Sunny hideway

You wouldn’t know that what Dennis and Claudia Redford call “a little square block of a home” contains a most interesting and private getaway: a sunroom filled with pieces from family, friends and their travels.

“It’s so warm because our friends and relatives and (our) travels are all represented and are all here,” says Claudia. “It makes it pretty special,”

The project started as a small fish pond. Then the Spokane Valley couple decided to build a roof over the pond. Unfortunately, the pond was receiving unwelcome visitors – raccoons – so they decided to build walls around it to keep out the raiders. Dennis framed the room.

What started as a small project turned into a grand sunroom, decorated with a southwestern flair and 10 arched windows.

“In winter, we put in smoked acrylic windows and in the summertime a lot of hanging baskets,” says Claudia. Dennis hauled basalt to make a planter all the way around the pond. They also added two waterfalls that trickle into the pond, where they keep a mix of goldfish and Japanese koi, that have now interbred. One of the rock formations that consists of two cylindrical stones means a lot to Dennis because he and one of his close friends, who died a few years ago, found them on one of their trips to Mexico.

A door leads to the driveway from the sunroom. The Redfords wanted to find a storm door for it, and Dennis went to Brown Building Materials. He browsed through hundreds of storm doors, but nothing looked quite right. As Denis was leaving, a stack of doors in the west side of the yard caught his eye. Poking through, he found his perfect door, aluminum with a rounded top, which matched all the windows in their sunroom. He found out that it had been salvaged from an old South Hill mansion years ago.

The Redfords’ sunroom isn’t just a room that looks pretty. It is full of life and meaning, and they spend as much time as possible in it. Claudia calls it their “summer living room” and says that if she could figure out a way, she’d move their bed to the sunroom. They have added a glass-top patio table and chairs, two overstuffed chairs and a big rocking chair.

Now in their 70s, the couple relaxes in their hand-built sunroom and reflects on their 52 years together.

“We sit and look at each other,” Dennis says, “and think about how great life has been.”