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Warm welcome

Gathering friends, family into their new modern home, Herrs celebrate the old-fashioned way

By Jay Dedrick, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published December 17, 2005 at midnight

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Raising their glasses, family and friends join Kay Gillespie, on stairs, in a toast at the housewarming party at the Herrs' Box House. At her side are son Christopher Herr; his wife, Tina Galgon-Herr; and their daughter, Talia. About 60 people celebrated the completion of the Herrs' dream home at the Sept. 24 party.

Photo by Ellen Jaskol © The Rocky

Raising their glasses, family and friends join Kay Gillespie, on stairs, in a toast at the housewarming party at the Herrs' Box House. At her side are son Christopher Herr; his wife, Tina Galgon-Herr; and their daughter, Talia. About 60 people celebrated the completion of the Herrs' dream home at the Sept. 24 party.

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Separated by a wall of sliding-glass doors, the outdoor courtyard and the indoor great room look like one big space. It's an illusion, but a convincing one - so much so that when a 9-year-old girl turns to walk from the indoors to the out, she doesn't see the screen door that's shut, and knocks it off its track.

But then, a housewarming isn't a housewarming without a little mishap.

Homeowner Christopher Herr checks to make sure the girl is unhurt - she's fine, just embarrassed - then reaches to slide open the other half of the screen door. It falls off, too.

"For the record," says builder James Casanova, "I did not put those on."

The laughter of a couple dozen friends and family bounces off the walls. The party is officially under way.

Celebrating completion

It's late September 2005, about four months after Christopher and his wife, Tina Galgon-Herr, moved into the house in the foothills north of Boulder with their baby daughter, Talia. Christopher co-designed the dwelling with architect and business partner Brad Tomecek, and James - another friend - served as construction boss.

On this Saturday, the Herrs are celebrating the completion of their dream house with Brad, James and about 60 other friends and family members.

The generosity begins at the feeding station: Christopher's mom, Kay Gillespie, made close to 100 sandwiches. Tina's sister, Angie Galgon, put her cake-decorating skills to use. The spread fills the dining room table, a slab of butcher block extending like a peninsula from the kitchen island.

It sits on a framework of steel rectangles, inspired by the exterior of the Box House - Christopher and Brad's name for the industrial-style structure. Christopher raced to get the table in place in time for the party.

Though the house is bracingly modern, the party is comfortingly old-fashioned. Christopher's sister, Katherine Acott, and her family bring bread and salt, a traditional housewarming gift signifying that the homeowners always will have plenty of life's necessities. Friend Jayne Root brings the time-honored gift of a broom, for good luck.

Another friend, Katlen Smith, offers a 6-inch-square canvas that she painted red with the home's address numbers to hang near the front door, a nod to the red-square signature of Frank Lloyd Wright - Tina's second-favorite architect.

Before the party starts . . .

Settling into their new residence hasn't been a snap for the Herrs. About three months before the party, Father's Day cards are lined up on the desk, a long, narrow shelf of butcher block tucked underneath the steel staircase. A framed photo of a baby girl sits next to them. A crib in the bedroom around the corner lacks a mattress, but wooden cubbies are filled to the brim with tiny garments and stuffed animals. Mom is ironing clothes after finishing a bowl of cold cereal and soy milk.

Little by little, the dream house shows signs of blossoming into a home.

And yet . . .

"There's still no lock on the front door," says Tina, shrugging her shoulders, "so people are just coming and going."

On this hot, sunny day in late June, Tina catches up on chores in between visits from the window-screen installers and members of the construction crew who have been here from the start. That was more than 10 months ago, when she and Christopher broke ground on land that has belonged to Christopher's family for decades.

Christopher, an architect, co-designed the custom house; for three weeks, it's been home to the couple and their 6-month-old daughter.

Tom Corson and Tim Kelly, part of builder James Casanova's crew, are working their way down the punch list, the itemized account of fixes required to satisfy the homeowners.

Some tasks are relatively easy, like adjusting the door of the kitchen counter's appliance garage, a countertop cabinet for tucking away the toaster and other small items. Other jobs, like patching the broken corner of the concrete kitchen counter, are more involved.

Tile in the upstairs master bath's dual shower has yet to be sealed, so Christopher and Tina take their showers in the bathroom tub on the main floor. The shower curtain is decorated with 19th-century posters: couples in Arabian garb, a can-can dancer in garters.

"I love that Moulin Rouge look," Tina says.

