Robert and Lori Beardslee's custom French country-style home was hand picked for them. Their builder saved the best lot with a wooded backyard. He added special touches like stone archways, lighted tray ceilings and exquisite trim details.

So, who is this attentive builder? Truth is, the homeowner and the builder are the same man.

(ENLARGE)

Lori and Robert Beardslee love their custom built home in Canton, especially since he's the custom builder.

Elissa Eubanks / AJC (ENLARGE)

The loggia is one of the Beardslees' favorite places to sit. Chilly weather can be offset by the fireplace and blankets.

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In June, the Beardlees moved into their 8,500-square-foot home in the Cherokee County community of BridgeMill. Robert Beardslee has been building homes in BridgeMill, a massive master-planned golf, swim and tennis community, since 1998.

The artistic part of building homes appeals to Beardslee.

"It's creating something you know is going to be here for generations," he said.

The native Californian started in the business after high school, remodeling homes with his uncle. They would take older homes and put them on pontoons and float them to Sausalito, where they'd fix them up and rent them out. Beardslee said they were houseboats, except they didn't move.

After that creative start, Beardslee went to work for a general contractor and learned all he could about the craft of building homes. In 1995, he and his wife moved to the Atlanta area.

The couple's latest home is done in Robert Beardslee's favorite style, French country. The six-bedroom, six-and-a-half bath home spans three floors, and includes a three-car garage and a secret safe room. The Beardslees plan to move in two years, which allows them to avoid paying a chunk of taxes from the sale of their home.

That's just the life of a builder, said Lori Beardslee, who once lived in a house for seven years.

Lori Beardslee said she loves the home, but with both her children now in college, it's more space than she needs.

A loggia outside the great room is the family's favorite spot. The couple like to sit outside, even on chilly days, start a fire and wrap up in a blanket. The room has a flat-panel television, a fireplace and views of the woods.

The Beardslees' land backs up to Lake Allatoona (or the mud pit, as it is described these days.) They are doing their part to combat the drought. Outside the grand mansion sit plain grey 50-gallon barrels full of water. Robert Beardslee has installed a rain collection system that collects 200 gallons of water whenever it rains as little as half an inch.

Inside, kitchen highlights include a commercial-grade Wolf stove, stock pot filler, microwave drawer and an icemaker built into the island.

"I love to cook, but today I am out of the kitchen," Lori Beardslee said after a week of entertaining for Christmas.

The smooth granite counters top off the cherry cabinets stained in two variations of brown. Small, smart touches — like appliances garages and spice racks that pull out like drawers next to the stove — add to the kitchen's versatility.

Off the kitchen, Lori Beardslee has a small office and large walk-in pantry. The home has two laundry rooms, one on the main floor and one upstairs, but the Beardslees only use the one downstairs.

The keeping room's elaborate wood ceiling is what Robert Beardslee calls a tongue-and-groove ceiling with open beams.

"He starts drawing on the walls and we say that's good," Lori Beardslee says of her husband's design process.

It took Robert Beardslee 11 months to build the home. Things go quickly when the homeowner and builder are the same people.

"She's real good at making decisions," he said referring to his wife.

The home is created in a palette of warm burgundy, olive, dark brown and taupe. Each room gives a warm, cozy feel though the home is spacious. The main color downstairs is a light olive paired with dark chocolate trim. "I stole it from the Roswell Women's Home Tour," he said

Stone arches also lend the home an old world air.

"It's a warmer feeling without being too formal, too frou-frou," Lori Beardslee said.

She describes her style as eclectic.

"If you love it, buy and then find a place to put it," she said.

In the formal dining room, she hung draperies on either side of the window as ornament, not function.

An antique wooden highchair sits near a wall. (It's not merely decoration — she used it when her sons were babies.

"I took a knife and scraped the crud out," she said, laughing.

The master bedroom, on the main floor, includes a sitting area and a morning bar for coffee.

"I use it everyday. It's fun," Lori Beardslee said of the bar.

Tumbled marble is used throughout the master bath including baseboards with a tile rope trim. The Beardslees prefer tile trim and wainscoting in bathrooms. The Jacuzzi tub overlooks the woods and is the focal point of the room with double vanities and soft sconces instead of dressing room lights.

Upstairs, a guest room is decorated in black and tan tones with safari accents. Nearly all the rooms are decorated and furnished, something Lori Beardslee enjoys.

"All my houses look like this three days after I move in," she said.

The basement, where the family spends most of their time, has 12-foot ceilings and travertine floors with cherry wood trim and wainscoting. It was important that the wainscoting ledge in the pool room be wide enough to accommodate a beer bottle, Lori Beardslee noted with a laugh.

The pool room also includes an inset for pool cues that doubles as a secret door to a safe room/tornado shelter. The room has 10-inch concrete walls.

"This will be here forever, at the end of the world," she said.

In addition to the pool table and an antique blackjack table, family and friends watch sporting events on the 110-inch projection television, which is surrounded by wood trim. The couple's sons take advantage of the well-equipped exercise room which sports life-size photos of Jerry Rice and Joe Montana. (Robert Beardslee is a huge San Francisco 49ers fan.)

Kyle Beardslee, the couple's oldest son, crashes in the spacious in-law suite when he's home from Auburn University.

The kitchen in the basement is a smaller version of the main kitchen with granite counters and stonework. And don't overlook the bar stools. Lori Beardslee toured Graceland years ago and found, to her delight, he had the same 1920's-era stool in his dressing room.

On every level of the home, guests are treated to the soothing sights and sounds of nature. In the backyard, a waterfall flows into the koi pond, which Beardslees built deep enough to deter predatory birds.

"I was saving this lot to do our personal home this year. It's real private ... you feel like you're back in the woods," he said.

HOUSE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Six-bedroom, 6.5-bath French Country home in Cherokee County.

• Custom builder Robert Beardslee built the home, which has about 8,500

square feet of heated space.

• Home includes a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, a waterfall/koi pond and elaborate interior stone work.