Featured Home: At one with the forest
Unique Crystal Park home incorporates boulders, trees into design
BY KATE JONUSKA • SPRINGSHOUSES.COM
There are lots of homes that claim to “bring the outdoors in,” pointing to features such as log beams, slate tile or a few houseplants as proof. But when you can touch giant boulders — complete with flecks of pale green moss — as you walk down the stairs or listen to the gurgle of a fresh, mountain stream tumbling toward the family room, you know you’re in a unique home, one that takes the “outdoors in” philosophy to the next level.
“It’s very elemental,” says Michael Carnahan of McGinnis GMAC Real Estate, who lists the Crystal Park home in the hills above Manitou Springs for $575,000.
A visitor gets the feeling the builder staked out a pretty patch of forest and simply erected walls around the existing landscape, a feeling that’s actually not far off the mark. As Carnahan explains, “The boulders make up the foundation, and the concrete was just poured around that.”
The first visible boulders tower over your head as you approach the red front door, and you can see one of the large stones bisected on either side of the entry wall. Tiled with a mosaic of polished stones, the entryway’s main feature is the focal point of the entire house: A fountain that begins in a calm pond filled with koi fish, then cascades down a 20-foot slope to the lower level past driftwood and potted grasses.
According to the seller, the home “was built around a mountain stream, which they built out to make the center of attention (as a fountain). It was really built from the inside out in that way, which is really amazing.”
To read more: CLICK HERE to see a PDF of this article, which ran April 19, 2008 in Springs Houses, a section of The Gazette.
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