Houston House and Home - Index

Houston House and Home - houstonhouseandhome - Index

for the intricate and older pieces
of folk art in its collections.
Now, settled into her
Butterfly Loft, with her folk art
carefully curated, placed and lit
as if it were in a gallery, Sandy is
discovering that her art pieces
seem to have more visual
impact. “One of the things I
love about this house,” she says,
“is that the art has to be the
right thing for the right spot. It
has to be wonderful.” Her latest
acquisition now hangs proudly
on the living room fireplace: a
set of animal masks made by the
Embera indigenous peoples of
Panama.
The two-story screened porch
at the back of the house facing
the back yard and lap pool is
everything she hoped it would
be. “Dave and I live out here,”
she says. “In the summer when
it’s hot, we go swimming, then
wrap in a towel and sit on the
porch. We always get a breeze.
It’s as close to having a lake
house or a house in the country
as you can get in the city. It’s a
little piece of country.”
In Houston’s temperate
winter, the indoor/outdoor gas
fireplace makes the porch warm
and livable, extending the time
the Steitzes can live outside.
“We love fresh air,” Sandy says.
“This space has become a
wonderful environment.”
The large operable windows
and open design of the lofts not
only draw breezes through the
house, they also serve another
purpose: to allow natural light
inside. “We daylight our houses
to minimize the need for artificial
lighting,” says Eagleton,
“another energy-efficient, ecofriendly
thing to do as a result
of our thinking about how to
design a building like the
houses built here before air
conditioning.”
RIGHT: Antique wooden wings
from Judith McClellan on 34th
Street bring grace to the tall walls
of the Steitzes' Butterfly Loft. On
the table is a Cajun-style birdhouse.