6-6-2024
When Dave and I first discussed the possibility of building, rather than buying an existing home, Dave was the first to mention the style of house he would want to live in. I was shocked! "Santa Fe style"? It never occurred to me that he would want something like that - I thought he would lean more toward Craftsman! Evidently, 40+ years of trips to Santa Fe, Taos, and Roswell had made more of an impression than I realized! During the first conversation with our architect, Rich Carter, I tried to describe what we wanted to build. I told him, well, ya know, maybe the Yellowstone Ranch visited Santa Fe and they produced a house that now lives in Grand Junction. A modern-ish adobe ranch with a little Craftsman in the mix. Throw in a little Victorian...and mission.... with a wink at Art Deco. I'm certain he thought I was kidding - or completely insane. He finally replied, "well, this sounds interesting, something I've never done.... challenge accepted!".
Littleridge GJ House
During the entire design process, Dave kept showing me photos of what I call "Modern -Mid-Century Modern" that mostly had him enamored with the iconic "single slope roof" .... ummm, like, a tilted roof? Not a chance, I thought. Then I had a house randomly pop up on my Pinterest page last weekend. Uhhohhh.... Dave's "tilted roof" married a classic southwestern flat roof house and, wow... it still maintained it's Santa Fe style but with a dash of modern! Game on! Ohhhh, Riiiich.... see, here's this photo and Dave really likes this roofline a lot and,.... well??
Rich (the most talented, patient, and visionary architect ever!), looked at the photo and within days has given Dave a bit of the roofline he wanted, while keeping true to a Santa Fe style. We think he has created something extraordinarily unique!
Here is where I have to say a little more about Rich... I mean, he is the coolest guy around! We all met in the Fall of Allyssa's freshman year of high school (2004). Rich was the coach of the U-18 girls competitive soccer team - girls play comp league in the Fall and on the High School team in the Spring. Fall ball, as we call it. Four years of lots of fun soccer and a great friendship was forged. While Dave worked with him occasionally through Gallegos, and both Jon and Allyss have run in to him in Junction at times, I never would have dreamed that 20 years later I would be reaching out to him to inquire about hiring him as an architect!
"Hey Coach! Marcee Little.... Dave and I are thinking about building a house...". In the blink of an eye, we were all buckled in for another fun ride!
