JOPLIN, Mo. – Marriage is about compromise. It may sound like a schmaltzy turn of phrase but sayings like this do come from a place of truth. The give and take of a relationship is important. Usually that involves going along with something your partner wants to do when you’d rather not. Or sometimes it means letting your spouse pick a decoration for the house that you may not be particularly keen on.
For one Joplin couple, that compromise manifested itself as two additional wings catering to the couple’s different tastes. This unique, $2.95 million estate—think Blake Shelton and Gwen Stefani, but as a house—went on the market earlier this month.
The homeowners met in college and routinely visited the local Barnes & Noble for coffee. They’d sift through architectural magazines to pick out features and styles, and collect the magazine clippings in a “dream home book” of sorts. After marrying in 2004, they bounced all around the country—he was a doctor, she was a dentist—before moving into the doctor’s childhood home in Joplin.
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The Cape Cod-style home, built in 1978, had five bedrooms and four bathrooms. But as their family grew with the addition of five children, the couple decided to expand their home. Following a partial renovation in 2015, complete with hand-painted Gracie wallpaper, they agreed to not one but two new wings of the home that would accomodate their hobbies and styles.
The woman said her husband, who loves hunting and taxidermy, wanted a place where he could display his trophies and tap into his rustic sensibilities. But she needed to create her own sanctuary where she could relax and unwind in comfort in a Parisian atmosphere celebrating her love of fashion.
(Courtesy: Sky High 360 Photography)
Inspired by her trips to Paris, she consulted with architect Patrick Fox to manifest the couple’s newly-built primary suite (the middle wing) into a tribute of fashion empire Dior. The suite’s brass and iron staircase is a replica of the haute catoure salon at 30 Avenue Montaigne. The glorious chandelier hanging from the suite’s 18-foot coffered ceiling is reminiscent of the fixture located in the Hôtel Plaza Athénée across the street from Dior. She also designed the crystals hanging from the ceiling and her husband installed them.
This wing also holds a theater room with wall art celebrating the Moulin Rouge, as well as a wine room. And while the wine closet is certainly a site to behold, the room’s most striking feature is mounted around the door jamb – an ornate piece of wood salvaged from an old ticket booth for the French omnibus.
The guest wing—designed and built for the husband—evokes a hunter’s lodge showcasing a towering 4-sided open fireplace, a 30-foot tall kiln-dired pin oak tree, reclaimed Ozarkeology wood, and a Mennonite-crafted floating staircase and solid wood beams. The “drip lighting” scones and chandelier were constructed with hand-blown glass antique pipes.
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The backyard features an infinity pool and hot tub, as well as an 18,000-gallon koi pond and a functioning 16’ water wheel built in North Carolina and shipped cross-country. St. Louis landscape architect Ted Spaid designed the look of the 3.5-acre lot. With a home this big, the property has two separate two-car garages, one of which doubles a workspace for the husband to perform his taxidermy.
The primary suite and barn wings are connected by a glass bridge. The custom glass floor was made by Jockimo, which developed the flooring used in the observatory atop One World Trade Center.
The mansion—dubbed Red Tail Falls Estate—expanded to 11,200 square-feet, 65% of which is from the new primary suite and the barn/lodge wings.
The Detar Lagow Greer Real Estate Team is handling the listing.