Is This The Best Modern House in California? (House Tour)

Hi, Ever House. My name is Giorgio Tsouros. You're in Saddle Peak House, Topanga, California. We're in Topanga, California, in Santa Monica Mountains. Designed by Michael Sant. It was finished in 2015. It faces the Pacific Ocean. The plot where it sits is very special. It has this gorgeous boulder that welcomes you. Everything about the house is designed around the boulder. Originally, when Michael got the plot, he pushed the land a little bit in order to fit everything properly. When you turn the corner from the boulder, the house and the pool reveal themselves. We first saw Saddle Peak House in publications in 2018, and we finally got to stay here in 2019. We fell in love with the house and contacted Michael Sant, expressing our love for the details and how perfect everything was. We met in person for coffee, and I expressed to him that if he ever thinks about selling it, I will be very interested. And for the past four years, I kept bugging him, and we stayed here three more times. Then finally, this past July, it became a reality. I really loved the space, and I didn't think it was going to happen. We kept giving this as an example to our realtor. We kept looking for the level of detail, the level of understanding, the location, the size, and that nothing is too flashy about it. Nothing came close. When we first stayed here that weekend, it was an incredible weekend. We kept dreaming about it. And then going through this process of four or five years of seeing all these houses, and now that it finally happened, it's like too good to be true. I still pinch myself that it's just like, hey, I'm actually here. I'm originally from Istanbul, Turkey. I've been in the States for quite a while now. I've been in the entertainment marketing business for a couple decades now, and I do movie marketing, movie trailers, TV shows. Besides that, I'm an entrepreneur with all other things, and I continue to paint, design. The house really captures the California living in its ultimate. When you're in the house, you're kind of like constantly exposed to the day, and nature, it's very calming. It faces west, so it gets a great light all day long. But it's really, it faces everywhere. So it gets the east light, the west light, and then it just does an incredible job of framing the nature. Total square footage is around 2,500 square feet. It actually has a studio in the entrance, and then the main house. The main house has three bedrooms, and then the studio has another bedroom and a living room. Michael did an incredible job of producing the materials, which I really love. It's just board-formed concrete, grappa wood, glass, and steel. That's why I fall in love with the house. Craftsmanship is incredible. With all the board-formed concrete, it's very grounded into the earth, but at the same time, it has this airy, floating feel to it. So when you look either west in, or when you're inside the pool, it has a floating idea. It's really beautiful. The entire house is one wood species, the grappa. Inside, the outside, the door frames, everything is from the same Brazilian wood. The house does the juxtaposition of hard and soft and cold and warm really well. It's so reduced down to essentials, but yet it captures everything effortlessly. The way Michael designed it has this quietness, quiet architecture that he says it is minimalist and simple in a sense. You don't really have anything that you don't really need. It really clears your mind. There's no clutter. It's very, very clean, but it's very warm at the same time. It gives you different feelings in different times. The summer is very different than the winter, but overall, I think it's the calmness it creates. It really gives you a space to think. You're very high from the ocean, and then beautiful roads. That's another thing for me because I love driving these canyons. That was a part of the reason when I found out about the house, where it is, and it's just like all these canyons that I love driving. So that was even extra special. Getting up here, it's kind of a pleasure for me. My normal life, it's very busy nonstop, so coming up here, meeting with friends and family, it really gives you this very peaceful state of mind. The way the house captures the nature, you don't really feel like you need anything. When you look at one side, and you almost feel like you're in the desert in Joshua Tree, you turn around and you look at the ocean, and that's a completely different feeling, and then you're down below and surrounded by all the greenery, and then that has a very different feeling. It's really like indoor-outdoor living in a way that you're inside the house, but you constantly feel like you're out in the nature. When I open both doors and close the screens, then you have this constant circulation, and then you can open the different sides of the house, so it constantly breathes. Most of the days, even when it's really hot, and if you do it properly, you really feel like you're just feeling the ocean breeze. Yes, it gets hot, but with the right controlling, it's pretty incredible, and you can always jump into the pool. Michael's vision for the house was sharing the architecture. I'm a new custodian for the house, and I continue to share this place and this architecture. Some things are really worth waiting for. This, I think, is a great example. Now it's finally here, and I'm just like, there was a reason for four or five years of waiting for something like this to happen. Yeah. Subscribe to the Everhaus channel by clicking on the logo to receive updates on our latest episodes.