Steve Lacy and Debbie Thomas spent three decades living and raising their daughters on the San Francisco Peninsula before building their dream home on a rural, undeveloped piece of property in the Alexander Valley.

“What put us in San Mateo were our jobs,” says Thomas, “but this is more us.”

The couple, who both work in the pharmaceutical industry, purchased the land in 2008, drawn to sweeping views across Alexander Valley, and the quiet location not too far from Healdsburg and other small Wine Country towns they love to explore.

Lacy and Thomas essentially started from scratch — only some basic infrastructure and a small olive grove at the top of the ridge existed on the property at the time. But they knew the spot would give them the balance of privacy and proximity they were looking for.

“This stretch is known for being a favorite of cyclists in the summertime, and it’s only 3 miles from the Jimtown Store,” says Lacy.

“It’s reopening soon; we’re so excited,” says Thomas.

Initially, the couple built a small prefab cottage near the olive grove, visiting the property on weekends and holidays. In 2019, the Kincade Fire burned much of the surrounding landscape, though firefighters heroically saved the prefab house.

The couple replanted the burned olive grove, though many of the trees they thought were a total loss later started to grow back. Eventually, they embarked on building a new home, working with Chris Cahill of CahillStudio, builder Robin Guilfoyle of RobinWood Construction, and interior designer Emily Mughannam, creative director of Fletcher Rhodes in Sonoma.

The project took three years, finishing in late 2023. “Our relationship to the land really evolved over the course of it. This was not an easy property to build on,” says Lacy.

The availability of lumber, steel and other big-ticket items like windows affected timing and cost — but the couple say the stretched-out timeline brought a deeper understanding of what they were looking for.

Now, they revel in the way the new home meets their needs. “I love how open and light it is; the way it takes advantage of all the views,” says Thomas.

The home is extremely energy efficient, with solar panels and backup batteries, and was built with special siding and roofing to make it as fire-resistant as possible. Landscape architect Mike Lucas of Lucas + Lucas designed a dramatic waterfall seen through a two-story window in the main living space and helped forge strong connections to the outdoors on the upper deck and downstairs pool area.

“It gets very hot here, but when the breeze comes up, the whole house opens up and it stays cool,” says Lacy. “You get these brilliant days and the most incredible sunsets over the valley.”

The couple have settled in over the past few months, getting used to the new kitchen layout (“The kitchen outclasses the cook now,” jokes Lacy) and listening to the crickets and the neighbor’s cows at night. The property is a major wildlife corridor — deer and quail and wild turkeys, even foxes and coyotes, move easily across the landscape.

“A lot of people put fencing around the whole property, but I couldn’t see doing that here,” says Lacy. “There are deer trails here that go back and forth, and they definitely predate us, so that’s as it should be.”

Summertime is outdoor time, watching the fingers of morning fog wander and burn off across the valley, and cooking lazy meals over the grill in the outdoor kitchen. “The fog is a whole thing here; it’s a character,” says Thomas.

The couple are planting a vegetable garden and looking ahead to hosting their younger daughter’s engagement party at the new house. But above all, they’re reveling in what has evolved over time.

“It’s isolated here, but it also feels very homey,” says Thomas.

Lacy agrees. “We knew we would like it, but now there’s the reality of it.”

The post Local Couple Gets Closer to Nature in Newly Built Alexander Valley Dream Home appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.

Bay Area writer Chase Reynolds Ewald knows when a design topic is ready for its own coffee-table book. Ewald recently teamed up with Heather Sandy Hebert, a fellow writer who has worked at architectural firms throughout the Bay Area, to craft “At Home in the Wine Country: Architecture & Design in the California Vineyards,” a new book that showcases spectacular homes in Sonoma and Napa counties.

From contemporary farmhouse-style properties to ultra-modern residences, the homes featured in “At Home in Wine Country” pay homage to the prized setting they inhabit as they blend into the surrounding natural landscape by means of a “restrained approach to architecture,” according to Ewald.

This approach to architecture can be seen in the seamless connection between indoor and outdoor spaces throughout these properties: expansive, unadorned windows frame outdoor views while subdued color palettes give focus to surrounding vineyards and rolling hills. Hebert predicts this focus on connecting indoor and outdoor living spaces will continue in the world of design and architecture as homeowners try to create year-round outdoor areas for social gatherings in the wake of the pandemic.

To make homes blend with the surrounding area, the architects behind the book’s properties have paid close attention to the topography and colors of the landscape. If a property is to be located on a hillside, for example, they will build into the contours of the hills, says Ewald. And the color palettes will emulate the colors of the natural landscape or contrast — in black and white — in a way that showcases the nature rather than the house. A Black Box home in Napa, for example, might seem at first glance a radical exercise in modern design but Hebert points out that the architect’s intent was to make the building “disappear” into the afternoon shadows cast by the trees.

“At Home in Wine Country” features both exterior and interior shots of stunning homes as well as design details such as creative countertop stylings using pottery, textiles and natural elements, and garden landscaping that is beautiful, drought-tolerant and fire safe. While the book offers plenty of information and advice to prospective home builders, it’s perhaps primarily a celebration of architecture as an art form. Readers will no doubt pick out their dream homes and favorite design details among the properties featured in the book. Ewald, who grew up in Vermont, prefers a modern farmhouse “warmed up” with rustic elements while Hebert adores the “Nana windows,” a folding wall of windows that opens up toward the outdoors. Click through the above gallery to take a peek at some of the properties featured in the book and pick your own favorite.

“At Home in the Wine Country: Architecture & Design in the California Vineyards” is available August 24, 2021 and can be purchased online. 

The post Peek Inside Spectacular Wine Country Homes in New Design Book appeared first on Sonoma Magazine.