
29 May Old Tahoe, New Light
A Malibu-based couple strives to retain the original 1920s spirit in their new lakefront estate
Authenticity. Itâs a concept oft aspired to and more often not completely fulfilled.
At the bottom of a winding driveway of four-inch-by-four-inch granite cobblestone in Carnelian Bay, though, sits a beautiful Old Tahoe manor come-to-life in a modern context. Just how did they achieve such detail-oriented authenticity? Four inches at a time, as homeowner Ron Jenny and others painstakingly laid out the cobblestone.
It all started 46 years ago, when Ron and his wife, Jane, honeymooned in South Lake Tahoe. They fell in love with the area and returned time and again, eventually buying or building homes on the North Shore. Every summer, the family made the trek from Malibu to Tahoe to be near The Lake and the pine trees.
âThis is almost a culmination of all those years of loving Lake Tahoe,â Jane says. âIt has always held a very special place in our familyâs heart.â

A large yard leads from the rear of the home down to The Lake, photo by Vance Fox
In 2008, the Jennys purchased Tewesi Manor, a lakefront property that included a 1920s Tahoe main house and a guesthouse. Although the original owners thought Tewesi meant âwelcome,â elders of the Washoe Tribe say it actually means âpeople from far away.â
While the Jennys never wavered from their decision to build an Old Tahoeâstyle manor, they spent four years living and entertaining in the main house as they took in all the seasons and faces of Tahoe, as well as the social and mechanical uses of the property. They knew part of the challenge would be preserving the existing beauty and history of the lot.
âWe wanted to save every one of our big trees,â says Ron. âThese are big Jeffreys that are all 100 years old or more. They just had to be saved.â
Not only did they design the house around the trees, they relocated and saved the main 1920s house, which now serves as a guesthouse, known as the âgingerbread cottage,â Jane says. Using steel beams and rollers, they rotated and pushed the 150-ton building to the back of the property, where what was previously a lakefront porch now faces inward. âIt all ties into the authenticity,â says builder Mark Neave of NSM Construction. âNot only did we try to build an authentic house, but we actually moved another authentic house that was borderline historic and saved it, kept it on the property.â

The home evokes some of Tahoeâs famed mansions, which the owners patterned the home on, photo by Vance Fox
The exteriors of the West Shoreâs Ehrman Mansion and the old Tahoe Tavern, both designed by architect Walter Bliss, inspired the Jennys and served as a jumping off point for their vision as they strove to incorporate details like turrets, dormers, angles and exterior colors and textures.
âThe Old Tahoe style is more of a design concept that Ron and I both were on the same page aboutâkind of a broad term to define something that was very specific in our mindâs eye,â says Jane.
From the beginning, Jane was at the creative helm of design. Not one, but two sets of plans were drawn upâa conceptual drawing and an architectural, structural drawing. âWe had beautiful conceptual drawings from our friend and designer in Hawaii, Rick Sifuentes, who did a beautiful rendering of the exterior elevations with all of the shingles, the rock, the shiplap, the posts; all of that was rendered by hand in regular sized drawings that became instrumental in the building,â says Jane.
Roland Messier, based in Incline Village with RAM Engineering, engineered the home and drew up a set of building plans.
NSM worked carefully to merge the structural drawings with the ownersâ vision for the home, building a structurally sound home while always keeping that conceptual drawing at the forefront. The Jennysâ presence on the property was crucial whenever the construction crew had questions.
âIt was a day-to-day, on-site, âwhatâs next?â There was constant collaboration. The project manager would say, âJane, is this the detail you were thinking of?ââ says Jane.

A curved window wall provides an excellent view from the master bedroom, photo by Vance Fox
No feature was too small: When Neave asked Jane what type of trim she wanted around the interior windows, they perused trim catalogues until they developed a unique design that stacked and attached several trims together, until the detail was perfect in Janeâs eyes.
Because of current structural and environmental codes, the team searched for creative workarounds to keep the authenticity of the traditional style. Typically, Old Tahoe mansions were built as summer homes and closed up in the winter, and thus didnât need much insulation. Building materials were limited 90 years ago, and modern building codes needed to be taken into account.
âParlaying authentic design into existing structural and building codes was something that took a lot of forethought,â Neave says.
The architecture and angles of the home, whether it was the floor plan or the roofline, all added to the challenges of building. Hammerbeam trusses adorn the main floor, providing a uniquely Old World aesthetic as well as structural support in the great room and dining room. Janeâs art studio lies tucked away toward the north end of the property, facing The Lake. A residential elevator spans from the cellar up to the second floor. Beautiful coffered ceilings and cabinetry painted in warm tones create a comfortable atmosphere in the kitchen, and a butlerâs pantry provides extra storage for when family is in town. The home has three pure-radius turretsâin the master bedroom, the staircase and the entrywayâwhich were very complicated to build, Ron says. The 18-foot radius staircase is the heart of the home, a spiraling masterpiece made of laminated curving wood and twisting steel. The lines of the landing and surrounding rooms echo the staircaseâs sweeping shape.
âThe home is laid out in a way that has a lot of connectivity from space to space,â says Neave. âThere is not one angle that is the same. All of the angles⊠create intimacy without just having this slab of glass along the front of a lake. Youâve created great views from every single room no matter where you stand, but in doing that youâve created all of these additional warm, cozy, functional spaces.â
âItâs almost like living in vignettes placed throughout the home, there are tons of cozy spaces,â adds Jane. âYou sit over there and you feel like, yeah, thatâs my little space.â