It might be a while before she can watch that - or any movie - on the flat-panel TV. The installation crew from Soundtrack/Ultimate Electronics has discovered trouble in entertainment land.

The bass speaker Christopher picked out won't fit inside the cabinet beneath the TV's designated hanging spot. Plus, the cable hookup plate installed on the center of the wall isn't supposed to be close to the TV, but rather to the components that will be housed in a nearby cabinet.

Out comes the drill, and the crew performs surgery on the wall and cabinet. The subwoofer will move to the opposite side of the room - either in a cabinet or underneath a piece of furniture - and wiring along the wall will be hidden by trim.

Each little project has stacked up, delaying the gratification Tina had expected to realize as soon as the family moved in.

"I want to get settled into my house, and it's not going to happen for a little while," Tina says. "My vision of moving into our new house was that it would be complete. I'm understanding the whole process a little more.

"We've been so blessed - I'm not complaining. I just wish it were a matter of moving in, sitting on the couch and having a beer or a glass of wine."

Furniture bargains a good fit

The key equipment needed for sitting on the couch and enjoying a cold beverage - the couch - finally makes it home in mid-July.

Christopher and Brad had toyed with the idea of custom-built steel furniture. Maybe some funky, circular couches with custom-made cushions. They consulted with Scott Maurer, whose modern industrial work furnishes the Brothers BBQ restaurants in the metro area.

But the first bid Christopher obtained elsewhere on the custom-upholstered cushions - $5,300 - pushed his furniture search elsewhere. "That's a deal-killer," he says. "I was flabbergasted."

A browsing trip by Christopher and Tina at Sofa Mart resulted in a serendipitous find: modern furniture to fill their great room. The black leather sectional, chair and pair of ottomans are low profile and cube-like, a smart fit for the structure's sharp-edged lines. The cream-colored shag area rug - like the furniture, made by Natuzzi - brings texture to the space.

Total damage: $3,200. "I thought it was a steal," Tina says. "Some designer sofas can run $6,000 to $8,000."

"We're really happy with it. It feels modern without being hard," Christopher says. "We bought it with the delayed-payments, no-interest offer. That's the only way we could afford it right now."

Friends, family 'bring soul'

The Herrs may be momentarily short on disposable income, but they are long on loved ones. From mental inspiration to moral support to physical labor, contributions from friends and family are wound within the home's DNA.

"It's like thinking of a house without any wood in it for me, if we didn't have the involvement of our friends and family. They bring soul to the place we're in," Christopher says.

Those connections are celebrated at the housewarming party. Katlen, for instance, suggested a strip of grass outside, something to soften the courtyard and give Talia a green patch to play on when she gets older. The Herrs named it the Gato Garden, choosing the Spanish word for "cat" in honor of Kat.

"The support we've had from friends and family, the contributions are too numerous to recall them all," Christopher says.

"Brad has donated insane amounts of hours in the design of the house. And his wife, Christa, put up with so many of our discussions. My parents have been super supportive. We had friends up here loaning us vehicles, chainsaws.

"How am I going to give back? We've been given some kind of donation by the bank of karma, and we need to replenish the stock. I feel very blessed by it all."

"I'm hoping," Tina says, "we can do the same for them."

For the time being, though, the Herrs still are on the receiving end.

Scott walks into the house holding the Herrs' gray aluminum mailbox, and tells Christopher a passing motorist on the street at the end of the driveway knocked it down.

"Really?"

"They just wiped it out," Scott says, interrupting the party. He leads Christopher and Tina down the driveway to discover the truth: Scott and Brad have replaced the old mailbox with a new custom-made job - only fitting for a custom house.

The black steel square post rising from the ground is affixed with silvery, laser-cut address numbers. The mailbox seems to float next to the post - just as the Box House's second story seems to float over the first.

"This is so cool!" Christopher says. "I felt weird about having a regular old mailbox."

"Christopher," Tina says, "this is the most kicking mailbox we could ask for."

After scrambling to get the mailbox built in time for the housewarming party's original August date (the Herrs decided they needed more prep time), Brad and Scott kept it hidden in Scott's Denver shop. During a recent visit, Brad scoured the room before Christopher walked in, making sure the blanket tossed over it didn't reveal anything. The effort is appreciated.

"If I weren't a guy," Christopher says, "I'd probably shed some tears right now."

The tears will come later.

Until then, there's time to reflect on how life in the house compares to the dream: Is it picture perfect?

The answer lies in a picture Christopher created five years ago.

dedrickj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-892-5484