Although Art Troutner is known for creating rather modern and even eccentric homes that, admittedly, are a challenge for today’s family oriented life-style, he has also created several homes that work well for middle class families. These homes are absolutely lovely and sized perfectly for either a small young family with little children, a couple’s first home, or an elderly couple enjoying the peace and quiet.
This home on Wood Acres Street up on the Boise Bench is a charming contemporary house with 5 bedrooms and 1 bath and an uncountable number of windows. Built in 1951, early in Art Troutner’s architectural career, it pairs with another of his homes across the street as two early homes built in a former tree farm off Owyhee Street. The neighborhood is quiet and friendly and the house is located at the end of a cul-de-sac. Although the area is rather close to town, it feels wonderfully far away and gives a break from the business of the city.
The openness and brightness of the home makes it all seem much larger than it is at 2567 square feet. With the windows and the lack of walls and doors, it’s quite easy to see why the current owner calls it a “bachelor’s party house.” In his time living there, the current owner has hosted several parties including a teacher staff Christmas party for his sister’s co-workers. He says that it is easy to host all kinds in the house. The house was home to his children when they were very young, but as everyone has grown older, it has become a little too casual for the growing adolescent.
The house is characterized by the many windows which take up most of the home’s walls and the continuous red oak panels that trace throughout the house. The owner told us that red oak was the cheap, durable wood in the 50s and was extremely popular for middle class homes. Today, it is both rare and expensive, and hard to get a hold of. During a renovation, cedar wood was used in the addition.
This contemporary home is very sleek and modern with an array of natural elements. The home is made up of very narrow and long gray brick that consists of beautiful redwood accents. Upon opening the front door, the first attention grabber is the gorgeous slate tile leading into the kitchen/dining room area. The present owner did a complete renovation of the house by taking down a wall in the kitchen/dining room area to create a view for the windows in the living room, as well as removing atrocious shag carpeting in the kitchen. The kitchen was replaced with modern appliances, olive green colored stucco walls, and warm tan colored concrete countertops. The kitchen island is covered in stainless steel, with a bar raised up by small, metal bars. Also, some of the island has tin siding, with plenty of storage. It is lit by small, rectangular prism shaped hanging lamps, with one round, blown glass blue light on the far left of the kitchen ceiling.
The living room features a wall of giant glass windows and other smaller windows near the ceiling that face a side patio. These windows here, and throughout the house, make the house very bright because of all of the windows that let in natural light. Its small, original wood-burning fireplace is in a corner. The floor is covered in black tile, and red oak panels line the walls. One entire wall is covered in book shelves that are painted in vibrant shades of green, red, blue, orange and other colors, contributing a bright, contemporary tone to the house. The living room is now installed with new wiring for surround sound, as well as the whole house. Towards the front of the house is the master bedroom, which was transformed from a car port by the original owners. The room has grey-carpeted floors, windows near the ceiling, and an open, renovated slate tiled bathroom with a huge shower and a stacked washer and dryer in a closet. On the wood paneled wall in the master bedroom, there are two glass windows near the ceiling, creating even more open light in the house.
The main hallway passes through a second wall of windows that leads to the second redwood paneled bathroom. The bathtub and shower are surrounded by hundreds of small, colorful ceramic tiles. Two smaller bedrooms follow, and the fourth bedroom on the corner is the largest. The two smaller bedrooms were originally kids rooms, with one room painted with adorable bird designs on an apple green wall, and the other with wood paneled walls, black and yellow checkered flooring, and a sliding closet with frosted glass panels. On the right side of the windowed wall, there is small courtyard with a beautiful, black chandelier hanging down from wooden beams that was also added on during the last renovation.
Next door, right across from the kitchen, there is a large gray-carpeted family room with dandelion yellow walls that was added by the original owners. A beautiful gas fireplace surrounded by black marble tile anchors the room perfectly, in addition to the incorporation of glass windows near the ceiling as well as on each side of the fireplace. The wood paneling on one wall isn’t red wood; in fact, it’s cedar wood. This is because when the original owners built the addition, redwood was expensive, so they had to find a similar style and color of wood that was less expensive. In the corner of the room, there is an open staircase with grey metal railing that leads to a large unfinished basement with white cabinets.
Outside the glass door of the living room is the side patio floored with stone that originally used to cover the inside hallway of the house. The backyard is fenced, and shaded with various, lush, vine covered trees. Small plant beds surround the yard, filled with bushes and other plants, and various sized rocks are speckled across the yard. In the far, left hand corner of the backyard, there is a small, vine covered shed, and a garden area with unique and quirky metal lampshades that complete the picture. Also on this side of the house is a long, covered carport which was also an addition.
Source: home owner