Other Floors of La Fortuna

The upstairs -- I didn't take many pictures. I got the view on the Main Floor, and the bedrooms are pretty much just bedrooms.

The Stairs Up break into two parts around a sizable landing, and the three parts (stairs, landing, more stairs) each have their own separate floor-to-ceiling bookshelves on the inner wall.  The tall windows on the landing look west over a Mormon Church and its parking lot about half a block away. Emphasis on over -- the west side of the house is the steepest drop off, so the Church itself is 50 feet or so below the floor of the house.  (HomoDommi commented that they are destined to always own houses overlooking church parking lots).

The church parking lot.  Not really going to be visible once the trees have leafed.

At the top of the stairs there is a small (5 x 8) landing (lined again with bookshelves), and with a nice computer table built in across one end.  A very nice place for the Teenager to sit and play games or do homework -- quiet, aloof, but open to the house, so not too far away from everything.

The upstairs has three bedrooms, all ordinary square rooms with small closets and big windows on the view -- Girl-Child's on the southwest corner, Teenager's next to it, directly overlooking the loggia, and, behind them, what quickly became known as "The Fourth Bedroom" -- windows on two sides overlooking the north, the driveway, the relatively ordinary suburban-looking neighborhood.  This room will be a guest bedroom, and until there is something better, officially HomoDommi's "art" room.  There is also a bathroom.

My room these first couple days in the house, the 4th Bedroom has the only ordinary view in the house.

The basement / Ground Floor

The taller window (see below) overlooks the koi pond and rock garden.

The portion of hill upon which La Fortuna is built is so steep that the "basement" is completely above ground.  The floor is mostly taken up with "The Red Room" -- appropriated as a television/games/guest bedroom already, with a door opening directly outside to the front side of the chicken coop.

This is The Red Room, before we moved in any furniture.  In the original plans, those windows matched steps outside along the side of the house.  In the actual layout now, that's just a rock garden with the koi pond just outside of the taller window.  

The Red Room was the Texan's guest room those first nights in the house.
The door visible at the back is to the L-shaped room. I am standing in front of the door to the outside.

Another room -- hardly a room -- is an L-shaped area almost the full length of the house. The spine of the L is perhaps 5 feet wide, the foot of the L perhaps 6 x 8, all with a half-finished, uneven floor. The whole room is only half-finished -- the head space is quite cavernous, but the non-walkable part of the room is a giant ball of rough concrete.  I think of this as the cartilage between the hill and the house -- protecting each from the other -- the house won't slide down, and the hill won't be eroded away.  The room, such as it is, is currently hip deep in quick and cheap shelving housing working supplies for the chickens, the koi pond, the garden, paints, all nicely labelled.

The back of the L

The foot of the L.

The space isn't really very useable for anything but storage, but I have no doubt HomoDommi will improve that.

There is a second door to the outside on this floor, as well, in an unadorned, concrete-floored hall/mud room.  It opens discreetly to the egg nests at the back of the coop.

La Fortuna, Main Floor - South East side

Picking up where we left off last week -- the other side of the house, main floor. 

The Master Suite is the whole left side of the house as you enter; the rest of the house is on the right, main floor, up and down.  The photo below is taken from the far side of the Great Room, looking back at the entry door (just barely visible in the center of the photo as a lighter stretch of wall in the shadow).

The kitchen and "breakfast room".  The hanging lamps are pretty in themselves -- Tiffany style glass. But they just don't go with the rest of the room -- too delicate, the colors don't quite match.

The Great Room is made up of the U-shaped kitchen (a generous area, with all the usual appliances, including a gas stove, much appreciated by the Dommus Family), set apart from the rest of the room by a high counter (visible).  Across from the kitchen, yet on the tiles is space for the round "mahogany" table that HomoDommus refinished a few years ago.  

The kitchen counter is...well, I'm ambivalent about it.  Because you can only get into the kitchen through the arch at the back (visible in the photo above, just left of the microwave oven) or at the end of the counter on the near side (not visible in this, or any of the photos I took) -- because of that, it's kind of closed off and separate from the rest of the Great Room.  The countertop is a dark grey heavily-marbled granite, that exudes "bigness" and "cool" (as in cold).  A popular countertop choice for the beginning of the century, and starting to feel dated now.

The first photo from Day 3 of the move, Sunday morning.  I was standing immediately in front of the kitchen counter.
Note the patio beyond the windows. That arbor is densely overgrown with wisteria -- not yet leafed out -- full of songbirds.

On the other hand, when you're standing in the kitchen, you have the full Great Room in front of you. You get the full view of the patio and Boise beyond while you're doing dishes.  And the bar!  I almost ran to Fred Meyer to buy some cheap bar stools, because I just wanted to sit there and chat all day. (Maybe, because for much of the time I was in the house, there was nowhere else to sit, but I don't think so.)  Something about the proportions of the room and the wide counter -- if I lived in the house, I'd be sitting there with my laptop most evenings.

HomoDommi sitting in front of the fire, Sunday morning.

