Going to Mike and Elette Owens’ home in Whip ‘O’ Will estates involves a leisurely journey past herds of lazy cattle and pastures dotted with hay bales, cornfields, silos, and spinning windmills. It’s the path to a simpler way of life—one that reconnects people to the land. Once there, you feel the peace and quiet of country living away from the relative hustle and bustle of the city and its suburbs.

Drawn by the quality of area schools for their daughters and the distance from the demands of high finance—Mike is a Winston-Salem stockbroker—the Owens moved out to the country into what Elette describes as “a decrepit 1800s farmhouse” while their new home was being built.

“My girls remember it as the best time of their childhood,” Elette admits. “And the drive gave Mike time to de-stress and call ahead for his favorite cocktail. That’s when I realized we were going to be alright out here.”

Nestled among gently rolling hills criss-crossed with little streams, the property first welcomed them in time for Christmas 1996. Sited on former farmland, their new home offers the quintessential retreat.

Whip ‘O’ Will was the brainchild of Roger Harris, who developed Bermuda Run. And like the community he imagined for homeowners with a passion for golf, Whip ‘O’ Will was conceived as a haven for horse fanatics; it boasts an equestrian center at its entrance where homeowners can board their beasts.

While the Owens have never owned horses, Elette points out that the family does enjoy the company of “two cats, two dogs, and about 12 fish.” All in all, with the menagerie and a neighborhood of four-legged friends, the wide-open spaces provides the family, and especially the girls, with a sense of the open-air freedom farm life offers, minus the chores.

After 15 years on the “farm” and with their daughters grown and away at college, the Owens made some improvements to the property by adding a swimming pool, a utility barn, and a potting cottage. Inside the house, they remodeled their basement, once the territory of teen get-togethers, into a stylish den and wine cellar.

Outside, Elette now finds time to express her own brand of creativity. From her handpainted flowers made from Bundt pans and kitchen pots, the property constitutes an ever-changing landscape of whimsy, populated by bottle trees, a bowling ball garden, and bird feeders fabricated from silver-plated teapots and candelabras, where a two-way mirror is at home as a reflective “gazing ball.”

It’s not the only gaze visitors are subject to at the Owens’ place. Despite the breathing room, the neighbors are always looking, staring over the fence, gazing at the Owens’ every move on the property.

“All our neighbors have four legs,” says Mike. “The best kind,” quips Elette. That’s right, it’s the inquisitive cows, chewing their cud and gazing across the fence, seemingly transfixed on their human neighbors’ every move.

When Elette presses Mike for something to add, he pauses a moment, then adds with a sheepish grin: “There isn’t really anything exciting.” And that, it seems, is the way the Owens like it.