Dan and Jenny Catone’s new home sits on a cliff — its primary color, a dark gray, is highlighted with pops of red and there’s a small “tower” on the top.

The house was designed by Jenny Catone who drafted the plans herself. She consulted with an architect and has been working closely with Tyler Hessenthaler of Powell-based TH Custom Builders. Dan credits a lot of the tiny details and artistic parts of the house to Jenny. The home has acid stained concrete floors, unique tile work that’s been laid by Jenny and a stucco wall with a pizza oven and fireplace adorned with hand painted tiles that she had commissioned by Dan Dalton as well as other unique flourishes. 

Some of the window and door frames are built with salvaged wood from old ranch structures that exist on Catone’s land.

“It’s part of the history of this area incorporated into the construction of the house itself,” Dan said.

The couple paid their children to gather wood from down the hill. Dan added that some of the wood was 2 inches thick, 12 inches wide and 16 feet long. Now the pieces of wood sit prominently in the house, some of the selected chunks used as shelving are still home to lichen that lived on the wood long before it entered a new life in the home of the Catones.

The rest of the house

The rest of Catone’s house is equally well built and designed. The rooms and halls are spacious, a captain’s ladder leads to a small tower where the family can look out over the prairie and towards the McCullough Peaks. The children’s rooms have large windows and upstairs balconies where they can also enjoy the view. At the ground level Jenny designed the house to be zero entry to accommodate Dan’s father who uses a wheelchair. There’s a guest room with walls that emulate the warm look of tanned leather and a zero entry shower. 

Moving downstairs, corrugated steel leads you into Dan’s “man cave.” Dan has a passion for cold war history and the stairs are meant to be a nod to that. When you get into the basement there is a wine cellar and in the bathroom there are hieroglyphics and pictures of Ra, the Egyptian sun god. Egyptology is another passion of Dan’s. He said that every year he picks a new topic to learn and several years ago he landed on Egyptology and has since fallen in love with the topic — he has even traveled to Egypt.

Tyler is professional, competent and thoughtful

The Catones could not be happier with Hessenthaler, who they described as professional, competent and thoughtful. They were introduced to Hessenthaler when he stabilized their first home on the same property, which was only partially completed by a separate contractor. While assessing their first home they met contractor Greg Anderson who told them that sadly the house was not salvageable. Anderson was unable to take the project but highly recommended Hessenthaler.

Jenny designed a new home from scratch with a different floor plan but they’re still using pieces from the old house like doors, cabinets and windows. They just gave their garage roof away to a friend.

“We’re trying to do a slow motion demo,” Jenny joked.

Dan and Jenny both appreciate Hessenthaler’s work as they’re racing against the clock to get into the new home.

“It’s just important with everybody to do a good job but with Dan and Jenny I think it’s important to make sure they’re happy with everything and in the know with everything,” Hessenthaler said.

He added that the Catone house has been a “way fun project” that isn’t an ordinary house, it’s important to take pride in what you are doing.

“At the end of the day give them something to be happy with,” Hessenthaler said.