A little taste of Tuscany
Ron Nichols and Cheryl Shields brought the sights and flavors of Tuscany to the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene.
Sequestered behind a locked gate at Sanders Beach sprawls their newly completed 16,000-square-foot villa, modeled after the Tuscan style. The house incorporates old and new, far and near, mixing old-growth woods imported from Italy, Montana stone and the workmanship of Coeur d’Alene craftsman and artisans.
“Ninety-eight percent of the work done here was done by locals. Most people don’t realize the level of craftsmanship that is here,” said Andy Smith of Edwards Construction, the project manager.
The public can tour the newly completed home – its first public viewing – on July 10 during Tails of Tuscany, a fund-raising benefit for the Kootenai Humane Society. Tickets are $100 each and are limited to 500.
Attendees will be ferried from the Boardwalk Marina Dock to the villa that sits on two acres adjacent to the Jewett House. The event will include Italian wine and hors d’oeuvres, live music, bocci ball, and a silent auction and raffle, said Pat Lozano, co-chairperson of the event. The public will be able to tour the house and its gardens on their own.
“We’re just trying to create a magical afternoon,” Lozano said.
The home incorporates a variety of woods. The floors are birch. The front door is Honduran mahogany. Near the front of the house, a handcrafted walnut spiral staircase winds up to the second floor. Between the gourmet kitchen and the dining room with a view of the lake, is a curved bar, inspired by one of the owners’ boats. It was handcrafted from old-growth olive wood imported from Italy.
“The owners really like different woods,” Smith said.
In the main floor great room, a huge rock fireplace, constructed of stone from Montana, rises from floor to ceiling up to hand-hewn rafters. The lower level boasts a wine cellar with space for more than 3,000 bottles and a separate tasting room. Additional touches include a home theater room, his-and-her offices, and a gym. Despite the home’s size, individual rooms have a warm and cozy feel.
“We wanted it to be comfortable. We didn’t want it to feel large and expansive,” said Cheryl Shields.
The home, she said, evolved as her style merged with her husband’s and they worked with the architect, Rann Haight of Coeur d’Alene. “It started as a Craftsman (home),” she explained. “My husband is formal; I’m informal. It was compromise of styles. This is what we ended up with.” Their goal was to blend Mediterranean and Northwest designs.
“One thing I look back on and enjoy is the owners’ desire to do something unique and special to them,” Smith said. “Some people want a nice house. Some people say the plan is just the beginning.”
Planning and construction of the home was an evolving, team process, Shields said. She worked with designers, subcontractors, workers and the builder and spent a lot of time researching materials and processes on the Internet. “The guys got so excited. They’d bring things in and say Cheryl, look at this. It was an interactive process.”
As Shields worked with Smith on the project, she came to learn about his involvement with the animal shelter and its needs. “We were talking about the humane society and how Cheryl had put together other events. We wanted a yearly event for the humane society. Cheryl said we want to offer our house as your first event,” Smith recalled. Smith is president of the humane society and co-chairperson of Tails of Tuscany.
The Tails of Tuscany “is for us a kickoff to annual event of some kind,” Smith said.
“Part of the purpose (of the event) is to increase community awareness of what the humane society is doing,” Lozano added.
The Kootenai Humane Society, which is not affiliated with Kootenai County and receives no government funding, operates on a budget of $350,000 a year. It needs about $450,000 to achieve its goals, Smith said.
The shelter has changed a lot in the past few years, Smith said.
Several years ago, the humane society took in 6,400 animals a year and euthanized 3,200. Then it shifted to a no-kill policy. “Euthanizing for space was not fixing the problem,” Smith said. As the county grew, so did the number of homeless pets. One unsprayed cat and her offspring can produce hundreds of thousands of cats in six years, he said.
Along with its no-kill policy, the shelter adopted a policy of adopting out healthy animals. Its focus became no more homeless pets and it began to aggressively spay and neuter.
“We’ve spayed and neutered 1,500 animals in 16 months,” he said. “Every animal that is adopted is spayed and neutered and 130-160 (animals) a month are adopted.
He estimated 30 percent of pets are spayed or neutered. To see a real decrease in the number of homeless pets, the rates should be about 70 percent, he said. One of the goals of the shelter, for which it needs more funding, is to offer low-cost spaying and neutering clinics.
Other changes in shelter include a new a dog walk park. Heating and ventilation has improved. The shelter recently received a grant and started a new program to provide foster care for the pets of women seeking shelter from abusive domestic situations. Some women stay in abusive situations because they are afraid to leave their animals behind and they can’t take them with them, Smith explained.
“My first animal I got through a humane society,” Shields said. “After listening to Andy about where the humane society has been and where it wants to go, my husband and I wanted to be supportive.”