At Home
by Mary Beth Schwartz
Throughout its history, Bucks County has had its share of artists. George Nakashima handcrafted furniture using large unfinished slabs of wood. Henry Mercer meticulously designed his Moravian tiles. Authors James A. Michener, Pearl S. Buck, and Stan & Jan Berenstain penned books that have sold in the millions. Oscar Hammerstein II wrote and produced over 800 songs, including the songs for The Sound of Music. Edward Hicks painted A Peaceable Kingdom. And when you look at Bucks County’s homes, you can look at a custom built masterpiece and know that it was built by Chance Worthington and Stephen Shagen.
Chance Worthington says, “Founded in 1920 by my great grandfather William E. Worthington, we represent four generations of excellence in home building. I worked with my father William Worthington III for the family business during summers while I attended school. I took over the company from my father and started full time in 1995. He retired fully in 2001. To this day, we view each new project as an opportunity to further our legacy. Each of our homes is a masterpiece achieved through design, custom building, and a passion for creating, restoring, renovating, and embellishing one-of-a-kind homes.”
Partner Stephen Shagen started with Chance’s father in 1993. Prior to that, he had worked for custom builders in the area. “My experience is in the field. I am a hands-on carpenter by trade. I am out in the field with our award-winning crew. We have a dedicated staff of skilled carpenters and laborers that take pride in what they do. Between Chance and I, we have 50 years of experience in building and renovation work.”
Their mission at Worthington & Shagen Custom Builder, Inc. is “providing our clients with a unique building experience through our commitment to serve the client, to provide superior architecture and design, to provide enduring quality, to provide management of resources, and to perpetually learn.” The Newtown-based firm also strongly believes in building lasting client relationships, conservation efforts, buying from local vendors, and hiring local tradespeople.
Working in such Bucks County areas as Upper Makefield and Solebury, Worthington & Shagen Custom Builder, Inc. is capable of a wide range of styles. “People know us for the Bucks County reproduction farmhouse, but we do so much more than that. We are proficient in a variety of styles. We have done country estates and museum quality homes, but also have done Old World European as well as contemporary homes constructed with glass, stone, and steel. We built an in-law rancher on a client’s existing property. We have built communities, such as Merrick Farm, where there are nine homes all in the multi-millions. Each residence was meticulously built one design at a time. But we are not just about building homes. We always have been in the business of renovations, remodels, and additions,” Worthington says.
Every Worthington & Shagen project features the builder’s enhancements. Their artisan quality construction has been used to create a custom staircase with balus-trade and wainscoting; cedar-lined compartments under windowsills; a butler’s pantry with chestnut countertops; cabinets with antique glass; even an entirely handcrafted mantel wall. They use a tremendous amount of reclaimed material in their reproduction process—which ties into their experience and love of historic architecture.
One unique project for Worthington & Shagen was working on a multi-purpose barn in Upper Makefield. “The foundation was built new, and an antique barn specialist from Waco, Texas was brought in. Timbers for the barn were located in Upstate New York, and were taken to Waco for refitting and cleaning. A crew was sent to set up the barn frame. It was on us to do all the interior and exterior sidings and everything except the frame. The owner wants to build a sailboat in there, as he is close to retirement. There are livestock stalls, a general recreation space, even some lofts for the children. They also use the barn for entertaining,” Chance says.
It is not surprising that over the years Worthington & Shagen has garnered multiple Home Builders Association awards. Over the past decade, they have won 14 awards, including seven custom home of the year awards. Chance Worthington is a member of their Builder 20 Club.
Realtor magazine recently released their 21 Hot Housing Trends for 2015. Many of Worthington & Shagen’s trends made this list. In the kitchen, all white still is popular. Those kitchens are increasingly featuring charging stations for electronic devices. In relaxing living spaces like a family room, salon style walls are in. You can decorate wall to wall or floor to ceiling. For the paint on your walls, Coral Reef is the 2015 color from Sherwin Williams. Popular building materials for 2015 homes will include quartzite, porcelain flooring, and copper. People are looking for two master bedroom suites with accompanying bathrooms. This accommodates the growing number of homes with multiple generations. These bedrooms also will feature a luxurious bedding system for getting the right amount of sleep. Homes also will be healthier with systems designed for wellness and water conservation. Specialized storage is a popular request for homeowners. They also are want top-of-the-line garages. And to keep the romance alive, fire pits and fireplaces remain standard.
Worthington & Shagen worked on a family room with a fireplace in a classic Solebury manor house. This was a multimillion-dollar renovation that included the building of an oversized three-car carriage garage with the owner’s office on the second floor. The entire exterior of the existing home was refaced. On the interior, the electric system was replaced, and the baths and kitchen were remodeled. The family had another home on Kiawah Island outside of Charleston with a large living room. It was adorned with pecky cypress. The owner wanted to use that in this home. As this was the historic reproduction of a manor house, the material would not be appropriate.
“I went to the head of my woodshop and asked what I could do in knotty cherry. My woodworker found cat’s paw cherry. It has these little clusters of knots everywhere where it is four or five knots together like a cat’s paw. There is a shiny radiance in the wood grain structure. It can’t be purchased in plywood sheets. The veneers were placed onto plywood sheets. For the railing, moldings, the solid spots, we used a knotty cherry material to complement it,” Worthington says.
The fireplace was another issue. It was a large white stucco mass in this large room. A very thin stone veneer was clad over the entire exterior of the fireplace to give it more texture and a better aesthetic. To bring down the height of the room and add some interest, wooden enhancements were created.
For a family in Upper Makefield, Worthington & Shagen worked on an extensive project that included construction of a home and an entertainment barn. It was built like a high school gymnasium, but decorated on the exterior to look like an old barn. Several challenges came with the barn project, but the end result was fabulous. It has a tennis court layout. There is black netting that drops down to create a batting cage. Overlooking the sport court is a sports bar. It is appointed with a reclaimed antique bar, replicated back bar, wooden beams, and reclaimed antique wide oak flooring. The barn also has a fitness facility, putting green, and an endless lap pool with jets. Both the men and women have their own locker rooms with lockers and separate showers. The steam unit can be shared by both the men and women. The barn also is used for holding large parties.
Another unique project by Worthington & Shagen was a gristmill pool accessory structure. It was personally designed by Chance Worthington for his own Plumstead Township home. “Since I had moved into my 250-year-old farmhouse 20 years ago, I had wanted a water feature. Since we are on a steep grade, I thought I could do a waterfall and tie in a storage house, a structure to house the noisy pool equipment. I did the design and engineering myself. There were ruins of a structure that we restored.”
Since this was his own residence, he had the luxury of trial and error. After working with the mill race, waterwheel, pumps, and PVC line, Worthington achieved the desired result. There also was another experimental component. On the pool deck, Pennsylvania bluestone was used. To cut down on the heat of the stone, he used radiant heat tubing underneath. This cools the bluestone by 5 to 10 degrees. The system also raises the pool’s temperature effectively through solar heating by several degrees every day.
“We can look at something years from now and say we built it. We provide a quality product that is built to last. We have the product knowledge, quality control, personnel management, and industry training. We have the service and communication with our clients. We offer jet set or a la carte estate management services for them. We would make the case that we are the best at high end custom residential construction,” Shagen says.
Worthington & Shagen Custom Builder, Inc. is located at 1108 Wrightstown Road in Newtown. Their phone number is 215-504-5500. You can like them on Facebook, or visit their Website at www.worthingtonshagencus
tombuilder.com.
Mary Beth Schwartz is a freelance writer who frequently contributes to regional publi-cations.