Contemporary Santa Rosa home built with fire resistance in mind

Todd Sheffield and Julie Montgomery had reached the time in their lives when the nest was empty and they were ready to create a home ideally suited to their next chapter.

The couple previously adapted a nice 1972 ranch-style home in Santa Rosa’s Montecito Heights, where they had lived eight years. Now they were ready for a home uniquely their own, built to their tastes and lifestyle.

But they were surprised and disappointed to discover there weren’t a lot of buildable properties available that fit their vision.

“We were looking for land. We didn’t need the big house for the kids anymore,” said Sheffield, who is the CEO of Community First Credit Union. “We were looking to downsize to something more to our range. But we weren’t seeing anything.”

Then the Tubbs fire happened. Suddenly there were all kinds of lots available, being sold by people who chose not to rebuild in the fire zone. Sheffield and Montgomery, however, were not dissuaded. They figured that with newer, more stringent building codes; a defensible space around the house and the use of materials that were less fire-prone, they could build a home that would have at least a fighting chance of withstanding a wildfire.

They found the perfect spot on 6 acres off Riebli Road, which winds through rolling hills off Mark West Springs Road. The area was directly in the path of the Tubbs fire that destroyed more than 3,000 homes in Santa Rosa in 2017, including one on the lot that Sheffield and Montgomery selected for their second-act dream home.

“We were not going into it blind,” Sheffield said. “We just had a desire to not live in fear.”

Indoor / outdoor environment

Of the 170 lots in the Mark West area put up for sale in the year after the Tubbs fire, 89 were sold as many fire victims chose to rebuild or move elsewhere, according to a Press Democrat analysis at the time. That created a buyer’s market for those willing to move into the fire zone.

Sheffield and Montgomery hit the ground running after closing escrow in April 2018. The land was cleared, cleaned and readied for a rebuild. The couple turned to Santa Rosa architect Danny Strening to design a home that would be both beautiful and a bulwark against fire. It took a year to design and engineer the home and secure all the permits and another year to build.

The result, completed a year ago, is a house with less square footage than their former home, but far more open land. The 2,136-square-foot home is nestled in the saddle of a ridgeline with views to the north.

A large open living area is enclosed in steel and glass beneath a dramatic butterfly-shaped roof that tilts upward like a raptor about to take flight in the hills.

“They were looking for a contemporary house that opened onto the spectacular views of the site,” Strening said. “That was the main driver. We talked a lot about creating an indoor/outdoor environment, bleeding the edge between the indoors and the outdoors.”

A dramatic 40-foot tall glass wall allows views to the north and offers a feeling of being out in nature; within the center of it is a 25-foot movable glass wall that folds open to access patio with views out toward a small valley and farther down to the Riebli Valley in the distance.

Two boxy wings set on either side of the living area offer more protected spaces for bedrooms, bathrooms, a home office and a garage. While the ceilings in the open living area are close to 12 feet high, adding to the openness, they drop to 9 feet in the sleeping wings.

Strening said he has designed other homes in the rebuild area and is building a home of his own on property in the rebuild zone. Experience has shown him, he said, that homes are more resilient now thanks to updated fire codes that were in effect even before the terrible firestorms of 2017.

He said several newer homes he had designed withstood the fires while others nearby did not. That’s because they were built to more stringent specifications, he said.

Strening fortified Sheffield and Montgomery’s home with a metal roof, “a robust deterrent to fire.” But he said now even the more traditional composition roofs are designed to better withstand fire.

The couple wanted a home with sleek materials characteristic of contemporary design but with some of the softening warmth of wood, too. So the architect managed to source a cedar cladding that is an engineered wood-like flooring with a fire spread and combustibility rating similar to stucco or cement.

He turned to tongue-and-groove cedar panels called Dolly Varden, made by Shakertown and composed of western red cedar and fir and bonded with exterior adhesives into a seven-ply panel.

The company maintains it can be applied directly to soffit joists in California's High Fire Severity Zone, without the need for gyp-board or other materials. It’s been approved for use in the Wildland Urban Interface, the transitional area between undeveloped and developed land, as defined by the U.S. Fire Administration under FEMA.

“Fire prevention and protection are more integrated into everyday design,” Strening said.

The house was built on a solid pier-and-grade beam foundation, with piers anchored down to bedrock.

The front of the home has cedar cladding, while the back is made mostly of steel that holds up the roof, with stucco in between. The glass in the windows is dual pane, but one pane is now required to be tempered so it can’t break during a fire and allow embers or flames to enter.

Another important aspect of making a house fire-safe is to “harden it.” That means more paved surfaces and harder surfaces rather than wood decking. The Sheffield-Montgomery home uses Bluestone.

The living area is oriented toward the back and the striking views. Glass walls open to a 520-square-foot covered patio, with another 480 square feet of uncovered patio beyond that, giving them 1,000 square feet of outdoor living space for entertaining and enjoying the landscape.

Precautions

An underground propane tank powers a generator that will keep the well going during any blackouts. They also use propane to more efficiently heat the water used in their radiant heating system in the floors.

Montgomery, who owns Kindred Fair Trade Handcrafts, a gift shop in downtown Santa Rosa specializing in fair trade arts and crafts, reasoned that because fire also ravaged Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park, a suburban neighborhood, one can’t assume any neighborhood is necessarily safer.

“This just happens to be a high-risk fire zone. But with the precautions and the way the house was built, we feel confident we’ve done what we can and we’ll probably be OK,” she said.

A centerpiece of their large, open living and kitchen area is a massive 4-by-9-foot island, with a quartz counter manufactured to look like marble, a built-in microwave and seating for four. This is one aspect of their former home they wanted to recreate in their new space.

“Whenever we would have a party, everybody always ends up around the island,” Montgomery said. The cabinets are white with a shiny, aqua blue tiled backsplash.

Location is important

The couple said one of the more appealing aspects of the property is the location. They feel like they’re out in the country and yet the drive down into town is only a few minutes.

“I like having all the space without a fence right outside my window,” Sheffield said.

Montgomery said one of the things she did not anticipate is just how entertaining nature would be.

“I didn’t realize how pleasurable it would be to sit and eat breakfast and watch all the animals go by,” she said.

That has been particularly nice during the pandemic. While both are still working outside the home, they have not been able to have friends and family visit, one of their other great pleasures of at-home life.

“Our housewarming party is on hold right now,” Montgomery said. “But we can’t wait to invite people over to enjoy this with us.”

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.