Category: St. Clair Living

By Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Wallace Bromberg Jr.

For eight years, Steve and Carla Valdes have been trying to turn their log home on Logan Martin Lake into a 14th-century Japanese-style home. They tore out the country kitchen, removed a clawfoot bathtub, reworked the master bedroom fireplace and painted the door frames black.

Despite their best efforts, it’s still a log house. It’s also a showcase for their Asian art collection, which constantly pulls your eyes away from the rustic American details.

“It looked like a cowboy bunkhouse when we bought it from the bachelor who lived here,” says Steve. “I hope it conveys an Asian feel now.”

The couple were drawn to Asian art when they lived in China and Japan while Steve sold medical devices from India to California for Johnson & Johnson. They began picking up a Burmese temple guard here, a Japanese kimono there, and the first thing they knew, their house was an Asian art gallery. ”My daughter calls it an Asian antiques store,” Steve says.

Carla, who is originally from Tarrant, was an Atlanta-based Delta flight attendant for 32 years. Steve, originally from Miami, grew up around water. They have lived in several countries and traveled all over the world, but wanted to settle in Atlanta when Steve retired 12 years ago. After searching that area for a house, Steve saw the online real estate ad for a log house on Logan Martin Lake, decided Pell City wasn’t so far from Atlanta, and drove over to take a look. “I had never been inside a log house before,” he says. “We walked in, and I said, ‘This is the place.’ I love the warmth of the wood.”

From the outside, the house looks like a typical log home, with wide, square logs and gray chinking. The silent sentinel near the front door, a stone Chinthe (lion-like creature that guards Burmese temples), and the Japanese-inspired lattice work between the porch rails on one side, hint at the treasures within.

Just inside the door, a Buddhist home-worship altar sits on a tall-legged cabinet. A small Buddha rests on top, with a gong behind him. “So much of Asian art is religious,” Steve says, although he isn’t.

Ceramic horses, copies of those found in Chinese burial mounds, stand on the sofa table to the left. Continuing left, on the wall separating the kitchen from the entrance hall, hangs a 14th-century Chinese scroll in a cabinet Steve built for it. As he turns the scroll, the pictures change, revealing a series of seaside and forest scenes done in ink on silk. “It’s a 30-foot-long story,” Steve says.

He replaced the maple kitchen cabinets with birch and the ceramic-tiled countertops with red and black granite, but the red appears burnt orange. “It looked more red when we picked it out,” Steve says. “We thought it would pop, but the color is swallowed up by the wood.” Stainless-steel appliances include a Jen-Air range with ceramic cooktop, bought because it has a downdraft. “We didn’t want a draft hood blocking the view of the lake,” Steve says.

In a corner of the dining area stands a tall, free-form, paper lamp, signed by its Japanese artist, although Steve can’t recall his name. “This is my most prized possession from an artistic point of view,” he says. “From a value point of view, it would be the Chinese scroll.” A four-section, Asian-style curio cabinet nearby houses part of Carla’s Madame Alexander doll collection, one of the few feminine touches in the house.

Light pours into the great room from two sets of French doors and the fan-shaped transom above one set, illuminating the wide-plank pine floors and the tongue-in-groove pine ceiling. Both ceiling and floors are stained a golden oak color. Recessed lights in the vaulted ceiling also shed light on the seating area in front of the fireplace.

An Asian-style open-front curio cabinet on the right side of the fireplace displays more Chinthe temple guards, including a small ceramic pair that are male and female. The painted ostrich egg, meerkat and giraffe figurines are African, yet seem to fit right in with their Asian cousins. A child’s Japanese kimono hangs on the wall behind the curio, while another child-size version and two adult kimonos hang high in the seating area. Bali puppets flank the chimney on stone shelves above the mantel, where a wooden ship rests. An antique Samurai suit of armor from the late 19th or early 20th century drapes a mannequin on the left side of the fireplace.

