Saddle Peak House
Saddle Peak House is a breathtaking modern vacation villa in Topanga Canyon above Los Angeles, overlooking the Santa Monica Mountains and the Pacific Coast.
Built for time travel, every detail is true to life in the 1800s!
Calistoga Estate
An experience of a lifetime deep in the heart of the Wine Country on 10 secluded acres.
Chef’s kitchen, wine bar, 75-foot deck cantilevered over infamous Humbug Creek, movie theatre. What more do you want?
The house is 200-foot from the bridge and parking lot. There is an electric cart for guests’ use to travel the short distance with ease.
What is the story behind the Calistoga Estate, what was your inspiration to create it?
I am an interior designer by profession and have created several other vacation homes but have never seen a property quite like this one. It really is breathtaking, with redwood trees up to five feet in diameter and a creek running through it, all in the middle of Northern California’s wine country. The lot appears in the Napa County assessor’s records and I think it was initially given for free with a subscription to the “San Francisco Examiner”.
When I bought it, the existing dwelling was not habitable and it took me many years before I tore it down and rebuilt it with what you see today. Sonoma County is tough when it comes to building permits, so the process took a long time!
In the late-19th century, Calistoga was a logging town, so I wanted to make the house true to that era and the region — outlaws, Indians and hunters. Calistoga is the name given to the covered wagons with hook-shaped canvas tops that you see in old movies and this was my inspiration.
I also designed the property along the lines of a LEED-certified building as I wanted to make it as green as I could. We have state-of-the-art septic, rainwater capture and greywater filtering, as well as backup generators and radiant heat in the floor. It’s really cosy and well insulated.
How would you describe the atmosphere and interior design of Calistoga Estate?
It’s Victorian but poor man’s Victorian — like a cowboy’s barn that is being rented out for the weekend! There are 27-foot ceilings in the main living space (which is massive) and many of the fittings are from the 19th century. Anything that I could source from the period, I did. For example, the light fixtures in the kitchen are 1800s gas lamps that have been converted. All of the wood is reclaimed, which makes the house feel older than it is, and we have a lot of books on the Wild West and the 19th-century forestry industry for guests to read.
The Calistoga Estate comprises the main building and a guesthouse, which is just a few steps away. Because I designed it with the purpose of being a rental property, the kitchen is very large with extra dishwashers and the closets are smaller than you would find in a residential property.
The house is located on a hill and cannot be accessed directly by car. From the parking area, you cross a footbridge and climb around 60 feet to the entrance or you can take advantage of our golf cart to get you and your luggage up there.
You enter into the main living, dining and kitchen space, which is all open-plan so that everyone can be together. On the same floor is a green room that we call the “puzzle room” and this can be equipped with two twin beds. Also on the ground floor is the octagonal master bedroom, which is decorated with antique furnishings. All of its walls are redwood and it is slightly cantilevered over the creek with a private balcony.
On the other side of the house behind the kitchen is a big pantry and along the front is a 70-foot deck that cantilevers towards the creek, with dining tables and a grill. On the lower level of the main house is a movie theatre with an 11-foot drop-down screen for watching old westerns or you can sleep more people down there.
In the main living space are stairs leading to two bedrooms (both with ensuite bathrooms) and a mezzanine balcony overlooking the kitchen, dining and living area. At the back of the mezzanine is a boardwalk that connects to the guesthouse where you’ll find three bedrooms and an enormous covered porch where you can sit and listen to the creek rushing. All of these bedrooms have private entrances and individual thermostats for heating and cooling.
The backyard has a big barbecue and a fire pit, which have become really popular in the region. In the summer, it can be 100 degrees in the day and drop to the 50s at night, so you can use the pit all year round. In total, we can sleep 14 at the house and all of the seating (both indoor and outdoor) accommodates at least 14 people.
Aside from the fire pit and barbecue, there is a big puzzle room with board games, a large hot tub in the backyard and we are planning an in-ground swimming pool soon. Our concierge service is complimentary — we can arrange wine touring, recommend transport providers or even plan an entire itinerary for your stay. We also have a caretaker who lives on an adjacent property if you need anything.
Almost anything else can be arranged for an additional charge — daily housekeeping, a private chef, masseuses, yoga classes on the deck or wine and olive oil tastings at the house. We work with some of the best sommeliers in the region!
Usually, we suggest that guests go out for lunch when they can enjoy the scenery while driving around, then have dinner at the house. Our recommended chefs can do farm-to-table dining, small-plate pairings and game (bison and elk), as well as slow food meals inspired by Alice Waters, who is considered the “Mother of the Slow Food Movement” in California. For a fee, we can also stock the house with groceries so guests can self cater.
Electric cart is provided for shuttling between the parking area and home entrance.
We can arrange amazing private lunches and tastings at small boutique vineyards, most of which are doing 2,000 cases or less a year. This means that most of the wine you are tasting never leaves the valley and is solely traded among the well-informed Napa population. Between lunch and dinner, we do private tastings with sommeliers at restaurants with really fabulous wine cellars.
Just a short walk from the house is Humbug Creek and a swimming hole that’s ideal in the summer months. If you’re an experienced cyclist, you can descend from the ridge into either valley (and we can bring you back up) or you can go hiking and cycling on the relatively flat trails within the valleys themselves.
The coastal part of Sonoma County is also worth visiting, with the opportunity to go zip lining through the redwoods, as well as surfing or parasailing. Because the water is quite cold, you do need a wetsuit but it means the beaches are not as crowded as those further south. You can also spend time exploring the coastal national parks or, if you stay for a couple of weeks, you could head north to Mendocino County and go hunting for wild boar, elk and black-tailed deer.
Every reservation comes with free concierge services if booked in advance. And the extent of activities are endless: winery touring and tastings, on-property private tastings, wine education classes, curated pairings with highly skilled chefs, or winemaker dinners. Our access to the most talented regional chefs guarantees meals of ultimate refinement including farm-to-table perfection if desired: on-site culinary classes: cooking call or demonstration, cheesemaking, olive oil tasting, pizza, and homemade pasta. Foodie Walking Tours of Napa, St Helena, Yountville, Healdsburg get behind the scenes of some of the region's famous restaurants or visit farms in our gorgeous countryside which are the source of this region’s world-famous cheeses and organic produce. Brewery visits and Cannabis Tasting abounds in the area.
The Calistoga Estate is positioned on a ridge on the border between Napa and Sonoma counties. The two valleys run parallel to one another and share a central mountain range. The property encompasses 10 acres and is accessed along a private road.
In around 20 minutes, you can be in the heart of either the Sonoma Valley or the Napa Valley. Calistoga is also 20 minutes away. It’s an old logging town that was settled by Italians in the early 19th century and still economically relies heavily on agriculture, as well as tourism.
The best restaurants are on the Napa Valley side in Calistoga or you can head seven miles south of Calistoga to St. Helena, which also has great restaurants.
We are open year-round but my favourite time is late-April at the end of the rainy season (December to March). Everything is so green and there are lots of wildflowers. Spring starts in February and temperatures are around 70 degrees and sunny, with all of the fruit trees in bloom. There’s also much less traffic on the country roads during this period.
In summer, things get more crowded and we have had wildfires in recent years. So much has burned that we hopefully won’t have fires in the near future and most of the grapes and wineries are still intact.
The property is also beautiful in the dead of winter, especially with the creek rushing, the rain dripping through the trees and the fire roaring.
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