CityView Magazine

Fine Living Fairy-tale There once was a couple who loved their house so much, they got married in it By Allison Williams ending F said. But it had been more than a year in the making. The Bills broke ground in November 2006. Ray cleared the or months, Ray and Kim Bill spent nearly every waking moment studying the bare bones of their house-to-be. They paced plywood subfloors and peered between wooden frames that would soon become rooms. They were each about to embark on a second marriage, and the Bills had decided to bring not one single furnishing from their previous lives, not even a toothbrush holder. Everything would be new – new house, new furniture, new start. “You can start over and be happy,” Kim said, standing in her kitchen, coffee mug in hand. “You can actually start over, and it’s 100 times better.” So when it came time to exchange vows, it only seemed right to say them in their own living room, in front of the fireplace they had picked out together. That was a year ago. The Bills will celebrate their first wedding anniversary on Jan. 27. Last January, the Bills moved in, got married, honeymooned, celebrated her daughter’s 16th birthday and even threw a small Super Bowl party. “That was one crazy month,” Ray land himself, land that had been in his family for generations, tucked behind the Country Club North neighborhood. A sign at the entrance says McKinley Preserve, named in memory of Ray’s father, William McKinley Bill, though most folks knew him as Billy Bill. The family business in North Fayetteville still carries his name, Billy Bill Grading, and his four children continue to run the company. Ray is the youngest of three brothers and a sister. He comes from a close-knit family with deep roots in North Fayetteville. She’s a Fayetteville transplant with two teenage children. When they married, the Bills had an instant and extended family. They needed a house to suit. Right away, the tweaking began. The Bills had the basics: a two-story home with an open floor plan. They added a deck, a pool and a splurge: a home theater with stadium-style seats. They brought in designer Faye Riddle and gave her free rein with animal prints and rich, warm colors toned down with browns and blacks. The effect is both comfortable and sometimes dramatic but never overdone. A leopard-print powder room cannot be taken too seriously, and the huge corduroy “pods” upstairs beg to be lounged upon. Ray picked out the peacock mosaic for the master bathroom with a mermaid to match on the bottom From top | January marks a double celebration for Ray and Kim Bill: their first wedding anniversary and a year of living in their new house in the McKinley Preserve neighborhood. The Bills brought in designer Faye Riddle who helped them with every aspect of their house, including a home theater. CityViewNC.com | 31

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