Newlyweds create dream house suited to entertaining
As Michael and Stephanie Land thought through their dream house, they considered the many ways they would use it: Halloween, Super Bowl, Oscar night, birthdays — any excuse to throw a party.
So though their home has three bedrooms, six full and two half bathrooms, two offices, a kitchen, a catering kitchen, an exercise room and 12 TVs, it also has five bars, a climate-controlled wine room, a covered lap pool, golf simulator, 20-person hot tub and an entertainment room with an elevated karaoke stage.
The couple, still newlyweds after just a year of marriage, stood in the foyer of their home with their builder, Scott Frankel, and a couple of others from the Frankel Building Group.
“The building part of it has been in my mind a long time. When we got married, we laid out a plan and walked in to the Frankels and handed it to them,” Michael Land said. Though some changes were made — for example, a staircase had to be altered and they were persuaded to use hard walnut flooring instead of a softer maple — the Lands worked in everything they wanted.
Their home and three others are on the Bellaire New Home Showcase today, displaying current trends in custom home design.
Every inch of the Lands’ 8,461-square-foot home — 11,871 square feet if you count all air-conditioned space and nearly 14,000 square feet factoring in the covered lap pool — was planned thoughtfully for their family and friends to enjoy.
For example, they have a nephew who’s highly allergic to mosquito bites. Covering the backyard helps him enjoy a splash in the pool safely, Michael Land said.
Entertaining features are meant for their funloving friends to enjoy golf, music, billiards and parties. A 479-square-foot storage space provides a place for party props to live. And a 1,100-bottle wine room will hold the couple’s favorite wines, including many from travels to California’s wine country.
Details, details
For the showcase tour, the Lands’ home won’t be filled with furniture, art or accessories. Instead, they and the Frankels want to show its craftsmanship without the furniture getting in the way.
Old World touches and high-quality materials greet you just inside the nearly 3-inch-thick arched front doors.
Planks of hand-scraped walnut frame large squares of travertine in a gridlike form on the floor. To one side is a bar with a base of walnut, which was hand-carved in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, and topped with veiny stone. Its cabinets were handmade there, too, backed with an antiqued mirror; its doors are antiqued glass.
“Part of the idea here is that even though this is a brand-new house with modern conveniences, we wanted it to have some Old World feel,” said Michael Land, a longtime oil-industry executive who founded Terra Energy Partners in 2014. “I call it rustic elegance — it’s earth tones, wood, stone, iron, old glass and old mirrors.”
Land has always had an appreciation for design. He began college majoring in civil engineering and architecture. After a professor told the class that architects didn’t make much money, he shifted to petroleum engineering.
Walnut cabinets throughout the home and a trio of chandeliers over the back porch were all custom-made in Mexico.
Frankel and the Lands went there to see their work, and after working with the artisans there, San Miguel has become one of the Lands’ new favorite places to visit.
Across from the foyer bar are the dining room and climate-controlled wine room, where they host formal dinners or have wine-tasting stations for their parties.
On the other side is a library ready for a couple of chairs and lots of books. But its most important role comes in winter, when it holds the couple’s Christmas tree.
The living room and kitchen blend together, with the living room ready for two seating spaces and a kitchen meant for serious cooking.
Decorator Judy Buchanan of Kaleidoscope-Studio of Interior Design helped with first-floor furnishings, which include custommade items for the living room, office and dining room.
Filled with cabinets made to hold just about anything, the kitchen has a custom-made copper hood over a Wolf range. Topped with panels that look just like the cabinets, the refrigerator almost goes unnoticed.
Behind the massive kitchen is a second one, meant to be used by caterers to prepare food away from party guests. That kitchen has three ovens, a microwave, a softpellet icemaker, a double refrigerator and plenty of counter space.
There are other details: The spacious master bedroom has an equally spacious bathroom. His closet is 10 by 12 feet and has a special pullout drawer that holds 100 neckties. Hers is 15 by 20 feet and is filled with racks and drawers and space for storage.
Upstairs there are two guest rooms, but it’s the fun stuff you’ll want to see: a karaoke stage, billiards area, gym, two-level media room and golf simulator.
Michael Land loves the golf simulator because he rarely has four-and-a-half hours to play 18 holes. In this 20-foot-by-18-foot room, he can play a full course in 30 minutes. He’s already calling it his man cave and has plans for a scotch bar.
And Stephanie Land, a Houston-area native and owner of Premiere Promotions, is ready to grab a mic and hit the karaoke stage — any time, any song. Next year she’ll turn 50, and there’s a Studio 54-style party in the works.
In the backyard
From a wide balcony on the back of the house you can sit and relax or nap on a swinging daybed.
Below is another 95-foot patio, lined with travertine, looking onto the infinity hot tub that holds 20 people. There’s a 77-foot covered lap pool across the backyard, with fire urns placed alongside a waterfall across from the hot tub.
There’s a U-shaped strip for landscaping with a row of holly trees and small shrubs and big pots holding a mix of annuals and perennials.
Off to the side is an outdoor kitchen, complete with its own Lennox outdoor air conditioner so folks on the patio stay cool even in the hottest months.
In the past few years, the Lands have lived on Elm Street and themed their Halloween parties “Nightmare on Elm Street.” Now that they’re on Maple Street, expect “Mayhem on Maple.”
It was, in fact, at a Halloween party five years ago that Michael and Stephanie met. A mutual friend invited them to the party, intending to fix them up.
That friend, however, never showed up. Stephanie, who went to the party as a go-go girl, was bored and ready to leave. She noticed a man across the room dressed as a “handsome devil” and walked right up to him: “This party is boring. Do you want to come with me to a better one?” Michael said, “Yes.” They’ve been married a year now and have just finished building their first home together.
It was fate. diane.cowen@chron.com