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Many craftsmen collaborated on the two-year design process and three-year reconstruction efforts that transformed a basic spacious Great Falls home into an out-of-this-world estate. Redesigned with entertainment in mind, including a place to hold charitable events, the expansive home underwent renovations from the top down.
From a barren attic to a sparkling Galileo’s observatory with telescope room, the top floor twinkles with more than 6,000 points of light and 25,000 strands of fiber optics that form realistic constellations, complete with a comet that seemingly traverses heavens, but is actually a floating black ceiling created by Jerry and Tim DeSantis, owners of DeSantis Designs Inc. This is the fourth project in this home by DeSantis Designs and one that steered away from the company’s usual woodwork designs to new heights of constellation installation. It took no time for the home’s owners to think of the idea, but about a year for the DeSantis brothers to uncover how to create the one-of-a-kind ceiling, which included consulting with a firm in Canada about fiber optics.
Space Inspiration
Moving from the ceiling to the floor, DeSantis Designs spent months with the owners designing the floor panels made of wenge, yellow heart, rosewood and bubinga woods installed by Clifton Grant, owner, and Ruben Gonzalez, president, of Clifton Grant Floors. Grant and Gonzalez also installed the corner medallions, including the armillary sphere and a clever sunglass-wearing sun inlay designed by DeSantis Designs. Hevelius, the famed 17th-century astronomer, is depicted in the hand-carved curved doors that open with the wave of a hand to reveal a granite-topped wet bar. Makore-paneled, 300-pound walls carried in by a crane because of their weight and size finish the room that feels like it is an extension of the night.
For two years, Dan Dalrymple, onsite manager at Foxcraft Design Group, along with Mike Blood, project manager, Chandler Fox, president, and a large crew, spearheaded the construction of the home’s new elements. The owners came up with idea after idea that Foxcraft Design Group figured out how to build, including the top floor observatory, an adjoining deck with telescope that appears from behind an outside wall, and a spiral staircase leading to a widow’s walk for an even higher view of Great Falls and beyond.
A user-friendly Lutron system installed by Tom Wells, president of Integrated Media Systems, was retrofitted into the observatory as well as into other spaces throughout the home to control lighting from anywhere. Wells also incorporated the audio-video equipment that makes the main floor media room a central gathering place located just beyond the dramatic foyer.
Adding Nature’s Beauty
On the main floor is the great room in all its glory. DeSantis Designs crafted a sculpture of 14 domestic and exotic woods, including bloodwood, cocobolo and wormy chestnut, for the doors that hide the audio-video components. On each side are vertical pullouts that store 600 compact discs. The craftsmen continued the artistic display of exotic woods in eclectic shapes not only to hide the projector, but also to conceal the 10-foot television screen with doors that open via remote control. A hallway closet houses the behind-the-scenes equipment for all these systems integrated by Wells and his company.
Another of the owners’ visions was to incorporate a sunroom along the back of this main gathering space. Sun Design Remodeling Specialists Inc. supplied and installed the mahogany sunroom through a collaborative effort with Dalrymple, often called “the magician” by the owners. Craig Durosko, president of Sun Design Remodeling Specialists, says the sunroom brings the outside in, while Low E glass keeps the room warm in the winter and cool in the summer. Foxcraft Design Group also incorporated a spiral staircase leading to an overlook in this area of the home, which presents The Valley Craftsmen’s painted wood grain walls.
European Influence
The dual staircase in the faux-painted foyer with 300-year-old Jerusalem limestone floor tiles meets guests who often arrive at this home to attend charitable events. At the top of each landing are glass shelves supporting commissioned imported vases that were limited in proportion only by the size of the kiln. Through an interpreter, the owners requested authentic Italian urn designs from the Amalfi Coast, which are traditional except for their magnitude.
In between the dual stairway is a pair of arched iron doors, designed from photographs taken in Salzburg, Austria where “The Sound of Music” was said to have been filmed. On each side of the archways are concealed and lighted closets that open with a push. This gives the space a clean line and leads the eyes up to the Tuscan-inspired wall murals painted on canvas in Baltimore by The Valley Craftsmen Ltd. and finished in place. The ceiling, a blue sky with clouds motif, befits the beginning of such a spectacular residence.
Incorporating Memories
One of the last installs to tackle for Foxcraft Design Group was how to incorporate the FAO Schwarz animated toys that the owners purchased from a store closing in Kansas City into the lower level’s game rooms. Dalrumple and the Foxcraft Design Group team devised a system to keep the animated toys, including the FAO Schwarz signature clock, working and when activated, on a three-and-one-half-minute cycle.
Foxcraft Design Group Inc. won the 2004 Contractor of the Year Merit Award given by the National Association of the Remodeling Industry (NARI) for this home in the category of entire house renovation more than $1 million.
