A few of you sent emails after my October post on Santa Fe, requesting that I do a post on the house that we had there. Well we had a few. Le Husband (below) is a Designer-Builder and built custom homes in Santa Fe for over 20 years. Most of the houses that he designed and built were in the traditional style of Pueblo, Territorial or Northern New Mexican. The first house that we built together was Pueblo Style. Both being big fans of Modern Mexican Architects, Ricardo Legorreta and Luis Barragan, we decided to build our last two houses there in the Modern Mexican style.
Double adobe walls and radiant heat in the concrete floors throughout. These houses were very comfortable in winter or summer. Hand troweled plaster tinted with pigments from Italy gave a beautiful finish to the walls. I really didn't want to hang anything on them.
This house was built in the Hacienda style. All of the rooms opened up into a central enclosed courtyard. We dined outside most of the time.
The entry worked well as a mini gallery. Jim is somewhat of a purist and would have like to have kept both of these houses minimally furnished. I, on the other hand, much to his dismay, kept bringing in more stuff! But still, compared to our house now, this seems austere.
This next house was our last house in Santa Fe. The kids had all left home so we built a small house with a detached guest house. We had intended to add on at a future date, but ended up selling the house as it was and moving to California. 
Tired of the traditional brown that is everywhere in Santa Fe - we went with bolder colors on the exterior. This house sat on twelve acres next to a tree lined arroyo off Tano Road.
The property had a small old adobe one room house on it when we bought it. I turned it into a little art studio.
Never had a chance to really establish a garden there - just a few California Poppies and some Siberian Iris. 
As you can see - this house was similar to the previous one. Very clean lines.
A great kitchen to cook in - Thermador Range, Sub Zero fridge and two islands.
If you click on the photo to enlarge - you can see a stream of water coming out of the ceiling to fill the tub in the bathroom. I loved the idea of it and it solved the problem of where to put the spigot - but was really not very practical - as water splashed everywhere!
Concrete sinks in the bathroom............................
The adobe ruin had one wall of exposed adobes, which I left as they were and white plaster on the other walls and interior. I color washed the plaster with Italian pigment and painted the door blue.
I also added these doors from Mexico on one side.................
Jim acquired this painting in Zihuantanejo, Mexico - she moves with us from house to house...........
As do the terra cotta planters I bought at an estate sale............................
Photography by: Ryannan Bryer de Hickman
Sotto Il Monte Vineyards
