more photosPaul and Jane Hannabach's home in Sisters' Aspen Lakes subdivision. “I'd describe it as a country lodge with kind of a French Lorraine/German Alsace feel to it,” Paul says.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
A dream home straight from the drawing board
By Penny Nakamura / The Bulletin
Published: November 03. 2009 4:00AM PSTAfter 16 years of drawing on napkins and coming up with various designs, Paul and Jane Hannabach finally got their dream home off the drawing board and onto a 1.5-acre lot in Sisters.
“I'd describe it as a country lodge with kind of a French Lorraine/German Alsace feel to it,” said Paul Hannabach, 56, of his 6,000-square-foot home. “We literally started drawing this (house) on many, many napkins, and designed exactly what we wanted in a home.”
The Hannabachs started building their home at the beginning of 2007 in the Aspen Lakes subdivision, and a year and half later, it was finished in time to host Thanksgiving in 2008.
Jane Hannabach's napkin draw- ings always included a gourmet kitchen, and that's exactly what she built.
“We love to entertain, and I love to cook,” explained Jane, 54, as she pointed to her six-burner, stainless steel Dacor stove.
“Last year, when we hosted our first Thanksgiving here, she had all four of the ovens in here going,” said Paul. The couple's five grown children try to come to Central Oregon for the Thanksgiving feast each year. “We actually set up this kitchen with two triangle areas, so these pullout drawers (in the kitchen island) are actually refrigerators, too.”
With vaulted ceilings throughout the house, including the kitchen, the Hannabachs commissioned Jeff Clayton to make dramatic light fixtures. The hanging pot rack above the center island was also made by Clayton. “He saw the volume of this home and realized he had to make things really big, because if it wasn't big, it would be dwarfed by the vaulted ceilings,” said Paul.
The arts are important to the Hannabachs, who not only commissioned several artists and craftsmen to work on their home, but also had the home built to showcase large paintings by Victor Ostrosky and other painters who capture their imaginations.
Even in the kitchen, an artist was able to create an impressive and detailed mosaic backsplash of the Three Sisters mountains using small glass tiles.
“We had Keith Moon do all the woodwork for this house — he did a beautiful job. I think it was one of the last homes he worked on,” said Paul. Moon, a local woodworker and premier custom cabinetmaker, was killed in a bicycle accident in August 2008.
“We had Bend metal artist Milo do the stove hood, and he was able to use heat to make this stainless steel hood look like copper. He also did our bar area downstairs, too,” said Paul, admiring the functional art in the kitchen. “Milo has done artwork for the Grammy Awards too.” The Bend artist, who goes by the single name Milo, says he's often commissioned to do functional art for custom homes, but he stresses no two pieces can ever be duplicated exactly. He regards each piece as unique art.
“It's a process I invented — sort of like mad scientist work. I take raw stainless steel and put it through extreme heat. I sell very unique pieces, it's my niche,” Milo explained by phone.
Details in design
The foyer, great room, dining room and staircases in the Hannabach home feature recycled wood taken from an old South Carolina barn. The dark, wide floorboards are stained and polished, but have retained the rough-hewn look and patina that match the massive exposed wooden beams in the vaulted ceilings.
When planning on their napkins, the Hannabachs envisioned an upstairs with a loft area that looked down into the great room. They also took into consideration their aging parents, who might come for a visit.
“We planned a second master bedroom for our mothers on the first floor,” Jane said as she walked past the great room into the mother-in-law suite. “We tried to think how to make it easiest for them, so even the bathroom has a big shower they can easily step into, and there's even a built-in seat in the shower.”
Paul says the large sliding glass door in the mother-in-law suite allows their parents to have access to the outside porch area of that room.
“We can even put in ramps for these few steps out here, and there's a little trail outside that they can use to access the downstairs area, so they don't have to use the stairs,” said Paul.
Near the mother-in-law suite is Paul's office. While seated behind his desk, he can watch golfers on the 14th hole of Aspen Lakes Golf Course. The house, according to Paul, is angled far enough away from the 14th and 15th holes that they don't have to worry about a wild golf ball hitting their home. But they can still see the golf course from almost every room in the house.
As a lawyer, Paul keeps his office filled with law books in floor-to-ceiling built-in bookcases. A beehive gas fireplace is tucked into the middle of the bookcases, with a flue behind the case. Paul says he relishes turning on the warm little fireplace on a cold snowy day when he has work to do.
Next to the office is a powder room, which the Hannabachs say is still a work in progress, as they look to commission a mural artist to paint a Central Oregon scene on the walls.
Going up the wooden staircase, with wrought iron railings custom-made by Clayton, we come to the Hannabachs' master suite. The mossy, stacked rock used in the fireplace enhances the rich, warm, natural colors in the bedroom.
But the piece the Hannabachs are most eager to share isn't in their master bedroom — it's in their master bathroom.
Commissioning Bend glass artist Kate MacLeod, owner of Glass Symphony, the Hannabachs were able to get curved glass shower walls that have been texturized, cut and fired with the Three Sisters mountains on one panel and Black Butte on another.
“We were told it couldn't be done, because it had to be tempered glass for a shower wall to meet code,” said Jane, who had called other glass artists in the country before she met MacLeod, who took on the challenge. “They kept saying you can't curve or bend tempered glass like that. I don't know how Kate did it, but here it is, and it's beautiful.”
“It was a challenge because of the bends in the panels,” said MacLeod. “We had three panels with curves that had to be cut and shaped. It's the coefficient of expansion with glass — if you're not very, very careful, it easily cracks. We used texturizing with refractory material — various fibers like ceramic and sand, to make the mountainscape. With this kind of glass, it has to survive the tempering (in the kiln), and you have to see how far you can push it.”
While the shower walls are the most impressive design feature in the large bathroom, the furniture is interesting, too. The sink area was originally a French sideboard that the Hannabachs had converted to accommodate double sink bowls. A matching armoire sits opposite the sinks.
Entertainment room
From the top level, we descend the stairs and enter the main living room before turning the corner and descending another set of stairs to the entertainment room on the bottom floor.
A built-in, flat-screen television is on one side of the rock fireplace, and wooden bookshelves line the other side.
Four overstuffed, brown leather reclining chairs make this room a favorite for Paul to relax in, and he laughs when he points to the large, low table that serves as a cocktail table.
“This is an antique butcher block from an old Chicago butcher shop, and it weighs probably 1,000 pounds,” said Paul. “It's killed us about three times, every time we've moved it, so if we ever move, this will have to stay with the house.”
Opening up from the entertainment room is the full bar area, complete with the “stainless steel art bar,” by artist Milo.
Across from the bar are glass shelves lined with various liquors, and an intricately glass-tiled area, where the Hannabachs will be building their wine racks.
Near the bar, the Hannabachs included a play area, complete with a pinball machine and pool table.
Because the Hannabachs love music, having the entire house wired for sound, including the outside decks, was a big priority. As we tour the house, music is heard from every room.
In the corner of the playroom, Paul and Jane built another powder room, so revelers wouldn't have to go upstairs. On the opposite side of this powder room, Paul opens another door that leads to his golf cart barn, a miniature garage made exclusively for a golf cart.
It's clear that not a single thing was forgotten in their days of planning on napkins.
“We did ask ourselves, after finally moving in, if we'd change anything, and you know what? We wouldn't. It came out just the way we planned,” said Paul with satisfaction. “We love it here, and we hope to be able to share it with some organizations for fundraisers and entertainment.”
Penny Nakamura can be reached at halpen1@aol.com.
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