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September 30, 2004
A BIG KID'S TREEHOUSE
The design and inspiration for the Treehouse, a tall, rambling house set in the aspen woodlands of the Ski Ranches, grew in part out of Ernie Graham's recognizing a blank spot in the million-dollar home market in the Mountain Village. He showed houses in the Mountain Village in the $3 to $4 million range that were "majestic," as he described them, but not "cozy and homey." For less than $3 to $4 million he could not find all of these qualities in one home.
"So I set out to build a great home to live in full-time and one that you could entertain in," he said on a recent tour of the home. "Something you could live in and have house parties in." The result: the Treehouse, a spec house built by Graham and designed by Bruce Wright of ONE Architects. From the exterior the house, clad in gray barnwood siding and tall and narrow in the middle, is reminiscent of a mill building. From the inside the house lives up to Graham's expectations; it is at once big enough to entertain in, but not so big that a family of four living in the house would lose track of each other.
Eager, youthful and easygoing, Graham arrived in Telluride two years ago with his wife and two children, by way of Lexington, Ky.; Tulsa, Okla.; and Las Vegas, Nev. Along the way he sold networking hardware to Wal-Mart, worked for a tech start-up during the go-go days of the late 90s Internet boom and for two years commuted from Tulsa to company offices in Vegas. Though the Vegas-based start-up launched the second biggest IPO in 1999 - "we were all gazillionaires for about five minutes," said Graham, laughing - the commuting and intense pedal-to-the-metal workstyle threw his family "out of kilter."
When the company tanked, Graham and his family were ready for a change. They picked up and moved from Tulsa to their second home in the Knoll Estates in Mountain Village.
"It was like fantasy land," said the self-described recovering workaholic about the transition to the San Juan Mountains. "When I first arrived, I was basking in the healing power of Telluride."
Though bathed in Telluride's healing rays, the workaholic in Graham found ample opportunity to take up old habits.
"I learned over the first two years it takes as much time to get out of bad habits as it does to get into them," he said.
He moved to Telluride with the intention of taking some time to relax and reevaluate his work life; however within six months he joined Alpine Lodging and Real Estate, urged to come on board by Michael Salamon, Graham's real estate agent when he bought the Knoll Estates home.
"I thought I could be measured," Graham said of the move. Within a short time though, he was working full tilt, until he broke his femur while skiing under Lift 9 last winter.
"I don't mean to sound Pollyanna-ish," he said, explaining what the break meant to him. "But I was in the emergency room lying on the table and I realized that even though I thought I was a new thinker, and creating new balance in my work and my family, I was falling back into old ways."
That emergency-table revelation may have been the other reason for Graham's undertaking the Treehouse project.
Though Graham conceived the project of building a house that would fill an unmet niche in the market, he approached the project with an intention of working with problems, not against them.
"We looked at a lot of practical issues when designing this house," Graham said. "Everything that would have otherwise been cumbersome and difficult - we made it right." A bridge to the garage became a spacious mud room. Extra height in a downstairs closet became… well, read on.
"People want to buy something that moves them," he said, describing a trend he has noticed in the post-9/11 world. "They can afford something really, really nice because they have been working hard." But instead of a 10,000 square foot house with a cavernous great room, Graham saw a need for a more modestly sized home.
Indeed, the house, constructed by Greg Hanshaw of Vogon Construction Management, works. The entry is roomy, but does not echo. The great room is more cozy than colossal. And the reasonably sized kitchen, as Graham said, is "not ridiculous."
Throughout the house the thoughtful consideration given to the layout, as well as to each detail, is apparent. From the tucked away powder room and shower, easily accessed from the hot tub placed on the side of the house (so guests don't have to traipse through the living room after leaving the tub) to the glass walls in the master bath (that allow the bather to take in the surrounding views), Graham and Wright lavished attention on this house.
Graham began the tour in the open-floor-plan-style living and dining area. In the yet-to-be-furnished living area, one can imagine a comfy sofa and several armchairs snuggled around the stone hearth. The living area is big enough for a party, but the sofa and chairs will be close enough that two can have an intimate conversation.
From the dining area double doors open onto the "sky deck," a cantilevered, wood-planked deck with metal railing constructed by Chuck Choate of Southwest Valhalla Steel. The deck affords sweeping views of the San Sophia Ridge, of Emma and Dallas, and Iron and Campbell Mountains.