With views south over Tahoe, this Carnelian Bay lakefront home was a labor of love for the owners and
construction crews who built it, photo by Vance Fox
Even during the building process, the team kept this idea in mind. At one point, Ron saw an opportunity to move a dormer and create a perfect view of Mt. Tallac from the upstairs landing, and Neaveâs team was happy to comply.
âItâs nice as builders to have something thatâs unique and not cookie cutter in any way, shape or form,â Neave says.
Upstairs are two guest rooms and a game room complete with a shuffleboard table, which can be converted into a third bedroom. Ronâs office has a distractingly stunning view of The Lake through tall windows. A sun-soaked laundry room allows the Jennys to line-dry clothing, providing a touch of more Old World charm.
The master bedroom, situated in one of the homeâs three turrets, features a wall of windows surrounding the lake-facing side of the room, and is completed with several radial skylights. âAt night, you can see Heavenly and the lights from the [snowcats] grooming,â says Ron. âAnd as the sun comes up in different directions [by time of year] we get amazing sunrises.â If the view from inside isnât enough, the Jennys, also longtime campers, can step out onto an adjoining deck where they sometimes sleep under the stars during the summer. His-and-hers closets frame the hallway, and a tall-ceilinged master bathroom with a modern take on a claw-foot tub emphasizes the homeâs Old World elegance.

A claw-foot bathtub is the centerpiece of the light master bathroom, photo by Vance Fox
Jane designed an 18-light chandelier as well as all of the leaded glass windowsâmost notably in the master bathroom and in the entrywayâwhich JoAnneâs Stained Glass in Truckee built. Jane melded her interpretation of indigenous style with modern aesthetics to create a geometric pattern honoring the areaâs history with the Washoe. Old seeded glass and warped plate glass from the original guesthouse was salvaged and cut to fill the forged designs. The ironwork on the staircase and deck railings subtly echoes this same motif.
The house departs from the Old Tahoe style most in that the interior is exceedingly light. Abundant and sometimes unexpected skylights flood the home with natural light, creating a cheerful and inviting space.
For the interior, Jane preferred a simpler, cleaner design over the slightly frilly style of a traditional Tahoe estate. A classic black-and-white tile motif adorns each bathroom, yet each one is slightly different geometrically. Warm, rich ochres and umbers keep the spaces aesthetically cozy regardless of size.
The rock for the exterior finish and interior fireplaces was quarried on the property. Site-harvesting the masonry saved an enormous amount of money, says Neave, as did finding constructive ways to use reasonably priced materials in authentic ways. Extras like radiant heat help with efficiency. Medicine cabinets upstairs and china cabinets downstairs create a polished rustic aesthetic and are made of old window frames from the original guesthouse. Some of the furniture even shows the projectâs creative reuse of materials, such as the oval outdoor dining table created from the original support beams of the cottage that was moved.

Interiors were designed by the homeownerâan artist by trade, photo by Vance Fox
âThere are a lot of intricacies that go into building authenticity. Itâs easy to say, âI have an authentic Tahoe home,â but how authentic is it and how far are you going to hold yourself to that authenticity?â asks Neave. âA lot of people donât do [what the Jennys didâliving on-site]. You donât see results like this in many homes, where that level of thought and passion has gone into the design over a long period of time.â
He continues, âWhen you look at the sum of all the artisans that worked on this home, thatâs really what is creating that Old World charm. A lot of people arenât committed to taking it to that level… The craftsmanship is first class.â

A winding staircase curves up toward the homeâs bedrooms, photo by Vance Fox
With four children and their respective children, the Jennys hope that one day they will be able to pass this masterpiece on to the next generation.
âLiving on-site these past four years at this house, all our kids gone, and being at the stage in my life where Iâve actually gotten involved with the arts, teaching at the senior center, different communities⊠Tahoe has become like a first home,â says Jane. âIt is our hope and dream to see this remain in our family for generations to come.â And what could be more authentic Tahoe than that?
Award: Tahoe Style
Building Design: Rich Sifuentes, Roland Messier
Builder: NSM Construction
Interior Design: Homeowners
Square Feet: 5,857
Year Completed: 2013
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