After Hurricane Rita hit Galveston in 2005 our desire to build a beach house was...,well, blown. I asked Mike where he wanted to build after ten years in Colorado and he said,"The Texas Hill Country."
We found our lot in August of 2006. Zbranek Holt was interviewed and
by November they were our builder. They said they had never built an infinity edge two-level pool on a lake before, but as you can tell, they learned on the job. And then they took first place with it. Nice.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. It culminated with building a house in the Texas Hill Country but it started with buying a little place in Colorado in 1996.
It was just about this time five years ago now that we closed on the sale of Fairway. We had enjoyed ten wonderful years as homeowners in Colorado but it was getting harder and harder to logistically get the kids up there now that they had careers and limited vacations. The market seemed right so we told our realtor at Christmas to go ahead and list since we knew nothing ever sold before the summer months - that at least had been our previous experience.
But our buyer ended up being the first ones to look at the house and they wanted the home both furnished and asap - what to do? We had trips planned through Spring Break so though thrilled to have an offer so soon, we begged for a late closing. Our buyer graciously accommodated us.
Colorado was always a dream sequence from beginning to end. We loved entertaining, especially in the summer. The opportunity to grant our Texas friends and family a respite from the intense summer temperatures to play golf or just sit out on the deck was... well, cool, to say the least.
The last house we owned there, and there were a total of four, was the best. Our view was of the Gore range and the Cordillera golf course stretched out in three directions all around us.
I finally had the budget, the skills and the trips to High Point from which to select all my resources, and I will not lie, it was fun. Especially the trip to Canton with Ann in Preston's truck when we piled my treasures wide and high-held secure with bungee cords - oh my. The look on Mike's face was priceless even if it was just a tad embarassing winding our way through the neighborhood slumped down in our seats.
The chandelier was purchased in High Point but truthfully I have loved Oklahoma Castings since 1998 when they first debuted at the Dallas Market in Robert Koerth's Showroom. I'm not even sure that showroom is still there. But few things have charmed me as much as this company has. So if you can't afford authentic Black Forest antiques you might want to check them out.
The new owners made very few changes. I like organized clutter as does my hero Charles Faudree, so it was less intensely decorated once occupied by them. But on a trip to Colorado the year after we sold we drove by, rang the door bell and looked inside...it looked to me like we still lived there. I wish sometimes we still did. Alas, the clock moves on and so did we. It was time.
We did sell the unique and much talked about dining table made from real antlers. That is a story I have oft told as I have now commissioned it three times again as a dining table and once as a desk.
I completely cold-called on a gentleman out west in the hope that I had found a vendor we had hooked up with at Safari International in Dallas. It was not. It was even better.
To this day we have never met, though I did chance to meet one of his daughters at a temporary booth in High Point in 2006. Incredibly accommodating, a man of his word who has never disappointed me. Just like he scours the hills to find his antlers, I too scour markets, stores and fairs in search of the unique and collectible.
I can't talk about our time in Colorado without mentioning David and Maxine Medina. What terrific people they are. The house was always well cared for and ready for us when we arrived. David is talented in so many ways. He made the log bunk beds that we sold with the house. So I commissioned him to make me some more and then he drove to Houston to deliver them to us. They are now in the grandchildren's bunk room at the lake.
So here's another shot of friends and another lovely shot of Alpine Glow - God's idea of ambient lighting!
