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After living in Great Falls for 30 years and selling and buying homes for 17 years, Dan Laytham, Realtor with Long & Foster Realtors, knows what neighborhoods and home styles he likes. He had admired one home in particular since it was built in the late 1980s because of its wooded setting and contemporary rooflines. So when Dan’s business partner, Jan, who is now his wife, and he listed the home for sale and contracts on it fell through, Dan told the homeowners he would buy the home if it didn’t sell over one weekend in July 2004.
True to his word, Dan bought the home shortly thereafter with the intent of doing some remodeling and then selling it. But as Dan and Jan started working with Tom Flach, vice president of Kohler Homes-Architect/Builder, Mark Kohler, president of Kohler Homes, and Robert McCormick, managing director of Architectural Construction, the owners abandoned the idea of selling the home and began thinking of how they wanted the spaces to work for them when they moved in. They favored a New England look, a home that was warm and inviting and Flach realized this from the start. “One thing about Tom Flach and Kohler Homes is that they understand this type of home,” Dan says.
Opening rooms to each other, such as the family room to the foyer and the foyer to the kitchen, made the interior befitting of the home’s contemporary exterior. Bringing steep pitched cathedral ceilings down a little with beadboard and tongue-and-groove wood per McCormick and Stephen Kelley, manager at Architectural Construction, added a coziness to the interior that has taken on more of a craftsman feel. It’s their “cottage in the woods,” Dan says, with an added screened porch wrapped in the treed setting.
Location, Location, Location
A home’s location is its biggest draw, just as the two-acre lot surrounding this Great Falls home was a prime attraction for the Laythams. Once they were inside and could visualize living there and enjoying the sloping terrain and privacy, they knew they could make the exterior and interior even better.
“The arches against the angular gables work in concert with each other,” Flach says of the facade. So by bringing the garage from around back to the kitchen level and adding a front porch and bay windows, the existing elements were accentuated creating a memorable front. Then the home’s original dry stacked stone facade was removed during construction, but was added back, this time with mortar, to complement the western red cedar siding and EcoStar’s recycled rubber roofing that looks like slate. Using Ralph Lauren’s Marsh Green stain for the exterior and then carrying the color inside to the casual settings made sense, Dan says.
Once the exterior was complete, the homeowners called on SAB Lawn and Landscaping to incorporate gardens around the circular drive and along the rear’s new configuration. Adding decorative frames below the full-width decking gave a finished look to the often neglected rear elevation.
Welcome Inside
“The house was a blank slate,” Flach says. There was no detailing whatsoever, but it had good lines and proportions. The home is “half new, half renovation,” Flach adds, and is now full of memorable elements within a novel floor plan. This meant expanding the back of the home by eight feet on three levels, adding a telescoping roofline off the owners’ suite’s sitting room, and opening up the kitchen.
Now the foyer begins the home’s warm appeal. For instance, Details Painting Company used a custom plaster finish to create an Old World ambiance felt when crossing the threshold. A pair of Thomasville chairs covered in an animal print adds interest to the open space and introduces the new iron-railed staircase leading to the Realtors’ home office. The new workspace’s Fanimation fan and tongue-and-groove wood ceiling, which is an Architectural Construction signature, overlook the foyer fashioned after an old hotel lobby.
Connecting the foyer to the kitchen creates a cohesive path to the cooking space that is among the owners’ favorite spots. Linda McMurrer, senior designer at MacDowell Custom Kitchens Inc., worked with the Laythams to design a European country-style kitchen. Distressed knotty alder wood cabinets from Custom Cupboards envelop three sides of the space, while a moss-colored island with seating for two holds a wine cooler and beverage racks. Dan purchased the appliances from Ferguson Enterprises and consulted with Tony Tavakol and Moe Tahmasebi, owners of Ideal Granite and Tile of Sterling, for the Verdi Laura granite counters and tumbled glass tile backsplashes.
Constant Motion
“Renovations are works in progress,” McCormick comments, with plans changing constantly. “It’s twice as difficult to do a renovation project as it is to build a new home,” adds the builder, who has been constructing homes in the Great Falls area since 1979.
The Laythams’ home went from 3,300 to 5,300 square feet and now includes five bedrooms and five and one-half baths, but it’s still cozy. “It’s the warmest home I’ve ever been in,” Jan says. One major change was the owners’ suite, which features a sitting room with architectural detailing, a lowered cathedral ceiling, a refaced fireplace, and a luxury bathroom with travertine tiles and Wood-Mode cherry cabinetry.
“A client who shares your passion makes projects happen,” Flach says. By seeing the home’s potential and knowing what they like, the Laythams now have a wonderful home that serves as a weekend retreat, a comfortable weekday office, and a place to sit back and enjoy the treed lot’s seasonal foliage. The marriage of the former contemporary design with the new woodsy country style turned out so well that Dan and Jan decided to begin their marriage in the new home they love. They exchanged wedding vows and then celebrated in their “cottage in the woods” last summer.
