Houston Couple Trades Santa Fe for Hill Country Vacation Home
Diane Cowen, Staff writer
Houston Chronicle // Lifestyle // The Page
April 27, 2021 1:30 p.m.
When Candy and Tom Knudson saw the wide-open sky and panoramic views from the site of a spec home ready for construction at the Boot Ranch golf community in Fredericksburg, they were smitten.
Tired of the drive from Houston to their Santa Fe, N.M., vacation home, they already were thinking of what their next move might be. They simply had no idea they’d stumble onto it so easily.
The couple had gone to the Hill Country to see a plaque dedicated to Tom’s father, Angus “Gus” Knudson, in a memory garden at the National Museum of the Pacific War. They remembered hearing about Boot Ranch in golf magazines and in TV commercials during PGA tournaments.
“We kept hearing about Boot Ranch, so I said, ‘We’re here, let’s go look at it,’” Candy said. “We went on a Friday, and by Saturday, we’d signed a contract.”
“We are impulse shoppers,” Tom added.
After 15 months of construction, the home was finished, and Houston interior designer Sarah Eilers of Lucas Eilers Design Associates — who consulted with the Knudsons on their main home in River Oaks — helped them finish and furnish the vacation home.
As young teens and tweens, their grandkids have lots of activities keeping them at home, but the Knudsons hope it will be easier for them to visit come summer.
“It’s a nice drive there, through wineries and distilleries and peach tree orchards,” Tom said, noting that their goal is to someday spend half of their time in Boot Ranch. “Your breathing slows when you get close. We love it there.”
Around the world and back
Candy is a third-generation Houstonian who went to St. John’s High School and returned from college in Florida for a career as an educator.
Tom is also a Texas native but grew up all over the country as the son of a Navy pilot. His dream was to be a Navy pilot like his father, so he studied aeronautical engineering at the U.S. Naval Academy, then served in the Vietnam War, flying 170 missions before leaving the service in 1974. His father flew missions from the Philippines to Iwo Jima during World War II.
Tom went to work for ConocoPhillips in Houston when he returned, and when he and Candy married, he thought they’d settle down here. Soon, though, they were transferred to Wyoming, then Delaware. They went overseas to Stockholm for a few years and then to London.
In their 70s and married 41 years now, the Knudsons have a blended family that includes three children — son Chris Knudson of Virginia and daughters Clare Cooper and Rainey Knudson of Houston — and six grandchildren between them. (Rainey Knudson is the founder of the arts e-magazine Glasstire and was married to the late Michael Galbreth, one of the Art Guys.)
When they finally returned to Houston, they figured they’d stay put for a while, which meant a vacation home would be worth the investment. For four years they had a place closer to home in Bentwater in Montgomery County, before shifting to Santa Fe.
Fredericksburg is a four-hour drive instead of a 14-hour drive, and it still feels like a vacation destination, with its wineries and distilleries and the scenic route to get there. The Boot Ranch Clubhouse offers plenty more to do, with golf courses, a swimming pool, fitness center and restaurants.
The location has less humidity than Houston and cooler temperatures at night, so it’s drawing full- and part-time owners from Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, among other cities.
When she saw the floor plans for their home, Candy thought they were nearly perfect. They altered plans a bit to add a bunkroom to the guesthouse and a home office in the main house for the work Tom does on boards of the U.S. Naval Academy Foundation, the National Council of the Methodist Hospital Neurological Institute and the National Association of Corporate Directors, Texas Tri-Cities Chapter.
The limestone and wood home on 1.3 acres fits with homes that historically populated Central Texas, either dog-run style or homesteads with a main house and outbuildings. Theirs has a main house of 2,500 square feet, which serves the couple well on a day-to-day basis, plus a guesthouse with an additional 1,500 square feet for visitors — two bedrooms, a bunkroom, bathrooms, a kitchenette and laundry room.
Hill Country shift
When the Knudsons called Eilers about their new project, their Santa Fe furniture had already been put into storage. During their European posts, the couple collected antiques, first in a clean Swedish style and then the Georgian lines of classic English design.
“We’ve loved buying things in the places where we have lived,” Tom said. “In the three years we lived in Sweden, we bought antiques and art. The same in London and Santa Fe, particularly art. There are things in this house from all of those places.”
They like deep colors, including reds and blues, and included them in this new home.
Using an inventory of what was in storage and photographs that showed most of the furnishings, Eilers set out to create a furniture floor plan, deciding what to reupholster and where to put rugs, furniture, art and accessories. She helped choose finishes, wallpaper and paint colors, too.
Red makes a strong appearance in cabinets in the main house powder bathroom and laundry room, and in backsplash tile in the guesthouse kitchenette.
Though one guest bedroom has a rug and bedding with plenty of red, most of the rugs bring more neutral tones to the rooms. In the main living area, the kitchen is filled with neutrals in counters, backsplash and stained-wood cabinets. Its dining area has a dark wood table and chairs reupholstered in a blue print, plus living room furniture redone in neutrals, with just a pop of red in side chairs.
In addition to finding colors, prints and materials that felt like they belonged in a Hill Country vacation home, Eilers considered the needs of the family’s three generations who might come in from playing golf, swimming, fishing or just taking a long walk. Fabrics and rugs had to be durable and able to handle lots of use.
“We use the same principles as a primary home. It has to be comfortable and durable,” Eilers said. “And as a second home, when you’re there, you’re there to relax. We look at all the bedding; you have to be able to throw it in the laundry.”
A thick beam of mesquite wood serves as a fireplace mantle and sits beneath a painting by Daniel Gerhartz, an artist from whom they’ve bought several pieces.
Eilers developed a plan for the art, as well, and found some sweet new pieces for the primary bathroom: pressed Texas wildflowers by Lauren Lachance.
For the primary bedroom, a spot with a great view, they opted for soft-neutral colors and bought new furniture, a four-poster bed — upgrading from a queen to a king — nightstands and a pair of comfortable armchairs.
They had fun with drapery fabric and wallpaper, from hot-air balloons in the laundry room to flying geese in a guest bedroom.
“It’s been hard going through a greige phase because I adore color,” said Candy, as she launched into a description of the grandkids’ bunkroom, which started out with a request for some red and ended up fairly patriotic.
Now the room has wall-to-wall Stark carpet with white stars on a navy blue background, and the twin-size beds have red-white-and-blue quilts, plus ottomans covered in an American flag motif and decorative pillows with the Texas state flag.
The bunkroom ceiling is painted sky blue. “We were trying to do something fun in there,” Candy said.
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