No ordinary house
Published 3:17 pm Monday, March 5, 2018
Personality, comfort and love of family (and cat) found in Reddoch home
<p class="p1">Her mother gives her a hard time about her predilection for out-of-the-ordinary furniture and decor. Her sons shake their heads when she brings in yet another decorative tchotchke resembling a body part. (She’s drawn to heads and hands.)
<p class="p1">Welcome to the fascinating home of Leo and Heather Reddoch.
<p class="p1">“I like what I like,” said Heather Reddock, “and when I buy something I like I always like it and hold onto it.”
<p class="p1">The fountain in front of the home is a hint of what’s inside: It is almost traditional. However, the concrete gray bowls are slightly askew and two small reddish orange birds add a spot of color.
<p class="p1">“It reminds me a little of Alice in Wonderland,” Heather said.
<p class="p1">Inside the house it gets curiouser. Humming birds seem to hover here and there. (The little figurines are magnetized. The front of the bird is inside the window. The back is outside the window.) An assortment of clocks, including a grandfather clock, a cuckoo clock and a working exterior clock might not keep all on time for important dates, but they do look great. A gargantuan Chippendale style chair fills the corner of the large living room, the perfect prop to make Alice look small. Heather has other plans for the chair.
<p class="p1">“I think I’ll put it out front for Christmas next year, dress Leo up like Santa and invite people to stop and have their photo made with him,” she says, grinning.
<p class="p1">In a bedroom is the “Grant chair.” Leo Flynn created the chair based on a portrait of the Reddoch’s son by Victor Monsour. In the guest bath is the birdcage chair. In the Reddoch boathouse is the neon-painted chair from the New Orleans restaurant Margaritaville. Leo and Heather were at the restaurant and offered to buy the chair. The waitress said it wasn’t for sale. However, she contacted the owner at Leo’s insistence and they struck a deal on the condition that the Reddochs take the chair right then and there, so she would not be tempted to renege. Leo, Heather, son, luggage and large, brightly painted Magaritaville Adirondack chair left little wiggle room in the Tahoe for the trip home.
<p class="p1">Heather’s favorite chair in the house is traditional and close to the double-sided fireplace in the family room. From here she can look out onto the pool or watch her oldest son and Leo as they prepare dinner.
<p class="p1">“I could easily have a house with no kitchen,” she says, chuckling.
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<p class="p1">She admits – at times – she misses the first house the family called home. It was on Contraband Bayou and was destroyed by Hurricane Rita. The Reddochs found a second home after bunking in Leo’s office for a while. After 10 years, they got comfortable.
<p class="p1">Leo, however, was eager to get back on the water. When he suggested they take a peek at the Shell Beach Drive house they now call home, Heather’s initial reaction was the location was too visible. Plus, Shell Beach Drive meant Christmas lights were a must.
<p class="p1">Nevertheless, they took a look. The house design was typical for an upscale, carefully designed house built in the late 60s: dark beams, dark flooring, mauve walls, paneling, few windows, few overhead lights and not as many windows as she wanted.
<p class="p1">She knew how badly her husband wanted to be back on the water. However, the word divorce did enter the couple’s conversation when she realized just how interested he was.
<p class="p1">“At 2:30 a.m. that morning, I smacked him on the head with a legal pad and told him to wake up,” Heather said.
<p class="p1">She had stayed up and figured out what would need to be done to open up, lighten up and brighten up the house.
<p class="p1">“I made him swear to find out it could be done and that it would be done,” Heather said, smiling.
<p class="p1">The fireplace was double-sided. The garage, on the other side of the family room, was enclosed. A guest bath and laundry room with a beautiful view was added. With this addition, they were able to create a master suite downstairs. The driveway became a well-designed pool, hot tub and outside living area. The upstairs was changed little. Every room has a view of the lake and two of the rooms open onto the balcony. One of the bedrooms has its own separate office/sitting area.
<p class="p1">Leo made good on his house remodel promise, based on Heather’s vision and direction, with one exception.
<p class="p1">“The boathouse was just an open-air boatlift when we bought the house,” Heather said. “Leo wanted to enclose it. I told him that’s great. But everything better be finished that needs to be done to the house before the first nail was driven on that boathouse. Three weeks after we moved in, he was already working on it. He said, we need somewhere to sit while working on the house.”
<p class="p1">For all the clever whimsy in this house, including the out-of-the ordinary chairs, those are not the only elements of its appeal. The house is light-filled, comfortable, filled with personality and makes room for sentiment. This is a the home of a tight-knit family.
<p class="p1">For Heather, having her family in sight makes her house feel like a home.
<p class="p1">“And if they can’t be here in person, then seeing pictures or traces of their favorite things from over the years,” she said. “That, and having a fluffy cat always in residence.”
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