Hol­i­day Home Tour
Novem­ber 10, 2012
11AM — 5PM

Take a tour through beau­ti­ful homes fes­tively dec­o­rated for Christ­mas in the Steam­boat Moun­tain Estates in Tus­cola, just south of Abi­lene. Enjoy the Phil­har­monic music of the hol­i­days and cel­e­brate our 62nd sea­son with us. The tour is 11AM – 5PM and each ticket comes with a detailed map and infor­ma­tion about each home.

Home Tour Tick­ets $20

Tick­ets

Tick­ets are on sale and may be pur­chased by click­ing here,  or at these ticket locations:

Michael Joseph’s Salon

Casa Authen­tique

Avanti Salon

Tick­ets can also be pur­chased at the homes on the tour.

Homes fea­tured on the Home Tour:

Stephen and Jean­nie Sorgen

197 Camino Norte

 

The lot on Steam­boat Moun­tain was pur­chased, by the Sor­gens,  in 2006.  In 2009, an addi­tional par­cel was pur­chased to pro­tect the habi­tat in the ravine below.  In March, 2008, Jean­nie and Steve began work­ing with their Archi­tect, Ken Schaum­burg of Fort Worth, Texas, who spe­cial­izes in Mediter­ranean Homes.  Antique doors pre­vi­ously pur­chased from Seret and Sons in Santa Fe served as a start­ing point for the design and feel of the house.  Care was taken to include typ­i­cal fea­tures of Andalu­sia Spain, such as spa­cious out­door por­tals, thick exte­rior walls, a court­yard, niches for art­work, and plenty of rich, deep col­ors of wood, stucco, tile and other fin­ishes.  After 10 months of meet­ings and close com­mu­ni­ca­tion with Ken, the plans for their Span­ish home were com­pleted.  After meet­ing with Jeff Luther and Bryan Holo­man of Jeff Luther Con­struc­tion, it was clear that they under­stand the Sorgen’s desire to cre­ate a warm, authen­tic and inti­mate inter­pre­ta­tion of the Span­ish Hacienda.  Gen­er­ous use of iron­work, with entry and wine cel­lar doors from Durango Doors and chan­de­liers and sconces from Ashore Iron Works in Dal­las, enhances the Span­ish feel.  Gen­er­ous use of dark wood, crafted by Abi­lene Mill­work, hand-made tile by Ken Mason, saltillo floor tile and traver­tine in the baths com­bine to com­plete the Span­ish ambi­ence.  The kitchen is the heart of the home, where Steve and Jean­nie love to enter­tain.  There is a back kitchen where all the prep work can be done.  Out front, there is a large bar, made of a solid slab of Brazil­ian teak, where guests can gather while the cook­ing is going on.  The wine cel­lar is con­ve­niently adja­cent to that bar.  The court­yard is an archi­tec­tural ele­ment that is a big part of Span­ish cul­ture.  This lush green oasis pro­vides inti­macy, secu­rity, com­fort, and pro­tec­tion from the fierce winds of the moun­tain.  Another key fea­ture is the sound of run­ning water, pro­vided by the foun­tain, a gift from Jean­nie to Steve, acquired in New Orleans 10 years ago.  It whim­si­cally reflects their pas­sion for wine and had been in stor­age until it found its place in the court­yard 2 years ago.  The warmth of the court­yard is enhanced by the reclaimed brick patio sur­face and the ochre stucco walls.  The carv­ing on the court­yard gate embod­ies the name of the home:  La Casa del Sol e Luna.  The back of the house is xeriscaped, and the reclaimed brick is again uti­lized.  The lap pool is dec­o­rated with Span­ish tiles and brick cop­ing.  The expan­sive per­gola begin­ning at the west end of the pool extends over to the out­door kitchen with fire­place, grill and Steve’s pride and joy—a pizza oven made by Forno Bravo.  The beau­ti­ful sand­stone table is from a patient of Steve’s who owns a quarry in Min­eral Wells.  The project was com­pleted is April 2010 after 14 months of con­struc­tion.  Jean­nie and Steve feel that every detail was given spe­cial atten­tion and they couldn’t be hap­pier with their home.