The master suite features a bathroom with white-washed ceiling boards — Steve’s attempt to lighten the ceiling without losing the grain and texture of the pine. This is the bathroom that had a clawfoot tub on a platform when they bought the house, and when he removed it, “people were clamoring for it,” he says. He replaced it with a jetted-tub next to a shower that has glass on three sides. The vanity has two matching bowls that sit on top, both with a design depicting orange coy swimming in a sea of emerald-green. Hanging over the tub is a geisha looking into a mirror as she puts on her makeup. “It’s an embroidery cloth traditionally used as wrapping paper for important gifts,” Steve says. More Chinthe stand guard from each end of the vanity.

Steve tore out the stone fireplace in the bedroom, which shared a chimney with its twin in the Great Room, and replaced it with black marble. The bedroom has a three-dimensional Mandarin king and queen wall hanging made of ivory and wood and a Chinese secretary that serves as a television cabinet.

An open deck spanned the back of the house when the Valdeses bought it. Steve screened in both ends, leaving the center section unscreened for outdoor grilling. The section that opens off the master suite is furnished in wicker seating that has predominantly black cushions with an off-white design in them. Another favorite piece of Asian art, a Japanese garden lamp, is located on an end table there. The screened porch off the dining area has more wicker, but with striped cushions in green, tan and red. That porch also has a glass-topped end table that Steve made using a gnarly tree stump he found on the property as the base.

Two areas of the 3,000-square-foot home reflect the eclectic side of Steve, who builds wooden model ships, collects military memorabilia and stocks his bar with South African wines and Italian grappa. (The latter is a fragrant, grape-based pomace brandy.) One is the loft overlooking the great room, the other the basement.

That loft was completely open and had been used as a bedroom when Steve and Carla moved in. He tried to make it look as Asian as possible by building a new bannister with an Asian flair and painting it black. He put up a half wall and painted that black, too. Then he turned its under-the-eaves closet into a storage area and the loft into an office. A Cambodian goddess made of wood, twin dragons made from teak and teak dust that was hardened with glue, and some Thai temple rubbings are the primary Asian art touches. Most of the loft is filled with odds and ends of things that Steve happens to like, such as a small pair of Mayan statues, an FDR “Man of the Hour” clock and the scale model of the steamboat Robert E. Lee that Steve built. “It took me a year,” he says of the project. “Now I’m working on a model of the CSS Alabama.” On the log wall behind his computer hangs a propeller from his dad’s airplane with a clock that Steve inserted in the center hole. “Mom and Dad are pilots,” he explains. “I wanted to be, but I’m color blind.”

Lights come on automatically as you descend the pine-plank stairs into the basement, which has Mexican-tiled floors. Framed Confederate war bonds hang on one wall of the hallway, which leads to two guest rooms, a small bathroom, Steve’s “man cave” and a War Room. He calls the bathroom the Florida bath because of the wooden fish that hang on the wall, fish that he carved himself. “The former owner laid part of the tile floor and I did part,” Steve says. “He did the stucco walls.” Unlike the main floor, the basement has round log beams.

His man-cave features exposed log ceiling beams, tree-stump benches, a wooden bar for his wines, a Thai spinning wheel and another display case of Carla’s Madame Alexander dolls. The closet in one of the guest rooms houses his Nazi and South African Army uniforms and his U.S. Navy peacoat. A Korean painting done on silk hangs on one wall of the room, while a triangular table from China or Taiwan (he’s not sure which) stands beside the bed, and Korean puppets and figurines are displayed in a glass-fronted curio cabinet.

He calls the unfinished basement area his “War Room” because of the military memorabilia there. He has Swiss Army helmets, a German propaganda poster, rifles, a radio-controlled PT boat, and a mannequin dressed in his old flight suit, his jungle boots from Vietnam and a flight helmet and Mae West from his Dad. “That’s a medical dummy, actually,” he says of the mannequin. “It has a pacemaker in its chest. Johnson and Johnson was tossing it out in favor of a newer model, and I adopted it.” He also has autographed photos of famous World War II pilots such as George Gay, a Nazi flag, a Confederate flag, a work bench, and the safe from his grandfather’s cigar factory in Tampa.