I took the photo of the empty Great Room whilst standing in front of the fireplace.  As you can see, there's a fireplace.  It's gas - this is marvelous.  It heats up, and gives off a wonderful glow.  But you can turn it on (and off) with the flick of a switch; there's no wood to lug in from the woodpile, no ashes to clean up tomorrow.  There is also no crackling of popping water vapor, but I don't miss that enough to care.

The living room area of the Great Room, furnished
(as it was Sunday morning - furniture liable to change in future).

Okay, I'll just say it - I dislike the tile around the fireplace.  It's in the kitchen, too (where I also don't like it), and actually better blended at the fireplace than in the kitchen. The teal blue is too blue in person, or the yellow, too yellow, the black, too black.  The tile is very plain, just smooth color.  I don't know what effect the former owners were going for -- maybe they had furniture that color?

But changing out tile is nothing for HomoDommi.  He wants to decorate the house in the colors and textures of Islamic Moroccan (just guaranteed to gain him friends and admirers in conservative, Mormon Boise), and tile is one step towards that.

La Fortuna, Main Floor

The new house was built in 2000, by introverted people who clearly had a lot of books and knick-knacks.  I conclude this from the evidence:  introversion -- the house is mostly closed off to the neighborhood (a typical snout-house with a two car garage more accessible than the front door, and small windows facing the driveway) and bookish (built-in bookshelves in every room).

The driveway/garages are on the north side of the house -- the south side, facing the wonderful View, is mostly floor-to-ceiling windows.  The front door opens onto a large open room with a stained glass image of a tree and falling leaves; along one interior wall is a floor-to-ceiling, 10 foot wide bookcase.  This room instantly became known as The Tree Room, and it is, for the moment, HomoDommus's study/personal space. The Tree shades the view of the loggia, a large concrete patio inner courtyard with an awning of wisteria.

The Tree Room.  Estimated 10 feet x 10 feet (to the end of the wall).
The great room is beyond the opening.

The bookshelves, actually, are a little odd. They are deep and tall -- 12" at least both ways.  Great for tchotchkes and coffee table books; not so great for paperbacks.  HomoDommus was planning to either take them out and rebuild them, or add sub-shelving -- I'm not sure.  I think they add a lot to the room architecturally, and should be left as is, although I admit I don't know what they'll fill them with.

HomoDommus and The Texan look at the big shelves.

Immediately behind your right elbow as you walk into the house, facing back north, is the dining room.  This is a narrow room and feels more closed in than the Tree Room (which shares the same walls).  It has a little arched doorway into the kitchen, which in the plans was a pocket door (but looks and functions better as just an arch).

The Dining Room

If one walks straight ahead from the front door (walking west-southwest) through the wide archway, one enters the Great Room.  This is really three living spaces, separated by floor and massive bar-height counter.  One space is for casual dining -- under the tiffany lamp on the left (next to big windows looking out at the loggia).  One space is the kitchen (more tomorrow on the kitchen). And the last is the living room.  The windows here look out at the view -- the house is built on so steep a hillside that the yard is about 15 feet below these windows (many steps down from the loggia).

The Great Room.  Note the stairs up, on the right, lined with more of the tall, deep bookshelves.

The Master Suite runs the length of the house on the east side.  Mentally return to the Tree Room (or look back at the pictures above).  Behind the large bookcase is a short hallway to a bare little guest bathroom -- a posh white ceramic basin sink with a faucet and a single tap, all coming directly out of the wall, and a toilet.   (I forgot to photograph -- perhaps the Family will provide one.)  A long blank wall -- probably there was a chest or case there for holding towels and soap.

Girl-Child remembered that when they toured the house a couple weeks ago, the sink had been an artistic one of blue and green turtles. They must have been attached to it; the room is painted dark blue to match -- at least they replaced the artistic sink with a simple, but sophisticated white basin.

If you turn south (right) from the bookcase in the Tree Room, away from the guest bathroom, you will enter the Master Suite.  Here again, large windows overlook the loggia, on two angles. FemmeDommi's Library is south of the bedroom, with a door directly onto the patio.  HomoDommus will be taking out half the bookcase in that room, so there will be room for a chaise under the south window.

The Master Bedroom with Library beyond.

On the north side of the Master Bedroom is an extended bathroom (shower stall separate from soaking tub, toilet behind the door, his and hers sinks).  And beyond that, a huge walk-in closet with miles of shelving and coat rails, and one small window facing north.   This is the same window on the left of the photo of the house from the street behind it.  There is no fan in the closet (and I didn't see one in the bathroom) -- my guess is that Boise is so dry, they don't need to worry about moisture and mildew.

Master Bath, and closet beyond.

The tub may or may not be a whirlpool.  The Teenager volunteered to take two baths a week without complaint, if they could be in the tub. His offer was accepted with more alacrity than he expected.

Time miss-spent - but - Chickens!

I squandered my time this evening (caught up with two nights of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report) and so will put off the next step of the house-move description until tomorrow.