James and Martha Webb

901 County Road 650

 

This Mediter­ranean style home on top of Steam­boat Moun­tain offers spec­tac­u­lar scenic views.  The four bed­room, five bath home was designed, con­tracted, and built by the own­ers over the last three years from research and ideas they had col­lected for many years.  Some of the archi­tec­tural fea­tures include high ceil­ings, arches, dec­o­ra­tive iron and win­dows galore!  From the front of the home, friends and fam­ily can see the West Texas sun­sets while vis­it­ing in the court­yard.  Upon enter­ing the two-story liv­ing room/dining room, you see Cedar Gap below and the moun­tains beyond.  The down­stairs also con­sists of the mas­ter suite, guest suite, mud­room and study.  The mas­ter bath shares a two-sided fire­place with a pri­vate patio.  Ideal for fam­ily and friends, the upstairs con­sists of two bed­rooms, two baths, a home the­ater, work­out room and cus­tom designed bar over­look­ing the liv­ing room.  The bar is a mix­ture of old and new.  The own­ers used hand carved pan­els sal­vaged from a Tai­wanese desk to com­plete the front of the bar and the cab­i­net.  The stairs wind their way up the tur­ret with iron rail­ing fab­ri­cated by the owner.  Adja­cent to the stairs there is a hot tub deck for enjoy­ing the view.  Both upstairs and down, there are beau­ti­ful gran­ite coun­ter­tops, as well as a split gran­ite wall and backsplashes.

Richard and Patri­cia Trifilo

174 Lake Trail

 

This 5300 square foot Leud­ers lime­stone home was designed by Bul­verde archi­tect and fam­ily friend Jim Kissling.  After 15 mil­i­tary moves the fam­ily had spe­cific ideas for the house, 2.3 beau­ti­ful secluded acres, and breath­tak­ing views.  Built by Akens Broth­ers in 2007 this open con­cept house includes cus­tom alder cab­i­netry and doors, mesquite floors, traver­tine tile, gran­ite coun­ter­tops, and blue ceil­ings through­out the house.  The stairs are made from mesquite end cuts.  A “key­hole” book­case opens the sec­ond floor to the first floor liv­ing room.  Each bathroom’s tile work was designed by the owner, includ­ing the guest area that used wood from a local barn built in 1885, and the mas­ter bath’s “flow­ing water”.  The pow­der room cop­per art­work sink sits on a mesquite stump pedestal.  Unusual and inter­est­ing art and fur­ni­ture from the family’s trav­els around the world can be seen such as a burled cherry wood grand­fa­ther clock, a carved teak Thai cab­i­net, a mesquite and turquoise din­ing table, and a pre­cious jewel art piece from India.  Art­work by Robert Lyn Nel­son, Jay L. Tschudy, Guy Buf­fet, and George Hol­land is fea­tured through­out the home.

The out­side land­scap­ing was designed by Tom Mar­tin and Mas­ter­scapes and is a project in progress.  The front of the house fea­tures a water foun­tain and koi pond sur­rounded by native grasses, trees, an plants, and a Nic Noblique sculp­ture.  The north hill­side fea­tures a xeriscape ter­race of lime­stone, and herb gar­den, spa, and a raised-bed rose gar­den with stain­less steel and dichromic glass Kinetic sculp­ture by Austin artist La Paso.  The west yard will even­tu­ally fea­ture native land­scape, a patio with a fire pit, a bird sanc­tu­ary and des­ti­na­tion path­ways to star-gazing promon­tory and access to the lower property.

Leroy and Deb­o­rah Bell

217 Steam­boat Drive

 

A chance after­noon walk up Steam­boat Moun­tain led to the dis­cov­ery of our home’s prop­erty.  The Bells were soon own­ers of a piece of prop­erty which they felt offered a unique build­ing oppor­tu­nity but also many chal­lenges.  Their archi­tect sur­veyed the prop­erty and sug­gested a loca­tion as close to the edge of the cliff, which offered a view from every room — Potosi to Tus­cola.  The Bells have always enjoyed Santa Fe and Sedona and deter­mined the site deserved a look of the region they had admired dur­ing our vis­its.  After many hours of study of the plans and minor revi­sions, con­struc­tion began and was ampli­fied in July 2002.  From time to time dis­cus­sion with young peo­ple famil­iar with the loca­tion they dis­cov­ered the site was a pop­u­lar loca­tion for young peo­ple to hang out and enjoy the view.  The house is about 3200 square feet of liv­ing space with a detached three car garage.  LeRoy and Deb­o­rah choose to use drive it mate­r­ial to add to the style which blends in with the landscape.