“My wife doesn’t like this house as much as I do because it’s so masculine,” Steve admits. “It’s like The Lodge. As the real estate agent told us, it’s not a house on the lake, but a lake house.”

Ashville farm turns into special wedding, event venue

Story and photos by Jim Smothers
Submitted Photos

When Jeff Caddell’s parents, Bud and Mildred, bought 110 acres in Ashville in 1989, they weren’t just looking for a home, they were also looking for the perfect spot for Bud to be able to enjoy his life-long hobby of building and flying remote controlled model airplanes. But he didn’t want it just for himself, so he chartered an RC club so others could enjoy the sport, and he was just happy to be able to host them at his place. The club is still going strong, even after his death, with 45 members at last count.

So after Jeff and his wife Sheila had a beautiful wedding of their own on a small island in the 8-acre lake on the property, it wasn’t long before they wanted others to be able to be able to use the property for their weddings, too, and they got the ball rolling last year. To date, about a dozen couples have begun their lives as man and wife at Mountain View Farms.

“There are five or six places here where people could have weddings,” Jeff said. “Inside or outside the barn, in the middle of a field, on the island – they could even have it on the lawn in front of our house overlooking the lake if they wanted to.”

Actually the barn isn’t ready yet, but the Caddells are excited about the plans for the future. Rather than building a purpose-built barn for weddings, they want to convert an existing barn that can be used for not only weddings but other large-scale events. The plan is to retro-fit the exterior of the barn with board and batten walls while retaining the original wood and tin on the inside for atmosphere.

“There’s 5,000 square feet inside. You can get a lot of people in there,” he said. “We will become a destination wedding and events venue next summer once we complete a big remodel of our large home that is being converted into a lodge with lots of stone, cedar, rusty tin and barn wood.

“‘The Lodge’ and ‘The Cottage’ at Mountain View Farms will sleep about 20 people and will be … offering overnight stays.”

Jeff credits an old friend with suggesting the farm as a wedding venue. Gary Liverett, director of the nearby Alpha Ranch ministry for young men, built the island and gazebo for Mildred Caddell in 2007. When the project was completed, Gary remarked it would be a nice place to have a wedding, which put the wheels in motion for Jeff and Sheila’s wedding in 2010. While the plan for hosting weddings was being hatched, Jeff and his mom were puzzled as to where the bride and bridesmaids could get ready. Sheila pointed out there was an unoccupied two-bedroom house on the property that would be perfect.

“’Well, duh!’ I thought,” Jeff said. “That was perfect.”

To get started they set up a Facebook page and offered the use of the farm at little or no charge for a limited number of weddings as a promotion, with the understanding that the Caddells could use photos from those events to show others what they had to offer.

One of the first weddings was actually a couple who remarried each other after being apart for decades.

“Dianne and Gary Duck actually remarried each other here at Mountain View Farms in May. It had been over 30 years since they divorced! They had a small wedding, and then rode away on Gary’s Harley. Gary remarked that he was young and stupid and lost her after being married a short time. Life went on, circumstances changed, and he found her again,” Caddell said.

More recently, the Caddells offered the farm as a venue for a very special couple. Daniel Creech and Belinda Dorough both attend a day program at United Cerebral Palsy in Birmingham, spending most of their days in wheelchairs, and living in a group home at night.

Daniel communicates by using his eyes to type on an electronic device and surprised Belinda when he popped the question to her. She can speak a little and first responded “What?” and then started crying before answering, “Yes!”

Daniel’s mom reached out to the community for help in making their dreams of a beautiful wedding come true via a Facebook post in which she was merely asking for some suggestions. In the end, a motorcycle club held a charity ride for them, and donations of rings, a cake, photographs and other services were all donated as word about their needs got around.

Their wedding day went like clockwork on a beautiful fall afternoon. Their powered wheelchairs zipped back and forth across the wooden bridge to the island as a custom-built sound system enabled friends and relatives to hear the ceremony and enjoy recorded music. The reception tent a short distance away provided an efficient serving area, and tables under strings of lights gave guests an enchanting evening as they enjoyed dancing on a pallet wood dance floor, a project which another couple that tied the knot there built for the Caddells.

