This beautiful contemporary home at the back of Stratford Mountain Estates offers a one-of-a-kind outdoor living space featuring a sleek, three-sided fireplace carved from Lueders limestone. The space also includes a kitchen, outdoor dining area and TV so you can cook or serve guests without missing a second of the big game. The entire area is clad in Ipe wood, bringing a tropical feel to Central Texas.
But what's most unique about this outdoor living space is that it's located at the front of the home, not the back.
The upside-down design was intentional: After the homeowners, a husband-and-wife team who asked to remain anonymous for this story, hired Cornerstone Architects to design their home in December 2011, architect Bob Wetmore initially came up with a plan to put the outdoor space in its traditional location: at the back of the house, facing the preserve. But the homeowners didn't want the space on the back side, because it's also on the west side of the house, and they feared the heat of the Texas afternoon sun.
So Wetmore reversed the design, giving new meaning to the term “house flipping.”
The result was a space that ended up being “the coolest part of the house,” says Wetmore, who designed the area so that privacy wasn't an issue. “Would we have designed it this way in the first place without the client's ideas and input? Probably not. But now it's one of the strongest features of the home.”
The rest of the 6,162-square-foot home is equally striking. Decorated with tables, baskets, art, and other items collected while the homeowners lived in Germany, Korea, and Singapore, the house exudes warmth and coziness despite its contemporary lines. Other highlights include:
A zinc-clad frame wall in the main living room. A shoe rack next to the garage, practicing the Asian tradition of removing shoes when entering the home. On the west side of the home is a cozy “sunset” porch for when you want to soak up some sun. Just outside the master bathroom is an outdoor shower and hot tub. The master shower is so big that Wetmore half-jokingly says it “sleeps four.” A suite-sized closet allows the homeowners to hang their clothes in cabinets so that not a single garment is exposed.
The home was just what the homeowners had hoped for. “Words can't express how happy we are,” says one of the homeowners. “For us, this home is just perfect.”