Most of the orig­i­nal bronze stat­ues and art have been cho­sen dur­ing our vis­its out West.  They espe­cially enjoy works by Vic Payne, Dr. Robery Tay­lor, Gary Mauro, Bill Worell and other spe­cial artists that they have met.  Many have ques­tioned the dis­tance from the City but the few extra miles are more than made up by the enjoy­ment of hill­top liv­ing.  Five years ago they added a water fea­ture, which includes hot tub, swim­ming pool and an out­door kitchen which has become an impor­tant and enjoy­able addi­tion.  Many spring and sum­mer evenings are spent enjoy­ing the West Texas sun­rises and sun­sets!  The Bells hope you enjoy your visit to Steam­boat Mountain.

Phil and Kathy Morehead

1326 County Road 650

 

Built in 2009 by Jeff Luther Con­struc­tion and designed by Bob Road­cap, this tran­si­tional style home is sit­u­ated on 15 acres at the south end of Steam­boat Moun­tain.  Designed to take full advan­tage of the 10 mile view down the Jim Ned Val­ley, the design fea­tures easy view­ing and access to the out­side deck.  An open floor plan with gourmet kitchen makes for an ele­gant but infor­mal lifestyle.  The cus­tom Ten­nessee cherry man­tle was made from wood col­lected by Phil’s father over 50 years ago.  Each bed­room and bath also has a view of the Jim Ned Val­ley.  One bed­room fea­tures an antique bed­room set from the late 1920’s that was used by Kathy’s mother as a young girl.   Inte­rior designer Lynda Gilreath helped select col­ors and fab­rics for the house.  The owner’s have an exten­sive col­lec­tion of art includ­ing works from local artists Sara­beth Cle­venger, Tony Blown, and Rus­sell Elli­son.  The sculp­ture in the front of the house is from Nic Noblique.  Land­scap­ing was done to keep water­ing and main­te­nance at a minimum.

Ed and Roberta Brandecker

133 Camino Norte

 

Ed and Roberta Bran­decker have always had a love for Italy and the Tus­can coun­try­side.  So when look­ing for land in which to build their home, Steam­boat Moun­tain with the views over­look­ing val­leys, reminded them of Tus­cany.  They sought out an archi­tect that could cap­ture the feel­ing of being in a hill­top Tus­can coun­try home, and found Charles Travis of Austin, Texas.  Over the next 13 months, they worked closely with him in the design of the home.  The builder was Perry Stockard, of Stockard Con­struc­tion and along with his wife, worked closely in the fin­ish­ing touches that fit a Tus­can home.  As you enter the auto­court, the large stone and brick well in the cen­ter is an exact replica from a monastery in Siena, Italy.  The pavers are in a her­ring­bone pat­tern, typ­i­cal of what is seen at piazza’s in Italy.  The brick­work around the win­dows mimic the pic­tures of home the Brandecker’s took while vis­it­ing Italy.  The large terra cota pots at the entrance to the home were pur­chased from Impru­enta, Italy.  The Bran­deck­ers wanted all authen­tic mate­ri­als.  The terra cota floor­ing is over 150 years old and reclaimed from Europe.  Coun­ters, fire­place, foun­tain and entrance well are designed out of lime­stone by Berthold Haas, Austin, Texas.   Sinks are all ham­mered cop­per and plumb­ing fix­tures are all brass.  The vaulted ceil­ings, thick wooden beams, and wrought iron chan­de­liers and fix­tures are all rem­i­nis­cent of old world Tus­cany.  The back­splash to the stove was cus­tom made from them in Deruta, Italy.  It depicts towns they had pre­vi­ously vis­ited, San Gim­ing­nano, Siena, Durata, and Orvi­eto.  The chan­de­lier and sconces in the din­ing room were hand blown for them from Murano, Italy.  The tall sculp­tured wood buf­fet is from 1880s Italy.  The mir­rors in the down­stairs bath­rooms are from Orvi­eto and Durata, Italy.  If you get a chance, peek out the study library and view their vine­yard which will pro­duce its first vin­tage of tempranillo/grenanche wine next year.