All of the couples are special people, and the Caddells stay close to events to make sure their needs are met.

They are working on a plan to share the farm with another special group of people.

“After my mother passed, it was our great pleasure to make a substantial donation to Children’s Hospital in my parents’ honor,” Jeff said. “Mom and Dad had a charitable trust that provided for any remaining funds after their deaths to be donated to the charity. In talking to people at the hospital, they were interested in having a place for kids to go as a respite, so we’re working towards that.”

They are in the process of setting up a non-profit foundation to be funded by proceeds from weddings and other events at the farm to help fund those kinds of visits.

They are carrying on a tradition of giving established by his parents and want the Caddell Foundation of Hope to give hope to ailing children and their families and underprivileged children.

“When kids go through extended illnesses, their families are incredibly strained,” he said. “There are so many out of pocket expenses.”

The plan is to organize activities at the farm to give them a break without any expense.

Masterpiece by the water

Story by Carol Pappas
Photos by Michael Callahan

Howard and Linda Tutwiler seem the perfect match. They like to create beauty around them. And a look inside and outside their Logan Martin Lake home reveals that together, they have a talent for doing just that.

Howard, a designer  by trade, calls the planning of their home a “dream come true” for him. “Seldom, do you get to start with a clean sheet of paper.”

When they were selling their 90-acre “gentleman’s farm” in Talladega County, Howard said, they knew they wanted a view of the water and plenty of acreage for them and their three sons. The Tutwilers found both in property near the Pell City Civic Center, adjacent to Old US 231, which runs underneath Logan Martin Lake.

They first bought five acres and then learned the property next door was for sale. In all, they now own 22 acres, which allowed them to move into the old house on the land and begin building their new one 28 years ago.

The end result is a masterpiece for Tutwiler’s blank canvas. Taking into account their needs – and their desires – they certainly put their signature on it.

They have a 1,000 year old Tai-tsung Dynasty scroll that is eight feet tall. Hence, the high ceilings in the living room, where this impressive work of art hangs perfectly above the fireplace. Windows all around bathe the entire home in natural light. During the day, they point out, there is no need to even turn on a light.

The foyer is warm and inviting with a staircase leading you to the center of the home, as if you are walking into a perfectly framed painting. The interior of the house has the illusion of being in the round, employing what is known as a “cross hall plan” – no dedicated hallways, leaving no wasted space.

From that vantage point, you simply turn to see the kitchen, dining room, living room and study, hardwood floors throughout bringing it all together.

The eat-in kitchen is beautifully designed with antique white cabinets all around, granite countertops and a linear chandelier with five lights above an island. A glass-top dining table with a view of the water accents the open feel.

The formal dining room is simple and elegant with high back chairs encircling a round table. Deep red walls and crown molding form angles of the room with side tables and accent pieces on facing walls. A draped, oversized window reaching almost to the ceiling ushers in plenty of natural light.

There is a water view from every room in the house, Linda points out.

The angular living room is open to the ceiling of the second level of the home, surrounded by windows and French doors allowing an abundance of natural light to envelop the room. A marble fireplace acts almost like a pedestal just beneath the 8-foot scroll.

Four, low-sitting leather love seats – two on each side – face each other for ease of conversation across an intricately designed Oriental rug and small glass table.

A cozy study with wood burning fireplace houses Howard’s most prized possession – a wooden rocking chair he made himself in his garage workshop as a Christmas gift for Linda. But this is not just any rocking chair.  He used hand tools to make it in the technique of Sam Maloof, whose rocking chairs fetch a handsome $25,000 price and every president since Ronald Reagan has had one in the White House.

In 1959, he had seen Maloof’s techniques in a craft magazine, and he incorporated them in his thesis at Auburn University.

Years later, he spotted a book by Maloof in a bookstore, and he wrote him a letter about his inspirational work. In the return mail, Maloof sent him a three-page, handwritten letter and invited him to his California studio.

