Interesting things began happening to Denna Coburn after she moved to Richfield Village from the Dayton suburb of Springboro in December. The post office cashier was short on change when Coburn offered a $20 bill on $2 worth of postage. No worries, the postal worker told her — just pay us next time. While grocery shopping, a stranger began such a friendly chat with Coburn that she first glanced back to see whom the woman was speaking to.
"I have been stunned by how friendly people are here. In all the places we've lived I've never encountered a community like this," Colburn says of her family's time in Dayton, London, Philadelphia and the Pacific Northwest.
The family of six relocated to Northeast Ohio after Coburn's husband, Quinn, accepted a job as vice president and treasurer of GrafTech International in Parma. Two of their sons are in college, another is a missionary in France, and their youngest son is a high school sophomore.
"We were apprehensive," Coburn says. "We custom-built our last home. It was exactly what we wanted, and it's where we planned to stay."
They looked at 40-plus homes in six different communities but came up short until they discovered this 5,500-square-foot Tudor-style home. It was built 13 years ago but never finished. A developer bought it last summer to finish and resell it.
"The detail is nothing like what you'd find in typical new construction," Coburn says.
The home's custom molding, milled and crafted from oak trees cleared for its construction, frames the fireplace. The wood was also used to create custom shelving in the library and a built-in entertainment center in the family room.
With vaulted ceilings and structural beams, the great room "looks like a country chapel. ... It has a very English feeling to it," Coburn says.
In Richfield Village, the Coburns found everything they missed about their previous community. Their youngest son attends Revere Local Schools, a top-ranked school district. Denna has plans for fruit trees and a vegetable garden on their 3-plus acres. The Coburns look forward to bike rides and runs at Summit Metro Parks' Furnace Run or the nearby Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
Coburn is constantly asking questions of her new neighbors. "The more I get around," she says, "I get a real sense of friendliness and
community."