Wrapping around the house from north to east, the deck on east side, called the "sundeck" is easily accessed from the kitchen.
"This deck is drenched with sun from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.," he said. "The whole hot tub thing, for instance. It is usually situated in front of the great room," leading to the outcome of a blocked view and a less- than-private hot tub.
For the Treehouse, Graham situated the hot tub on the sundeck. The hot tub gets sun during the day, and has a great view to the north. For privacy it is snuggled up against a retaining wall.
From the deck, the kitchen is easily accessible (what cook would not want to duck out from his or her chores and step into a hot, achy-muscle-relieving soak?). Designed by Jade Graham, Graham's wife, the kitchen, with its terra-cotta tiled floor, red, black and gray flecked granite counter tops, and maple butcher block on the island, is warm and welcoming.
"This is the kind that is meant to be cut on," Graham said of the butcher block. "It should have grooves from cutting after several years."
Downstairs on the ground floor the house has two bedrooms (one could be a children's bunk room, Graham points out) and two baths separated by a room that could easily hold a pool table and which is wired for high-definition TV.
Upstairs again Graham, smiling like he has a great secret, opens the door to a bedroom located on the same level as the entry. This room is for a guest or parent for whom the altitude is a challenge, he says. To reach the bedroom from the entry they don't have to walk up or down stairs, and the room is a short half-flight of stairs from the living area and kitchen. The powder room is another of the house's small, but important, details. Located to the side of the entry, not off the living room, the room is private, Graham points out. With a door to the sundeck, it also accommodates modest hot tub bathers, who after leaving the hot tub want to step into a shower to rinse off. The powder room has that shower, as well as hooks for towels and robes.
One problem the design team encountered seemed to pull in nearly everyone on the job site. One of the downstairs closets had a 20-foot ceiling. What to do with that extra space, Graham and Wright asked themselves.
Always looking for a way to make sweet out of sour, they noticed the top of the closet was behind the built-in bookshelves in the living room. Ah haa. Build a fake ceiling in the closet and a secret door in the bookshelves. Graham opens the door with a twinkle in his eye and I peer in. If I were a kid, with blankets from the bunk beds and cushions from the sofa, I could make the perfect fort.
Though consideration of the use of the room went through several incarnations - someone called it a panic room ("But why panic? We are in Telluride."), others said it was a safe room for valuables - the crew settled on a fort for kids as the "highest and best use," said Graham.
Up the main stairs to a closed door, Graham, his hand on the knob, pauses for a moment, then opens the door with fanfare.
The room does have great views, its own fireplace and his and her lavatories. The shower and bath, built on the northeast corner of the house, however, are the crown jewels. The shower, with its double showerheads and glass shelves spaced perfectly so a bottle of shampoo fits, Graham points out, has glass walls. Bathers can look through the glass and through the windows to the San Sophia Ridge; their privacy is protected by the aspen woodlands to the east. Still recovering from the broken leg when he designed the house, Graham made sure the shower had the perfect size bench for sitting and showering.
Whether fussing with details or addressing each obstacle as it arose, building this house has been a huge project. Has he slowed down any? Since breaking his leg and his emergency room realization that "it takes as much time to get out of bad habits as it does to get into them," Graham says, "I work hard and play hard."
In between starting his own real estate business with Salamon, Telluride360 Real Estate, and building the Treehouse, he says he really has found more time to play. Recently he and his family rode the narrow gauge train from Durango to Silverton and took a trip to Santa Fe. Graham also did the sound for the Telluride Repertory Theatre's performance this summer of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
"We are just a couple of guys who have an overwhelming attention to detail," he said.
"I am not an ex-Olympic skier. I am a recovering workaholic. Mike is a good influence on me. He goes out and plays tennis in the middle of the day. It takes patience and time to unwind bad habits."
Somehow the process of building the house, of paying attention to the details and of yielding to problems as they arise has made its own healing impression on Graham.
"I am a Republican who sees an acupuncturist," he says. "I have come to realize it is not about overwhelming the situation and controlling your environment. It is about going with the flow."
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http://www.telluride360.com/listings/propdetail.cfm?pid=40
Posted by Adam at September 30, 2004 02:59 PM