Athena and David Oden did a lot of looking around before deciding they wanted to build their new Spring Branch-area home so it looked as if early German settlers had done it.
Typically, the couple explained, these settlers initially built something small, often a one-room cabin. Then, as their families grew and they became more successful, they added extensions, one after another, until, finally, after many years, the home was large enough to accommodate several generations.
“That’s how we built this place,” said Athena Ogden, a pediatric physical therapist.
The result is a two-bedroom, 2½-bath house constructed by Spring Branch-based Brad Moore Builders that appears to have been built in three separate segments over many years.
This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate
Athena and David Oden’s Spring Branch-area home was constructed to appear to have been built piecemeal over many years.
William Luther/Staff
“We get people all the time asking how old it is,” said Athena, who explained that the $750,000 house took only a year to build. “They think it’s a century or more.”
The home’s German vernacular style can be seen in how one portion of the facade is constructed of thick, weathered limestone blocks while another is made of lumber. The limestone is also laid in neat, horizontal rows, with a slight schmear between the blocks, rather than the tumbled limestone style with recessed mortar common in many modern Hill Country homes.
It can also be seen in the roof, where one portion is made of steel treated to develop a handsome, protective coating of rust when exposed to the elements. But because the couple rely on rain for their drinking water, they had to leave the rest of the metal roof untreated.
The home’s German vernacular style is visible in the way one portion of the outside facade is constructed of thick, weathered limestone blocks laid in horizontal rows and with a slight mortar schmear.
William Luther/StaffIn contrast, the interior design is surprisingly up-to-date. Entering the home, a visitor walks into a large, open great room with a comfortable seating area under a 17-foot cathedral ceiling and an adjacent kitchen under a 10-foot high ceiling.
More Spring Branch homes: Hill Country xeriscape landscape renovation created many outdoor entertainment areas
“We have huge family gatherings, so we wanted a very large living space,” explained David, a retired petroleum geologist. “Thanksgiving’s a four-day event for us.”
Despite an interior design that would have been inconceivable to those early settlers, the home retains plenty of rustic charm.
All the doors, for example, were salvaged — including several they were told came from a monastery — meaning all the door frames had to be custom built. Several interior walls, including the kitchen backsplash, remain bare limestone. And thick, weathered timber, showing cuts, notches and other signs of age, serve as both vertical support posts and horizontal beams running across the vaulted ceiling.
The large living area is just the thing for the family’s large holiday gatherings.
William Luther/StaffThe Douglas fir flooring, reclaimed from a barn in the Northeast, was initially 2 inches thick. But they split it horizontally to double the coverage and then nailed it to the subfloor because, according to Athena, they wanted it to creak.
“Even that lintel over the fireplace, it came out of this property,” said Brad Moore, indicating an irregularly shaped, rough-hewn stone above the firebox opening.
Finding and accommodating all these unique pieces required many conversations between Moore and the homeowners.
“We spent a lot of lunches with Brad talking about what we wanted,” she said. “No matter how unusual our requests, he was willing to help us make them happen.”
The surprisingly cozy-yet-elegant dining room just off the main living area looks and feels different than the rest of the house.
William Luther/StaffThe couple once owned an antique store so their love for old things is to be expected. What is surprising is the cozy-yet-elegant dining room just off the main living area. It’s a space that looks and feels completely different from the rest of the house, with painted walls, curtained windows and two small crystal chandeliers hanging above a round wood table surrounded by six chic skirted parson chairs.
“I like antiques, but I also like fine things,” Athena said, explaining this apparent dichotomy. “I like the mix of rough and clean and crystal and old timber.”
More Hill Country homes: $800,000 home built by empty nesters to entertain family, friends
A long, well-traveled sales counter separates the living area from the kitchen. The piece once lived in a San Antonio furniture store.
Richard A. Marini/StaffHer talent for finding the perfect piece for the perfect spot can be seen in the well-worn, 11-foot sales counter that separates the living area from the kitchen. When the San Antonio furniture store where the piece once lived closed, she pounced — but not before checking to see if it would fit in the space.
“We were going to build kitchen cabinets there,” she said of the spot now occupied by the sales counter. “Fortunately, there’s a lot of storage space underneath.”
The kitchen, like the rest of the house, was designed to be wheelchair accessible. That, however, caused a hiccup when they realized the kitchen island’s granite top was too wide to provide a full 3 feet of walking space when any of the trio of barstools was pulled from under it.
Several of the home’s interior walls, including the kitchen backsplash, remain bare limestone block.
William Luther/StaffSo they trimmed the top to make room while also creating a roughly broken edge that fits nicely with the rest of the home’s mostly unpolished decor.
Continuing the theme that the home was built piecemeal, one of the kitchen walls is shiplap, wooden boards fitted together so each overlaps the one below, while the ceiling is reclaimed longleaf pine, with plenty of nail holes still visible in the orange-yellow heartwood.
“The idea is to have different materials from place to place, the way it would have been done by those settlers,” she said.
The couple’s sense of humor is also apparent in the interior shade hanging over the sink. It was once the top of a commercial Frigidaire freezer.
“Actually, it’s installed upside down,” she pointed out. “You can tell because the Frigidaire crest is upside down. We had to hang it that way because one edge is rounded. It was the only way.”
In the backyard they built a circular pool that looks strikingly like a large stock tank. Nearby, they rebuilt a century-old, one-room cabin they found in Oklahoma
William Luther/StaffThe primary suite at one end of the house contains a bedroom with a side reading nook overlooking the backyard pool area. While mostly modern, the private escape still has the rustic appeal of a scraped, reclaimed wood headboard that rises to the ceiling. A similar design feature is repeated behind the primary bathroom sink.
“The conflict between the old lumber and the modern is what makes it work,” she said.
Finally, they extended the old-style feel into the backyard, where Moore built a circular pool that looks strikingly like a large stock tank. Nearby, they rebuilt an century-old, one-room, 10-by-10-foot cabin they found in Oklahoma, putting blocks between the horizontal beams to raise it up and create a picturesque pool pavilion that, despite what it’s made of, is nothing like what those early settlers would have built.
[email protected] | Twitter: @RichardMarini
link