DEER VALLEY — Owners of residences featured in the upcoming Luxury Home Tour of Park City apparently think big.
All of the homes on the tour are in the new Deer Crest development of Deer Valley.
If you're driving U.S. 40 near Jordanelle Reservoir, you might notice houses dotting the steep hillside on the west.
Looking up from the highway gives you an idea of scale. Even from a distance the homes loom large. Many of these mini-chateaux weigh in at 10,000 square feet or more.
Think of it as a Loire Valley in the mountains.
One of the featured homes belongs to Lee and Dina Rothman, formerly of Boca Raton, Fla. Dina Rothman is more than the home's owner. She was the interior designer.
Highlights of the 12,000-square-foot, four-and-a-half-story structure include a sauna, a steam room, an exercise room and a fireplace on the deck outside the kitchen. The deck, by the way, is heated.
Think chilly autumn evening. If the fireplace doesn't warm you up enough, on a deck a couple of stories down is an outdoor hot tub with a TV built into the wall for easy watching.
Aside from the panoramic view, which on a clear summer day is a study in blues and greens, Dina considers the staircase the home's pice de rsistance. The walnut and wrought-iron masterpiece of craftsmanship circles up four stories.
But it is the kitchen, where the Rothman's three daughters, two dogs and one rabbit can watch TV while Dina's cooking, that has captured her heart.
To create visual interest, the custom cabinets are made of two kinds of wood. The center island has dark alder cabinets. The rest of the cabinets are honey-colored cherry. The granite countertop on the center island has chiseled edges. The edges on the other countertops are finished. The refrigerator/freezer is disguised behind custom alder panels and drawer fronts that make it look like an armoire. And the cabinets along the back wall near the Viking stove are staggered. Although symmetrical, their fronts don't all line up on the same plane.
Dina said texture and color made all the difference in creating an elegant rather than rustic mountain home. Elegance is in the details, she believes.
For example, unlike the wood in many other upscale mountain homes, which is installed "au naturel," the wood in the Rothman home has been sanded and stained. Some of the wood, such as the newel posts on the stairway and a panel above the mantel in the living room, is decorated with hand-carving.
The walnut floor has planks of varying lengths and widths. The edges of each plank were hand-scraped, adding texture and dimension. The kitchen floor is tumbled travertine. Each piece of stone has a slightly different color and texture.
Dina added a softening touch with window treatments (Austrian blinds in the master bedroom, drapes in the living room) and rugs (in the dining room, in the living room and in front of the fireplace in the kitchen).
Furniture upholstered with textured fabrics in rich colors adds more softening and elegance.
The story of this home is one of happenstance. When Dina was skiing at Deer Valley a few years back, her touring guide took her to his favorite part of the resort, which is where Deer Crest is now taking shape. She was mesmerized by the panoramic view of Jordanelle Reservoir and the mountainous horizon beyond.
"I've been skiing since I was a little girl," she said. "I always had a dream to ski with my family."
She and her husband, a real estate attorney, built their Deer Crest home, which has ski-in, ski-out access on all levels, on speculation. "We intended to use it as a vacation home for a year or two."
Then, according to their plan, they would put it on the market.
Instead, they sold their residence in Florida and moved to the Beehive State, requiring an altitude adjustment of about 7,000 feet.
Dina became an interior designer by happenstance, too. She was an accountant for one of the Big Five. Then she worked at AIG as a DNO insurance underwriter. After meeting her husband, they moved to Florida and started a family. They became business partners as well, investing in high-end homes for which she did the interior design.
She went from numbers to color charts. From right brain to left brain.
"I always design a home as if I'm doing it for myself," she said.
Proceeds from the tour benefit Peace House Inc., a private non-profit that provides shelter services and community outreach for victims of domestic violence. Last year the tour raised more than $90,000.
"The luxury home tour is the largest donor of the Peace House, providing 20 percent of our operating budget," said Renee Wood, executive director of Peace House Inc. "It pays for legal, financial, medical, employment and housing assistance. Our mission is to make sure that women leave our shelter self-sufficient."
The Rothman home is No. 5 on the tour. Architect: Mammen Associates Architecture; builder: Yukon Construction; interior design: Dina Rothman.
If you go . . .
What: Luxury Home Tour of Park City
Where: Deer Crest
When: July 31; 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.
How much: $30 in advance; $40 at the gate
Phone: 435-658-4739
Directions: Meet at the lower Deer Valley Resort parking lot near Snow Park Lodge to register and purchase tickets. A shuttle will take you to the homes from there.
Also consider: Auction July 22, 4-7 p.m. at the Riverhorse on the Green (within Hotel Park City); Utah Symphony and Bela Fleck and the Flecktones at Deer Valley Amphitheater, July 31, 7:30 p.m.
E-mail: kclayton@desnews.com