A Family’s Carnival Legacy Is Incorporated into a Mediterranean-Style Home
Boasting Eco-Friendly Elements and a Focus on Outdoor Living
Written by Blake Miller | Photography by Dino Tonn | Courtesy of IMI Design
When Guy and Charlene Leavitt decided to build their dream home, they didn’t have to go far. In fact, just two blocks from the home they lived and raised their six children in over the past twenty-five years was a vacant lot that would become the setting for their three-bedroom retirement home. Consisting of four stunning acres—two of which are a preserve—in Ahwatukee, Arizona, a suburb of Phoenix, the lot backed up against the mountains, creating a picturesque backdrop for the finished home and guest house, boasting an underground firing range, swimming pool, and RV garage.
While the Leavitts wanted the house to accommodate their growing family—they have fifteen grandchildren—they had three main priorities that guided the project: First, the couple—who own Ray Cammack Shows, a full-service carnival company, which hosts nine of the largest fairs in the Southwest United States—wanted to incorporate both a Mediterranean style in the architecture and decor of the home as well as their respective families’ carnival backgrounds. Second, they wanted an eco-friendly home that utilized Smart technology and green building materials. Third, they wanted to maximize the outdoor living space so they could take advantage of Arizona’s mild spring, fall, and winter weather. To achieve this, the Leavitts turned to architect Joe Groff of CCBG Architects, who took their wish list and made it a reality.
One of Groff’s biggest challenges was making the home’s architectural detailing as authentic as possible. “Most of the challenge here was to achieve the proper level of patina necessary to achieve an old-world look,” says Groff of the home’s Tuscan-style façade. To create the look, Groff and his team salvaged timbers from a hundred-year-old barn to design the trusses, which are held together with heavy iron gussets in the main space, while a combination of rustic stone and stucco make up the exterior walls.
To achieve the Tuscan look on the interior of the home, the Leavitts enlisted the help of interior designer Anita Lang of Interior Motives, in Scottsdale, Arizona, who scoured the country for furniture and accents to add a taste of the Italian hillside to the home. Together with Lang and Groff, the Leavitts incorporated their carnival backgrounds into the decor and architectural details. Stained glass windows on the front doors of the home feature three carousel horses, while the bar in the great room boasts hand-carved replicas of brass horse poles from a merry-go-round. An oversize custom hand-painted tapestry rolls up and down to cover the television in the great room, and an antique merry-go-round stands in the family’s courtyard. “[Incorporating the carnival theme into the decor] meant a lot to the both of us because we both came from carnival backgrounds,” says Guy. An RV garage serves as a carnival museum boasting artifacts from the family’s years in the business.
Making the home eco-friendly was the second priority on the Leavitts’ list. Before they broke ground, Guy visited the lot on the longest and shortest days of the year at sunrise and then every two hours thereafter to chart the sun with a sundial. “The sun plays a big factor in how you live,” explains Guy. “It can be in your favor or against you if you don’t lay your house out right.” Based on Guy’s charting, Groff situated the home so that it would utilize the sun’s energy and then added large solar panels on the roof, which blended in to the Tuscan-style façade so as not to affect the architectural detailing. Sustainable cork flooring in the kitchen and recycled barn wood throughout the home are two other ways the Leavitts added eco-friendly elements to their home.
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