Home is Where the Wine is

Neighborhood, housing market factor into HGTV Dream Home location

The HGTV Dream Home team set its sights west toward California wine country in search of the site for the 2009 project.

So, HGTV Dream Home planner Jack Thomasson headed west to Northern California and eventually found himself scoping the streets in the city of Sonoma.

“Sonoma is just a charming, beautiful town,” Thomasson says. “The moment you’re pulling down Broadway and you see the town square in front of you with city hall, you know you’re entering into a place that’s pretty special with a kind of dynamic quality about it because there are all kinds of pedestrian activity: families walking through the square, young couples and picnics. It’s just a scenic, idyllic place, and it just felt like it would be a great place for the 2009 HGTV Dream Home.”

Not many know more about Sonoma’s tight community spirit — and layout — than developer Steve Ledson, who was born here. “I can walk to the church. I can walk to the restaurant. I don’t have to get in my car. This is a more quiet, peaceful town. Everybody here knows everybody. We don’t have to worry about locking our doors around here. It’s a family-style life. So many cities — because of the amount of people [in them] and the way the world’s going — have lost that family touch. But I believe here in Sonoma, through our schools and through our close-knit neighborhood, it’s a great lifestyle.”

In addition to the town’s warm, close-knit spirit that attracted the HGTV team to Sonoma, the beauty of the surrounding area also tipped the scale in its favor. “The town of Sonoma is surrounded by beautiful mountains, and when you get there — especially in the upper elevations of a house — you can capture those views,” Thomasson says. “But this year, we traded the traditional HGTV Dream Home view for this amazing town of Sonoma. But we didn’t have to trade too much because the town is that special, and the views are here.”

Location is King

The 2009 HGTV Dream Home will mark the program’s first venture into California. “You know, there are a lot of permitting requirements and things that take a lot of time. But this year we were able to get ahead of that curve, find this great location here in Sonoma, and start at the beginning and design a house that was made to be a Sonoma house.

“I’ve traveled the world. I’ve been on a lot of great vacations. I’ve really enjoyed my life, but I’ve never found anything quite like Sonoma. I can be snow-skiing in two hours and 30 minutes from here. I can be over at the ocean in less than an hour. I can be in San Francisco seeing a play or going to one of the finest restaurants in the world in 45 minutes,” Ledson says.

Designing the Perfect Vintage

Wine-country lifestyle, historical design influence HGTV Dream Home’s look

Once the lot was chosen for the 2009 HGTV Dream Home, it was time to design it. The design process began with a drive through Sonoma to get a sense of authentic Sonoma homes. It wasn’t long before the design started taking shape.

First, HGTV Dream Home planner Jack Thomasson described his vision to developer Steve Ledson, who made a few sketches. The rough drawings were taken to draftsman Norm Oliver, who has been friends with Ledson for more than 30 years. Oliver created the documents that guided builder Bruce Lee as he and his crew began building the house.

Located within an established community, the HGTV Dream Home needed to blend in, which was the primary driver of the home’s design. “We found a house actually located really close to the square. We studied the pitches, the angles, the dimensions, the proportions. And we used that house to help us design a house that was inspired by historical Sonoma, but that was also in keeping with what we’d want in an HGTV Dream Home,” Thomasson says.

Sonoma Living

The lifestyle of California wine country had a tremendous influence on the design of the home. The team’s goal was to create a house that fits into wine country, but also fits into a planned community, Thomasson says.

The house is inspired by the way Sonoma residents take advantage of the fabulous weather and spend much of their time living outdoors. “So we have great porches on this house. We’re going to have some great outdoor spaces in our landscape. And then you carry that inside the house. We’re going to have a phenomenal kitchen, for example, because this place is about feasts, wine and entertaining,” Thomasson says.

Entertaining is a big part of Sonoma living, but there’s more to it than that. For example, a drive through the Sonoma neighborhood reveals the lack of cars on the streets and the peace that results, said Ledson, who developed the community.

“We put the garages in the back, so you don’t see the cars. And if a guy has the garage door open, working in his garage, you don’t see what’s going on.

“When you come home in the evening, you can sit on your porch and be a neighbor like when I was a kid. People will be sitting on their porches having a glass of wine,” Ledson says.

The Kitchen

A big part of Sonoma life is a home’s kitchen, which means the kitchen in this home will be well equipped, said Linda Woodrum, interior designer, who has worked on every other HGTV Dream Home project. “It’s a fabulous cook’s kitchen with amazing appliances; a 48-in. stove, great big hood, two refrigerators, two wine refrigerators, two dishwashers. It goes on forever. It’ll be pretty amazing. But that’s in the future. So right now when you walk in, it’s kind of typical. But I want you to know in a couple of months, it’s going to blow you away,” Woodrum said.