Picture a house designed by John Muir and the Brothers Grimm, and you’ve got Stonehenge. Stepping through a boulder cavern, you spill out into a multi-tiered living room 23-foot-high. An 80-ton granite boulder forms one end of the living room; another slab of rock juts into the room’s center, sheltering the moss and ferns of an indoor pond. Its solarium overlooks snow-capped Mt. Tallac and the pine forests of Northern California’s Tahoe Valley. Talk about a room with a view.
“We were environmentally inclined, and wanted to bring the outdoors inside and out the other side,” said Will Twinings.
Will and his wife Rosemarie built Stonehenge on a rocky ridge bordering the Eldorado Forest, and lived here many years before opening it up to newlyweds, rock climbers and winter vacationers. Stonehenge is a great alternative to staying a standard ski lodge or cookie-cutter cottage. Located on Lake Tahoe’s south shore, the home is ten minutes from Heavenly ski area and adjacent to the new Washoe Meadows State Park.
The fingerprints of the Twinings’ imagination are everywhere. A boiler from an old saw mill was turned into a massive fireplace; the boiler’s pipes were recycled into a “chandelier” light over the balcony’s baby grand. Each bedroom centers on a different theme. The Greek room’s books and murals highlight ancient Greek myths; the Tyrolean room features Austrian memorabilia, a cow-bell lamp, and hay-strewn rafters. (Rosemarie, the Renaissance woman behind Stonehenge’s hand-carved pine cabinets, hails from Kitzduhel, Austria.) The wildlife, timberline and Mediterranean rooms are no less inventive.
It’s hard to see where the natural ends and human-made begins, even for the squirrels and birds that nest in the A sod roof is abloom with chives and daisies in summer.
The five-bedroom, four-bathroom house sleeps 12. An outdoor hot tub is maintained year-round, though the deck overflows with snow in the winter. The nightly rate is $500 plus 10% room tax; rates for longer stays are negotiable.
Contact Will, Rosemarie or Robin Twining at PO Box 9541, South Lake Tahoe, CA 96158, (800) 822-1460, stonehenge@sierra.com, www.tahoestonehenge.com.