To tide you over, here are some photos of the chickens. The whole horizontal part of the yard (as compared to the near-vertical part) is securely fenced in, so the chickens get free range -- which they take full advantage of.  It was quite pleasant to find them in the shrubbery, usually travelling in a flock.

Girl-child contemplating how to grab Betsy the Chicken for long enough to take a photo.

Soufflé and Peaches (aka Shadow) checking to see if Betsy survives the approach of the humans.

There is a fourth chicken, Angel, the largest of the bunch, but she is also the shyest. This is the closest I got to her.

Angel, less confident in her safety than the other chickens.

There had been a fifth chicken, apparently red, "Colonel Buck-Buck", but she died two days before Closing. Although sad to lose her, we were mostly relieved she died before the hand-off, rather than just after -- we would have assumed we'd done something damaging to the poor fowl.

Aside from eating her eggs, that is.  We had four eggs in the 3 days I was at the house.

La Fortuna

I flew out to Boise to help HomoDommus and FemmeDommus move (finally!) from their three-plus year rental to a realio-trulio owned own home.  And such a marvelous home it is!

Four bedrooms, three livable stories. A gorgeous patio with a thick awning of wisteria, overlooking a view south and east across the city of Boise and some distant (low) mountains beyond.  A densely planted garden of flowers and fruit trees and bushes, and a vegetable garden.  A babbling (man-made) stream that flows down to a pond with 6 koi in it.  Four chickens and daily fresh eggs.

Curiously, it is a recently built house (curious, because that tends not to be "our style").  The former owners built it to their specifications -- she (or maybe he) is an avid gardener, and she is a writer (of Young Adult novels, I believe leaning towards paranormal and romance, since that is what all Young Adult novels do these days).  The house is full of built-in bookshelves.

The house is built on top of a finger of a foothill, with snow-covered mountains (snow-covered, at least, in early March) at its back.  There is a small yard (as I said, densely planted), and a very, very, steep drop off to the edge of the property.  They are just four houses down the street from an impressive mansion built by Mr. Simplot (of Simplot Potatoes).  He gave the house to the state of Idaho, on condition that the huge flag be flown above it daily -- it has been in use as the Governor's Mansion for several years. (Click here to read the wikipedia.org article about it.)

You can see the Simplot Mansion (under the flag - no kidding about the size of that flag) in the photos below.  All the land between the camera and the flag is part of the mansion -- it is a city landmark; a dog park; and the biggest, steepest sliding hill in Boise.

The Boiseans new house is the last one down the hill to the left of the flag.

(Remember to click on the photos to see them larger.)

HomoDommus driving one of the moving vans to the new house.

La Fortuna, as I call it, is the green house on the far left.  The Simplot Mansion is beyond the flagpole.

For those who have been tracking the house purchase, the windows,
from left to right are: Ground floor: closet of Master Suite; guest bathroom;
dining room; and the multi-paned window next to the garage is in the kitchen.
Upstairs: two windows of "The Fourth Bedroom" as it's called, and the family bathroom window.

From the back, the house looks quite like any other 21st Century house -- a two car garage, a shy entrance tucked in a corner.  When FemmeDommus and I arrived on Friday morning (awaiting the delivery of the new refrigerator) a thick mist obscured the view beyond the house.  But the mist burned off and we had two full days of sun and warmth -- perfect moving weather.

The view from the wisteria-overgrown patio.

The same view that evening, from in front of the patio.

The first day, the new refrigerator was installed, and we moved the kitchen things, and a few chairs and rugs, and beds, so we all could sleep in the house that first night of occupation.  There was also quite a bit of last-minute desperation packing, but we ended with pizza eaten in a picnic on the floor in front of the gas fire.

I'll talk about the interior of the house, and the special features, tomorrow.

Further Updates on the House Sale

The house, September 1999

Moving-in photos, 1999.

I spoke with HomoDommi on Saturday, and have exchanged some emails with him today, too.  Apparently the inspection uncovered a leak in the sewer pipe (from house to street) that may cost several thousands to repair, but...well, it will have to be repaired no matter who buys the house.

Annoyingly, the inspector and others agree that this leak was probably present way back when HomoDommi and FemmeDommi purchased the house 13 years ago -- but the technology of inspection has improved in the meantime.  Good news for future buyers: older houses will be getting fixed up by hook or by crook. Bad news for current sellers.

Anyway, the repair will be carried out as soon as possible. So far as I know, given the repairs are finished, they will close on Halloween or All Saints.  The Texan is looking for other homes (rumor has it she's found one she likes).

I'm planning a last visit to the house (not my last visit to Portland) -- at the moment, looking at that last weekend in October.  I'll stay at the Kennedy (I've always wanted an excuse to stay there).

Update on the House Sale

Within an hour of the house going on sale, someone called the realtor and asked for a walk-through (which happened within another hour).  In the first 24 hours, the house has been seen by 10 people, and they received a cash offer tonight.  They are going to wait until after Saturday (the big house-market day) to make any decisions.

The Dining Room, May 2007