photo by: Mike Yoder


Tena Santaularia didn’t need to see the house at 1303 Ranchero Travel right before getting it about four decades back. She experienced already fallen in appreciate with it.
Four many years prior, the property had been on the current market “and I probably drove the Real estate agent outrageous since I imagine I looked at it a few periods,” Santaularia stated. But at the time, she wasn’t ready to shift. When she noticed the dwelling was on the industry again four several years later — she explained she couldn’t imagine it — she created an offer you on the location.
picture by: Mike Yoder
1303 Ranchero Generate was designed and designed by Kenton Knowles in collaboration with the home’s 1st operator, artist and College of Kansas professor emeritus Gerald Lubensky. The house was done in 2005.
The outdoors of the house has an industrial glance. It is created out of RASTRA, an insulating concrete kind that is stacked and then crammed in with a lot more concrete. The roof and exterior cladding is metallic on the second ground and stucco on the to start with floor. The wood entrance doorway that faces the avenue is surrounded by a wall painted electric blue.
“We even experienced it repainted and people today were being like, ‘Are you likely to get a neutral shade?’ And we ended up like, ‘No, it’s form of the signature of this household,’” Santaularia reported.
photograph by: Mike Yoder
The entryway of the household appears to be out into the principal living region down below. As a single descends the stairway, Santaularia’s residence — with its heated, concrete flooring and uncovered ceilings — arrives into full perspective. There are couple partitions to divide her kitchen, corner Television nook, dining space and dwelling place.
image by: Mike Yoder
When Santaularia toured the residence all all those occasions 8 several years in the past, she beloved the home’s architecture and the combination of Knowles’ Swedish model with what she regarded as Lubensky’s Santa Fe, earthy vibe. The daughter of a woman who collects rustic parts, Santaularia also has an affinity for something of the earth.
Despite possessing a lot of decorations, Santaularia would make an exertion not to overcrowd her rooms.
“The architecture is so interesting that I definitely didn’t want to muddle it with a lot of stuff,” she reported.
The eating area capabilities two rakes from the 1800s that were element of her mother’s collection and now provide as wall decorations.
“I’ve had those for a long time and I wished a thing very simple, just of the earth, to place up there,” she said. “That’s my small nod to her. She’s 92 a long time outdated.”
image by: Mike Yoder
Throughout from the dining area is the kitchen area, which Santaularia saved original “because it was genuinely the style of the architect, from what I’ve heard.”
The kitchen has white tile counter tops, white cupboards and a bright blue tile backdrop guiding the sink and stove best place. Santaularia has some of her pots hanging on hooks earlier mentioned one of the counter tops and brightly coloured artwork on the windows. She named the kitchen “funky.”
“This is my shiny, enjoyment place,” she said. Most of the other folks she attempts to “keep shut to nature.”
image by: Mike Yoder
That is certainly the scenario with the dwelling home, which is a several actions down from the kitchen and dining space. Santaularia’s living space has a good deal of vegetation and more neutral-coloured decorations. She had the fire redone in the living home. In the winter she commences her times drinking tea beside it. The living space also has significant home windows which give a watch of the community pond to the southwest.
photograph by: Mike Yoder
“What really sold me on the house was the see,” Santaularia mentioned.
The 2nd flooring of the house has a deck that overlooks the pond. In the spring, Santaularia explained she puts her plants out there.
photograph by: Mike Yoder
Santaularia enjoys living in her “quiet and peaceful” community. She claimed her website visitors are normally amazed that her household, which is close to Bob Billings Parkway, virtually feels like it’s located in the county.
“It may perhaps not experience like that endlessly but I guaranteed get pleasure from it now,” she mentioned.
Santaularia has lived in Lawrence ever since she moved right here for college in the ’70s. She is known for her enterprise, Balloonarts, which specializes in balloon creations for company occasions and themed parties. The COVID-19 pandemic slowed down her enterprise, which was okay with Santaularia. She stated she is semi-retired.
Santaularia said she under no circumstances thought about leaving Lawrence pursuing her college decades mainly because it just felt like residence.
“It’s form of like when I walked in this home,” she said. “It’s like, ‘Yeah, I could reside below.’ And identical with Lawrence…this is house.”
picture by: Mike Yoder
picture by: Mike Yoder
picture by: Mike Yoder
image by: Mike Yoder
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