While working on a country club project in North Carolina, Tutwiler learned Maloof was conducting a seminar in Atlanta. He drove there just to shake hands and meet him. Later, they crossed paths again in Carmel, California, when Tutwiler was there working on another project. “He spent the whole day with me. It is one of the highlights of my career.” The next year, Maloof passed away.

After that, Tutwiler attended a class to teach young craftsmen how to make Maloof-inspired rockers – an arduous task of 10-hour days. When he returned home with his creation, it was in pieces. “For two months, I worked on putting it back together and sanding it,” he recalls. Now, he’s making one for each of his three sons.

Just like the rocker, there is an interesting feature around just about every corner of the Tutwiler house. The master bedroom, for instance, has a balcony overlooking the living room and across the way to a circular window with a bird’s eye view of the outdoors. Downstairs is a three-bedroom living area that accommodated the ‘growing up years’ of their sons – Adam, Aaron and Austin – referred to by Mom and Dad as “the A-Team.”

Linda’s prized possession awaits just beyond the French doors and deck. Elaborate gardens, greenhouse and a huge pond and waterfall. The pond came about when Howard learned his view would be diminished each winter when the lake is lowered five feet as part of the hydroelectric power function of the lake.

“We had to have a water feature,” he mused.

The pond’s expanse is breathtaking with its flowers in bloom, plants of various varieties, paths that meander around it and its soothing waterfall that cascades into a lower pool.

“I’ve had fun learning about all the different plants – what will survive here and what won’t,” Linda says. It is a place where she spends most of her time, keeping a watchful eye to ensure the beauty of it all. She points out the bird house she made at downtown Pell City’s Artscape Gallery, or she talks of the gatherings of fellow Pell City Garden Club members.

It’s all about the aesthetics she and Howard created together. “It’s like living in a tropical resort,” she says.

Discover October 2015 House

49 photos

Where imaginations have room to grow

Story by Elaine Hobson Miller
Photos by Jim Smothers

What child doesn’t want a playhouse? What adult didn’t want one as a child? It can be a fort where rebels shoot Nerf guns at intergalactic enemies, a Victorian doll house where little girls have tea parties, or a cabin with a loft for sleep-overs. The use of a playhouse, whether in the trees or on the ground, is limited only by a child’s imagination.

“I doodle on the dry-erase board and do my homework in it,” says Abby Hays, 12, ab the treehouse her dad built. “I like to play with my Strawberry Shortcake dolls,” says her sister, 8-1/2-year-old Emily.

Like many modern-day tree houses, the Hays’ version is built on pine posts because its owners lack a sturdy tree with the necessary split up the middle. Theirs is nestled between two oak trees on their Springville property, resting three sides on 4-by-4s planted in concrete deck piers and attached to a red oak on the fourth. It’s a two-story affair with steps that make a distinct turn at a small landing.

The treehouse is wider than it is deep, with a child-size table and chairs on one side and a small cabinet on the other to house dishes and other playthings. The bow and arrows that Emily uses for target practice hang on one wall near the cabinet. The girls like to hold tea parties with their friends and plan to put sleeping bags in the loft once their Dad has installed its trap door. Each girl has her own side in the loft, and there’s a secret compartment between its floor and the ceiling below. The ladder is attached to the back wall.

“Dad designed it, but we told him some of the things we wanted, like the French doors on the front and the shelves in the loft,” says Abby. “He wasn’t going to put any doors on it.”

Perry Hays used cedar for the exterior of the treehouse and rough-cut poplar for the front doors and the interior. He zigzagged the steps because he wanted them to go around a large water oak, and he set the main platform 10 feet off the ground.

“I always wanted a treehouse as a child,” says Perry, a self-employed carpenter.

Alex Follett of Pell City had been asking for a treehouse for some time when his parents, David and Katheryn, decided to have one built. “My wife and I had been talking,” says his dad. “We decided he is only 8 once, so we dipped into savings and surprised him for his birthday, which was in February.”

