Generating pages in the root directory

I’m trying to use WP as a CMS, but I’m running into two obstacles: First, my blog is only one component of my site, and I do not want anything to do with it on the home page. Second, I want the Pages generated by WP to NOT be located below the blog in the URL hierarchy (i.e., I want “example.com/page”, NOT “example.com/blog/page”).

I’ve seen several threads pertaining to static home pages, but they all seem complicated by the author trying to insert some aspect of the blog into it. I just want a blog-free home page that happens to be managed by WP along with the rest of my site.