Home on the range... sort of
Here are a few photos of our new house in Santa Fe, NM. We'll be splitting our time between Santa Fe and the boat for awhile and use Santa Fe as a hurricane hole for the crew and continue to keep the Goose... in Key West. It's admittedly pre-mature to buy a home while we continue cruising, but we were afraid the real estate market would get away from us if we waited. I've seen it happen to cruising friends. Trying to get nack into the housing market in our seventies didn't make sense to us.
So we did some checking for places that looked promising including coastal southeast US, inland in NC. One surprise place we really liked was Port Washington, WI, perhaps in large part because of the hospitality shown us by our friends Tom & Jane Veale who live there. However, we didn't think getting through winters would be sensible after we stop cruising. Time was running out as we left California on our way back to Key West. As we were faced with making a decision, hurricane Isabel came along and convinced the Captain that his favorite choice of Oriental, NC was less than a great idea. Isabel came ashore the same day we arrived in Santa Fe, NM. So we thought we'd check prices just for the hell of it. 2 days later we made an offer on a wonderful old adobe just south of the New Mexico state capital and it was accepted.
The photos you see here are provided by the previous owners, Ed & Mimi Kern... we'll substitute our own as time goes by and we get settled in. They did the restoration and turned a run-down relic into a charming and comfortable home. The original residence probably included what is now the living room, the kitchen and a bathroom in the front which isn't pictured here. The first modification from many years ago converted the attached stable into what is now a front office. The first addition was apparently an expansion of the kitchen. A second addition added 2 bedrooms behind the study and a bath off the rear-most bedroom. The third addition seems to have enclosed what might have been a patio; it's wood frame construction. The original house- the living room, kitchen, front bathroom and front office- is adobe.
So
here we go. On the left is what you see looking from the intersection of the
2 streets out front. The wall, probably plastered concrete block, encloses
the front of the house; the carport is to the right. It's a corner house with
a
concrete
block
retaining
wall that
borders the street that comes up from the right. If a car had come from either
direction, the photographer would have been right in the path. It's not too
much of a threat, though, as there were all of 3 cars that passed the intersection
during the 3 hours we were there.
The deep notch in the top of the house wall (the parapet) is called a canale and allows rain water to drain from the flat roof. The pieces of wood under the canales and on top of the post that holds up the carport roof (second photo below) are corbels. Our house has the vigas (the logs used to support the roof... they're visible from the inside in photos below) trimmed off and covered over with stucco on the outside of the house. Probably a whole lot more than you want to know about construction details of a small adobe house, but I couldn't resist since I just learned the names! :-)
On
the right you can see some of what hides behind the front adobe wall (just
out
of view to the right in this second photo). Here we're looking out through
the entry gates toward the driveway and the side street. The overhang with
the reddish-brown
support columns forms a portal used as a carport. Out of the picture
to the left and just outside the front office is a small patio where the Kerns
set a small table & chairs. There are 3 distinct patio or yard areas on
the property: this patio in the front, a small concrete patio between the den
and
the kitchen and a yard at the rear of the house. This front patio is landscaped
with many Xeriscape plants... native plants that require very little water.
In the back yard the landscaping is done with trees and plants that are reminiscent
of mountain areas.
Here
are a couple shots of the living room and the kitchen, both of which are in
the front (oldest) part of the house. When the Kerns first saw the place, the
vigas were covered with wallboard in order to hide them. At one point,
traditional adobe homes were something of an embarrassment to the owners,
so
they disguised them the best they could by covering the vigas. These
days the old homes are very in much in favor, so old timers like our home are
being
resurrected.
The Kerns
ripped
out wallboard covering and stripped God only knows how many layers of paint
off the vigas,
then refinished them. The room must have been pretty dark before they
installed
2 sky lights to brighten the room.
The
kitchen still has the wallboard covering the vigas (we guess!) and
will likely stay that way. Lots of room here compared to the San Francisco
house,
though
the cabinets
are pretty low and limit the utility of the counter space.
The
room beside the living room, directly behind the fireplace, is one of 2 offices
the Kerns
used for business. The little fireplace is unique to the southwest and is called
a kiva fireplace. The fire wood is stacked vertically against the
back of the fire chamber instead of horizontally on top of a grating. I never
did too
well with the usual California fireplace (I was pretty pathetic at keeping
a fire going!), but I found even I can get a fire going in one of these things.
You can see the vigas here in the study too. They've been painted because they were pretty hacked up from the previous wallboard installation and the paint was hopelessly deep in the grain.
Notice the casement windows? There are several throughout the house, all of them single glazed. We hope that we can have them replaced with modern double-glazed windows of the same type. You can see the front patio through these windows... it's just outside. Btw, even replacing windows requires approval by the planning commission which is charge with preservation of the historical areas of Santa Fe.
That little triangular shaped statue on the mantle of the kiva fireplace is a figure of the Conquistadora. She figures centrally in a fiesta held annually here in Santa Fe. The Kerns found it buried in the back yard when they were doing some yard work. Religious figures like this are called santos and are frequently used in decorating homes in the area. We learned that a household often kept the conquistadora hoping to hasten conception and start a family. If there wasn't a pregnancy in a reasonable time, someone might bury the conquistadora in the backyard until there was finally a birth. Well, it looks like we now have a reasonable guess how the Kerns happened to find her buried in the backyard! :-)
The
den seems to be the last addition to the original house. The french doors
open
out into the back yard. To the right out of the picture is a sliding door that
opens onto a small concrete patio between the kitchen and this den. Looks like
a
great
spot
for
the barbeque and the Kerns kept wood stacked here.
Out of view to the left in this photo is a built-in ceiling to floor book case and steps up to the hallway that connects the bedrooms. The Kerns told us that the stove in the far corner generates enough heat to take care of the whole house. There is also a central heating system, a wall heater and the 2 fire places.
Here's
the back yard that is accessed through the french doors from the den. Out of
view at the back of the property (behind the photographer) is a fenced area
for parking that will hopefully become a garage if we can convince the city
that it will look right in this historic area. We'll see.
Sadly, the hot tub to the right of this photo is no longer here. But the pad, plumbing and wiring are all there if we decide to replace it. Actually, the area straddling the flagstone and concrete pad is where the telescopes usually get set up, so the likelihood of a replacement hot tub is unlikely. Also, the flagstone had deteriorated and was becoming a hazard. As I edit this page we are in the midst of rebuilding this backyard
State tax records included in the abstract for the property say the house with attached stable was on the property in 1885. So the house had to have been built some time before that. From the photos you can see that the house has been nicely maintained. We think it's a lovely place and felt comfortable as soon as we walked through the front gate.
Here's a little trivia about the place. I hope I don't trash this story too much, but I thought it was interesting enough that I should try. The previous owner told us they bought the house from the Vigils. Mr. Vigil was apparently on staff to Senator Domenici of NM at one time and was known as a power-broker. The capital, a round building just a few blocks away called 'the round house', was close enough that many late night, heavy duty negotiations took place here in the Vigil's home. That happened often enough that Mr. Vigil's house earned the name of 'the little round house'. At least that's the local neighborhood lore.
So, looks like this is home base. We'll probably be here during hurricane season and head back to the Goose... about November.