This article highlights one of seven homes featured in the 2021 SBCO Remodeled Home Tour to benefit SaddleBrooke Community Outreach (SBCO) programs. SBCO is a non-profit, all volunteer community organization helping people in the Copper Corridor of south-central Arizona. The mission of SBCO is to provide opportunities for kids to succeed. Find out more at community-outreach.org. Note: SBCO does not endorse any contractor mentioned in this article, and homeowners are advised to conduct due diligence before hiring any service provider to perform work on their home.
As diverse as the terrain of its namesake state, SaddleBrooke’s Montana floor plan presents many variations, both in square footage, with four base floor plans, and in the layout of its living spaces’ interior walls. Sandy and Jim Seppala’s Montana offered Home Tour visitors a number of fresh twists on some of the more familiar Montana features, which maximize both the property’s spectacular views and add valuable storage.
Remodeled by its previous and present owners, this highly customized home features many unique modifications to the standard Montana floor plan. In a striking departure from the ordinary layout, the Seppalas’ kitchen has a wide arched opening above base cabinetry instead of the usual solid wall with enclosed pantry closet. Additionally, in lieu of the typical divider wall that separates living and dining space, lies a peninsula of base cabinetry to provide additional storage without blocking views.
While many Montana fireplaces and entertainment centers are located within the living space’s divider wall, the Seppalas’ living space is graced by two opposing walls of built-in, floor-to-ceiling furniture-quality cabinetry and lighted shelving with a built-in gas log fireplace and mantel that embrace a great room space. The result is a more flexible, open-concept space with enhanced flow to a kitchen that benefits from plenty of natural light and unimpeded views.
Despite the missing kitchen pantry closet, the Seppalas netted greater storage overall with a uniquely positioned walk-in pantry located in the adjoining laundry room. The removal of the room’s usual countertop and window opposite the washer/dryer and the enclosure of the space with a pocket door forms a spacious and convenient u-shaped walk-in pantry. Although the expanded island cabinetry forgoes counter seating space, the handsome granite bar-height top, built where the standard pony wall is usually located, provides counter seating with a view to the beautiful outdoors, instead of the kitchen sink.
Other kitchen modifications include the expansion of the kitchen island to include more storage cabinetry and the elimination of the standard kitchen desk. In the desk’s former space, floor-to- ceiling cabinetry houses a built-in Bosch convection oven and microwave and additional pantry storage with pull-outs.
While an earlier remodel of the hall bath added a new tiled walk-in shower with a pivoting glass entry door, the master bath’s bathing options were limited to a cumbersome soaker tub with no shower. Homeowner Jim Seppala, a professional handyman and former owner of Grout Doctor of Tucson, handled much of the remodel himself, removing the tub and building a new tiled doorless walk-in shower with a rain head high enough to suit his 6’1 frame, and laying new floor tile in the bath and attached walk-in closet. Reusing the existing rectangular vessel sinks, the Seppalas had the dated oak cabinetry of both bathrooms and the storage cabinetry outside the owners’ suite renovated with a white paint job by Aztec Painting, while ho-hum Corian countertops were replaced by Red Earth Tile & Stone with striking Titanium granite tops, filled with an elegant movement of grays, blacks, golds, creams and ivory.
Outside, the Seppalas enhanced the curb appeal of the home with a new paint job featuring a darker contrasting accent trim and garage door, and a handsome new pavered driveway and front walkway installed by Nathan Villa Landscaping. The landscaper also replaced and expanded the former brick backyard patio with the contemporary pavers and added islands of luxurious, verdant artificial grass to surround a central tiered fountain.
Sandy and Jim further freshened their outdoor living space by removing some of the property’s overgrowth and adding flowering shrubs and a variety of potted plants. The existing built-in BBQ island countertop was refaced with a tumbled stone backsplash and enhanced with a gleaming new Summerset Sizzler built-in gas grill and stainless steel storage drawers and cabinets from Arizona Grill & Hearth. To improve access and beautify the side yard, the homeowners added an undulating pavered walkway and pony wall seating from the BBQ area to the front driveway. Not only is trash day easier, so is plucking fruit from the property’s grapefruit, orange and lemon trees.
One of the owners’ favorite home renovations is something that doesn’t necessarily meet the visitor’s eye at first glance. In fact, it is what is missing that amplifies the wow factor of a backyard view overlooking the #1 tee box of the MountainView Golf Course and a gorgeous Catalina mountain panorama. Frustrated with the impediment that patio columns posed for furniture placement and the view they hindered, the Seppalas hired Sunce Enterprises to remove the two interior columns of the covered back patio.
“It was expensive, but so worth it,” said Sandy Seppala of the job that involved bumping up the back edge of the patio overhang by a foot, and the installation of a 37-foot hidden steel I-beam as support. “They told us it would be delivered to the back along the side of the house, but in the end, the only way we figured they’d get the beam back there was to bring it in the front door and out a back window!” Which is precisely what the contractor did. Removal of the patio columns now provides unobstructed, stunning views of the mountains, and the beautifully landscaped back yard. It has rendered an outdoor living space as free-flowing as its connected interior living space. The Seppalas now enjoy their own SaddleBrooke version of Montana’s famed “Big Sky.”
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