carving a niche
Traditional features and eye-catching finishes set the tone for a dramatic custom home crafted around Dream Builders of the Southwest’s in-house woodwork.
An undulating hallway wall with set-in nichos and a stained glass window leads to the master wing.
The soothing color scheme includes muted green walls complementing traditional red brick floors.
Richly colored plaster walls complement carved vigas, corbels, beams, kitchen cabinetry, and doors, all done by the home’s builder, Dream Builders of the Southwest.
Graceful curves define arched alcoves throughout this home. Painting by Rueben Richards.
Photograph by Kirk Gittings.
Photograph by Kirk Gittings.
Photograph by Kirk Gittings.
Photograph by Kirk Gittings.
This article first appeared in Autumn 2008 Su Casa
Web-exclusive photos
A quiet lane in North Albuquerque Acres provides the setting for the latest creation by Patrick Apodaca, owner of Dream Builders of the Southwest. The 5,342-square-foot home deftly blends modern convenience and centuries-old architecture. The first view of the portales framing the walkway through the courtyard offers a whimsical combination of rustic vigas and posts with a geometric design painted in brilliant blue. High-tech devices raise and lower a plasma television in the living room, carefully hidden within a custom cabinet sporting hand-carved kachinas. A custom-crafted Murphy bed folds out of the wall onto the brick floor of a high-tech media room complete with surround sound.
Apodaca purposefully created the wonderful feel of the old Southwest while providing many of today’s best amenities.
Apodaca, who has been selling homes in the Albuquerque area for the past 23 years, says he branched out into custom home building in 2000 when he became frustrated hearing about clients struggling to work through the planning process with their builder. “It just seemed so much of the time the builder would be telling them that something couldn’t be done without really considering if there was possibly a way,” he says. “I thought that I could change that.”
When he entered the market, he knew he needed to find ways to distinguish his homes. It didn’t take long for him to find his niche. Like his newest house, all of his custom jobs are known for their unique woodwork both inside and out. From the massive entry door to the beveled shelves in the master closet, Apodaca’s latest home is a showcase of hand-crafted wood accents, trims, and treatments.
“When I first got into building, I couldn’t find the kinds of wood treatments I wanted for my homes,” Apodaca says. “I found myself competing with other builders, and the cabinets and trims were expensive. I ended up starting sort of a second business to make the wood cabinets, doors, and trim. We don’t make anything commercially; it’s just for our use. The cabinets, trim—all of the wood in the homes that we build—it’s made in-house.”
His Spanish Colonial style, one-story model home in North Albuquerque Acres features an exposed adobe and latilla fence surrounding the property’s xeric landscaping, and a brick walkway leads through the courtyard to an expansive portal with hanging red chile ristras. The hand-carved entry door serves as the outside centerpiece. A large stained glass dancing kachina, which matches the many dancing and sunburst kachinas carved on the cabinetry throughout the home, graces the center of the door.
The home’s entryway mirrors the long outside portal, with its high ceilings of cedar tongue and groove and vigas with hand-carved corbels. Exposed adobe bricks stair-step along the far wall, painted a bright white. Even the brick from the walkway appears inside the home. “We did the entire house in brick floors,” Apodaca says. “It adds so much charm and is easy to care for.” The entryway, reminiscent of the expansive portales in Old Town Albuquerque, is interrupted only by wide posts lining the entrance into the living room. Arched hallways at each end of the entryway entice the eye beyond the first view.
A study with unhindered views of the Sandia Mountains shares a Jack and Jill bathroom with a guest room. A laundry room separates these rooms from the private master suite at the end of the barrel-ceilinged bright-yellow hallway. A more sedate hue of blue clay covers the nicho-filled curving walls in the master suite. Apodoca’s custom-made wood shelves fill the large closet and frame the windows over the spa tub. A fireplace divides the master bedroom from a private reading room overlooking the large backyard. “There’s no jack for a TV back here,” he says. “I wanted it to be an area to get away, to find some quiet.”
No fan of visible televisions, in the formal living room Apodaca hid the TV in a wall of cabinetry by the fireplace. The large screen glides away beneath the cabinet’s walls to reveal artwork in the vacated space.
A half-wall and a spiraling counter divide the dining area from the kitchen. “At first when people look at it, they can’t understand why I didn’t leave it all one level. But then when there is food out for a buffet, they understand why it’s designed that way,” Apodaca explains. “Everything is easier to see and reach with the different levels along the curve.”
In the kitchen, Apodaca added a built-in steamer to the long island in the center of the room. “It works great on tamales,” he laughs. A large walk-through pantry leads to a three-car garage and work area. Buffet cabinets line the wall between kitchen and guest bath. More wall-to-wall cabinets line the media room, along with a hand-crafted Murphy bed. “People kept telling me to make this room into a theater room, but I wanted the owners to have more options,” Apodaca says. “The first year, you use a theater room a lot. The second year, you don’t use it as much. And then, well, it doesn’t get used as much. This way the room works for a guest room, a computer room, or a theater room. I like giving my clients those kinds of options.”
Apodaca says that while many of his clients prefer Southwestern architecture, his previous custom homes have run the gamut from Southwestern to Contemporary. “Our motto has always been to do whatever our customers want,” he says, and then pauses. “After all, that’s why I got in the custom home business in the first place.”