Fort Garland – For 30 years, Jim Burtle constructed cookie-cutter buildings that boasted innovative materials but lacked character and soul.
So the last thing he wanted in his own dream house was anything that looked “shiny and new.”
Burtle wanted guests to be stumped when they entered the San Luis Valley pueblo-style retreat he lovingly built with his wife, Lynn Smyth Burtle: Was this stucco house erected yesterday or centuries ago?
In a society that favors modern technology, the Burtles’ mountain house is a refuge.
“There’s something psychological about being in an old house,” says Smyth Burtle, a stained-glass and faux-painting expert. “You feel a sense of security and stability” here.
“We wanted the house to look as if it had been here for 200 years,” adds Jim Burtle, who operates a construction consulting business. “The way you do that is by using old, recycled or rough products the way (people) would have done years ago.”
The Burtles dubbed their Taos-inspired home “Casa Loma,” which means “house on the hill.” It sits in the heart of the Sangre de Cristo mountains on a nearly 6-acre site 35 miles east of Alamosa. Myriad crosses around the house made from metal or bejeweled stained glass pay homage to the area’s name, “Blood of Christ.”
The Christian symbols hint at the eclectic spirituality on view throughout the house. An American Indian medicine wheel punctuates the backyard. A wood Buddhist goddess statue watches over the kitchen.
A stained-glass image of a peacock – revered in ancient times as a symbol of immortality, fidelity and faithfulness – adorns the home’s grand front doors. Smyth Burtle’s Arabic “spirit warrior” streaks across the desert, sword raised to the ready, inside a stained glass window in the library. And a plaque in one of the bedrooms reads “Goddess Bless,” a nod to Wicca.
“I’m just trying to figure it all out, just like everyone else,” Smyth Burtle says of her own faith.
Decorative structural elements add depth and character throughout this 2,300-square-foot structure completed in 2004. The home seemlessly meshes innovation with tradition. It has radiant heat and stained concrete floors that mimic dirt floors, but no air conditioning.
Instead of a conventional wood frame, the Burtles used an insulated, environmentally friendly building system known as Cempo Forms, or a series of blocks made from concrete and recycled polystyrene.
Dozens of rough-hewn pine logs recycled from Buckley Air Force Base serve as cross beams. They are sturdy but scorched and riddled with woodpecker holes, giving them warmth akin to a cabin in the woods.
Faux adobe bricks peak through interior walls hand- textured by Smyth Burtle. The house and three-car garage’s soft, curving silhouettes mimic the surrounding mountains.
Thirteen skylights throughout the house and cubed windows in each room cast different light throughout the day. Track lighting and sconces draw the eye to the few pieces of artwork at Casa Loma forged by people other than Smyth Burtle or her daughter, Tiffany, who is also an artist.
Many homes built today are drawn up and constructed in a matter of months. This couple is proud to have taken time to forge their dream – three years and more than 7,000 worker hours to be exact.
Windows frame every possible panoramic view. A clear, stained-glass window insert in one of the bathroom cabinets was intentionally placed “for guests who like to snoop.” Instead of closets, each guest bedroom boasts a private half-bath so visitors “won’t get lost in the dark.”
The slower pace of mountain living allowed them the chance to find beauty in the details of Casa Loma.
“You can’t rush through things when you are middle- aged,” says Burtle, who is 53. His wife is 58.
“If you move too fast, you end up with too much waste,” he says. “We had time to make changes as they occurred to us. Every night, we got to sit around, have a couple of beers and think things up.”
Since leaving Denver, Burtle says he sleeps better than he has in 25 years. Time slows down in the San Luis Valley, he says. Things happen when they happen. When a repairman says he’ll be back on Wednesday, it doesn’t necessarily mean this week. It means some Wednesday soon.
But even here, work beckons. Smyth Burtle makes the four-hour drive to Denver roughly every other week to work in her daughter’s gallery, ArtsMyths on Santa Fe Drive.
She adores her mountain retreat but still craves the energy of the city. How does she get revved up to face it?
“Coffee and cigarettes.”
Staff Writer Sheba R. Wheeler can be reached at 303-954-1283 or swheeler@denverpost.com.
