European Influence in a Montana Home
Text by Heather Bode | Photography courtesy of Golden Eagle Construction and Nicole Keintz
Dream homes start with a vision, or in this case, it starts with a dream in 2001. Marty Angeli explains, “I literally had a dream about buying property in Montana. It was right before I was deployed to Saudi. I took a week of leave, came up here from El Paso, rented a car, and drove all over the state. I came back through Canyon Ferry Lake and decided on this lot.” Angeli was no stranger to Helena. In the early to mid 90’s he was stationed at Fort Harrison for a time. “That’s when I really started appreciating the area,” he says.
The land remained untouched while Marty and his wife, Beth, moved to the city of Brussels in Belgium. Marty was stationed in Kabul. They fell in love with the old farmhouses dotting the landscape surrounding Brussels and eventually purchased one for themselves, perhaps unknowingly influencing the future.
The Angeli family settled in Helena 6 years ago, moving into an apartment in the Placer Hotel designed with the help of SMA Architects. Angeli says, “We figured if these guys could work with us on the Placer project from Brussels, Kabul, and Helena, then working with them here would be no problem.” Their empty lot on Canyon Ferry became a topic of conversation.
The timber trusses in this outdoor living space are structural as well as decorative. The wood burning fireplace has a wood beam mantle and stamped concrete hearth done by Smitty’s Fireplace Shop. Photo by Nicole Keintz
In the beginning, the home was nothing more than inspirational photos and sketches. How did it become the home the Angelis envisioned? Becky Lawson of SMA says, “We listened as hard as we could and made sure we communicated back to them on what we thought they wanted.”
The custom home, now perched on a 3.2 acre lot overlooking Canyon Ferry Lake took just over two years to morph from ideas to completion. But, with custom homes, it isn’t about deadlines. “It’s about garnering and maintaining relationships. We foster the entire project on relationships,” says Tim Meldrum of SMA Architects. That’s the same reason Golden Eagle Construction was recommended for the build.
Adam Senechal of Golden Eagle Construction says, “We pride ourselves at this company in that we don’t have a style or a niche that we only build within. We are 100% custom.” To keep the communication lines open, Golden Eagle implemented the use of cloud-based software. “It creates efficiency in busy schedules,” Senechal adds.
The boulder staircase creates a natural connection between outdoor spaces. Photo by Nicole Keintz
The result is a home with European influences and nods to Montana’s natural features creating what the architects describe as a modern touch to rustic.
One distinguishing feature is the modest master suite. The Angelis insisted on keeping it bare-bones. Marty Angeli expands on this thinking: “Living in Europe, you learn that sleeping areas are meant for three things: putting your clothes on, sleeping, and you know what the other thing is! I don’t want to live in my bedroom, I want to be out here,” he gestures to the great room area where we talk.
Other European touches include heated towel racks in the master bath, a butler’s pantry, and the timber frame with huge beams running the length of the house. The timber frame was purchased from Rocky Mountain Log Homes out of Hamilton, but the European influence remains. “Our house in Brussels withstood two World Wars. The beams, hand-hewn timber, run the entire length of the house,” says Angeli. So it was an important feature to include here, too.
Another unique feature of the house is the reclaimed barnwood above the great room fireplace and facing wall. Angeli says, “Beth and I spent a Saturday morning down in Belgrade just kicking through piles of wood until we found something we wanted. We love the gray look of it. It gives a homey feel and we didn’t want the ‘ski lodge’ look. We wanted this to be a comfortable living home.”
Entertaining is an important aspect of the family’s lifestyle, and with the home being 3,400 square feet, outdoor living space was important. “The house was designed to be outside,” adds Angeli. Decks off the master and great room offer sweeping views of Canyon Ferry Lake. The walk-out basement leads to a fire pit and croquet area. Huge straw-colored boulders form a staircase to the outdoor kitchen and pizza oven.
The kitchen, with its copper accents and specially engineered lighting, is the family’s gathering area. Part of entertaining is cooking, which the entire family enjoys. The quartz-topped island provides the perfect surface for food preparation along with encouraging ample space for conversation.
Smart (and affordable) home security technology allows the Angeli family to control the 5-zone radiant floor heating, doors, and garages from their phones-the ultimate modern touch to this rustic Montana home. Photo by Nicole Keintz
But in a small, angled basement room lies the “pièce de résistance” of this house: the wine cellar. Floor to ceiling oak racks cradle a 1,500 bottle collection. Angeli says, “We did a lot of wine buying in Brussels. I had a little vinote that I went to and we’d buy a case or two or go back and taste. It was very affordable. So this is 9-10 years of living in Brussels collecting wine. We’d also go to Lille in France which was just across the border and they would take a horse barn and clear out the horses and then bring in small vintners from all over France. So a lot of this came from there, too.”
When asked to pinpoint one area exemplifying high quality craftsmanship, Senechal replies, “It would be my sincere hope that you’d see high quality craftsmanship throughout the entire house. That’s something you work at and pursue at all times. The house will be done to our clients’ satisfaction.” Two years seems like a long time, but not to any of the people involved in this project. They laugh like old friends when talking about aspects of the house. And isn’t that what you want for a home that started as a dream?
“The best designer for a house is the person who is going to use it. That’s the beauty of custom houses: not built because other people like it or it’s trendy, but built to how you live,” concludes Meldrum.
