen, living room, dining room) into a light, spacious area accented only by their African art collection and a music corner — piano, cello and African drum. Feng shui is an ancient Chinese art intended to maximize the flow of life energy.

Expanding the house from 1,600 square feet to 2,700, the Hearns spent $230,000, essentially building a new house within the old — "a lot more economical than building a new house," she said. It was executed by designer John Thurman, architect Rob Saladoff and contractor Darrell Boldt, all of Ashland.

The redo brought berber carpeting to most rooms and saw each one painted with a subtle shade from the Devine Color line created in Lake Oswego for the "seasonally challenged" light of the Northwest, Susan Hearn said, and picked with feng shui guidance. The tones — sage, almond, butterscotch, periwinkle — all glow with a faint inner light that "brings the sky and mountains inside," Hearn said.

The outside entrance, originally planned with sharp right-angle turns, was softened to a rounded look by Sugeet, with slightly curved cement stairs coming from two directions to meet wooden ones.

Inside the entrance, he softened the space with pale orange-blonde silkstring wallpaper leading into a brick-tone dining room — reds being the feng shui color of family and prosperity for the left rear corner of a home.

Upstairs, open-beamed rooms are slightly off square, another feng shui principle, and offer views to Grizzly Peak and access to surrounding upper decks.

"It’s more welcoming now," said Sugeet. "We especially worked on colors for the atmosphere of each room. The fireplace went in the bedroom corner for relationship, so it turns up the heat on that. The home has a nourishing feel and makes an excellent impression when you come in."

Amber-shaded travertine stone is liberally used in the master bathroom, which has a remote-controlled gas fireplace shared through the wall with the master bedroom. The bedroom wall features not just an entertainment center but an espresso bar, with timer, so the Hearns don’t have to leave the warmth of bed to imbibe the first cup of the day.

The yard, overseen by ancient ponderosa pines and large hedges, embraces a children’s play area and raised beds of vegetables. They are flanked by a rose-festooned front deck and concrete patio, now serving as a basketball court. It’s all bordered by a Craftsman-style wood fence with signature vertical slats and copper post caps.

"We wanted a custom look in an updated look that had our personality," Susan said, "yet blended with time-honored traditions of Craftsman and Oriental, which go together so well and really hold a feel of quality and timelessness."

John Darling is a free-lance writer living in Ashland.E-mail him at jdarling@jeffnet.org.