The Folletts gave builder Jonathan Hayes of Hayes Construction a crude pencil sketch on lined notebook paper that represented what they wanted. Hayes took the drawing and ran with it, and the Folletts, parents as well as son, couldn’t be happier with the results.

“This is where I keep all my weapons,” says Alex of his two-story playhouse. “I have two air soft guns, four pistols and two swords.” He calls the first floor his warring room, “where me and my friends plan,” while the second floor is his “sniping room.”

Both levels are enclosed, with two ways to enter the second floor: via wooden steps and a rope ladder. The rope version can also be accessed through a hatch in the floor of the second story, making it Alex’s escape route when avoiding enemy combatants. Alex plays there two or three hours on sunny days, he says. A friend or two will often join him.

The covered porch on the upper level features a ship’s wheel that Alex refers to as his “Stargate wheel,” and both levels have simple openings covered by wooden panels that open and close, rather than window panes. Under the porch is a pea-gravel playground with a seated swing and bar swing. A slide to the left of the 13 wooden steps offers another way down.

The 16-by-10-foot structure rests on a platform that’s 8 feet off the ground and anchored with 6-by-6-inch posts set in concrete. The entire house is made of pressure-treated pine, and Hayes custom-made the steps and hand rails. Total cost was $4,200, including the pea gravel and minor landscaping.

Tony Smith of Moody bought 10-year-old daughter, Anna, a Victorian-style playhouse from Coosa Valley Sales in Pell City. “I liked it because it looks like a real house, with a shingle roof and a loft where she and her friends can put their sleeping bags,” says Smith. “Anna loves it.”

The pink house sits on concrete blocks in a sloping yard, and Smith wants to put a ramp and steps on the higher end and lattice around the bottom. “I may eventually run power to it so we can put a little heater in it,” he says. “Once Anna outgrows it, we’ll turn it into a shed. It has a small front door and a big door at the end that you can’t see from the front. We can store pool cushions in it when she has finished with it.”

James David Slay, 8, and his brother Jason, 6, sons of Josh and Jennifer Slay of Moody, were the lucky recipients of the fort their grandmother, Christy Finch, won in a raffle at Shops of Grand River last year. The raffle benefitted the St. Clair CASA (Court-Appointed Special Advocates), a volunteer child advocacy program. “We call it our Alabama War House,” says James David. The top half on three sides can be opened and propped up, and the boys enjoy “shooting” two wooden machine guns mounted at one end.

“I like the loft, the windows and the fireman’s pole,” says 8-year-old Gabriel Rodriguez, naming the main features of the treehouse he and his 3-year-old brother, Matias, share at their grandmother’s house in Ashville. “I can’t wait until NaNa gets the slide put up.”

Built by Gary Liverett of Alpha Ranch, the 8-by-10-foot structure is set on 6-by-6-inch posts that are concreted 30 inches in the ground. Their grandmother’s yard slopes, so one side of the porch is 7.5 off the ground, while the other is 9 feet. Liverett made the 10-inch rough-sawn lap siding at his own sawmill. He framed the Plexiglass windows with pine boards, allowing the boys to see out whether the windows are open or closed. He also built a long slat in one side that opens out and down, through which the boys can shoot their Nerf guns. He also put in a stationary screened window in the loft to allow air to circulate.

“I used Plexiglass for the windows because it’s less likely to shatter and is more economical than glass,” Liverett explains. “The house has a 29-gauge, low-rib metal roof, and we hand cut the pickets for the porch.”

Liverett is letting the pressure-treated pine age before applying a stain to protect the wood from the weather. He used a galvanized 2-inch pipe that he had on hand for the fireman’s pole. He said he went over the contract price of $3,000 by $700 because it took much more time than he had estimated. “It has a lot of detail in it, and took as much time as some larger buildings,” he says. “I wouldn’t build another one for less than $4,000.”

Matias and his grandmother, who happens to be the writer of this article, have held a tea party in the house, using the same Fisher-Price tea set his mother had when she was his age. Gabriel, his grandmother and his friend Walker Griffith of Ashville have slept in the house twice, the first time in November before it was finished. “We almost froze to death,” Gabriel admits.