Barsness Home Gallery: September 2009

Rick and Cheryl Barsness live in a beautiful home, surrounded by a pond, a stream, rolling hills and gorgeous landscaping. And it’s all tucked away in the Rogersville countryside.

By Savannah Waszczuk; Photos by Edward Biamonte

Before they moved here nearly a decade ago, Rick and Cheryl Barsness often visited 417-land when they took their children to Kanakuk Kamps. On one visit they bought a Sunday paper and looked for local properties. “We called a real estate agent and said we wanted 100 acres with a lake, a rushing creek, trees and hills, and we wanted it all in the country,” Rick says. “[The agent] laughed and said ‘Yeah, you and everyone else.’”

But Rick received a call back from her. “[The agent] asked me if I had an imagination,” he says. She took the couple to see a property in the Rogersville countryside, which is a former cattle ranch and was basically a dumping ground. There was land, and there were hills, but it was all littered with old cars and junk. There was a pond, but it was covered with scum. But the couple used their imaginations, bought the property and, with the help of architect Rob Haik of H Design Group, transformed it into exactly what they had imagined.

Rick and Cheryl are owners of Incredible Pizza Company. Before opening Incredible Pizza Company here, the couple had a variety of business ventures, including a Mr. Gatti’s pizza in Amarillo, Texas. “Mr. Gatti’s was wildly successful,” Rick says. The couple researched markets similar to Amarillo, which is how they learned about Springfield. Springfield is home to the second Incredible Pizza Company, and there are 19 stores across the country.

Click a photo below for a larger view.