Finding Hidden
Potential in Fetters Hot Springs

From the moment he laid eyes on the house in Fetters Hot Springs, Chuck Post says, “It captivated me. I couldn’t get it out of my mind.”

But not for the reasons you might think.
“I first saw it on a broker tour,” he recalls, “and it impressed me as a problem that needed to be fixed.”
At the time – April, 2005 – the home was a two story, two-bedroom/one bath structure with contemporary lines. Set beside a steep, narrow street, it had tremendous potential because of its million-dollar views of Sonoma Mountain and even parts of Mount Tamalpais.
But Post knew there were definitely challenges to be overcome.

“The interior was all chopped up,” he explained on a recent tour. “The front door was not here but over there,” he said, pointing in opposite directions, “and the second floor was mostly hallways. It was just plain ugly.”
Post’s experience was in remodeling older homes with a more traditional feel – “mostly northern California/Tuscan style”, he says – but he immediately began visualizing major alterations. His goal was to reconfigure the layout so that it would appeal to a variety of potential buyers, particularly couples in the market for a weekend getaway suitable for entertaining friends and family.

That would require improving the flow from room to room and floor to floor so that people could choose to socialize in the common rooms or retreat to the privacy of their bedrooms. Post started on the ground floor.

“I wanted to relocate the staircase (which was against one wall) to the middle of the house,” Post says, “and move the kitchen.” In his vision, the kitchen would open on to the dining room on one side and the living room would be on the far side of the new stairway, creating distinct gathering areas. To top it off, the dining area would have a two-story atrium capped by a tremendous skylight.

He quickly realized that obtaining the necessary county permits for the work would be far easier if he could get his hands on the original plans. That led him to Santa Rosa architect Robert Zinkhan. Zinkhan has a reputation for remodeling traditional houses by using such techniques as opening walls to ignored or blocked views and adding exterior living spaces.
“We got together and I showed him some of the sketches I had made for updating the space,” says Post. “Bob had some great ideas about how to improve them.” For example, Post planned to build an open hallway to link the second-floor master suite with an adjacent guest room. Zinkhan came up with a nice touch that would create a few feet of extra space out of thin air: In front of the guest room door, he added a semi-circular balcony that juts slightly into the atrium.

This and other architectural details provided a level of professional polish to the makeover. Between them, Post and Zinkhan infused the interior with abundant light – both natural and electrical – and installed various exterior glass treatments to provide privacy and limit energy costs.

They also enclosed an exterior stairway to the level rooftop, where a low wall flanks some 10,000 square feet of open space. The rooftop has the best views of all, yet is not visible from neighboring homes. Ideal for entertaining, it is rough-plumbed, just in case someone wants to install a shower or wet bar.

The two guest rooms – one upstairs and a new one, on a level below the living room – both have private baths as well as access to a rear deck overlooking the terraced back yard.
The stucco exterior has been painted a pleasing shade of olive green – but the house is still a work in progress. Maple cabinets are ready to go up in the kitchen, which already has Fisher & Paykel appliances, dark walnut flooring, and countertops made of Pietra Cardoza (which Post describes as geologically related to both slate and granite). The main floor powder and laundry rooms are just about done but the lap pool has yet to be installed and landscaped between the house and Buena Vista Street.

Post, who is also a real estate agent with Frank Howard Allen, expects the place will be ready to show by mid-summer. Then the question will be: Can he finally stop obsessing with this house?