As I opened my car door to get out at 15554 McElroy Road in Meadow Vista, Fergus, the resident 7-year-old Wheaton Terrier, greeted me with frenzied tail wagging and unstoppable, drooling kisses.
Brian Hassett, his master and owner of the artist retreat that has been home to him and wife, Maeve, for nearly a quarter century, gently pulls Fergus away and welcomes me to his modest two-bedroom home on nearly nine acres that, as urban legend has it, once served as a way station for stagecoach lines in the late 1800s.
We sally down a flagstone pathway through a wooden portico built by Hassett past a garden of bright white and soft purple blossoming plum trees yawing back and forth in a gentle breeze.
Stepping up on the long front porch deck that runs the length of the house, the 17th green of Winchester Country Club golf course is clearly visible in the distance.
As I turn to enter the front door, a colorful, subdued balance of yellow, green and orange piping on mostly unadorned natural wood is bordered by an auburn-tinted frame.
The colorful entryway is further accented by a half-moon of window panes at the top of the door, a vintage-styled gold door lever and a bluish gray hanging bell mounted on the door frame with pull chain and light metal fob.
At the entrance to the foyer a stark brown forged steel wood stove rests solidly on a brick pedestal that Hassett reconfigured to best accommodate the layout of the cozy living room and provide for toasty winter evenings and optimal energy efficiency.
Oak cut from their acreage by Brian Hassett has provided winter’s warmth for years. Durable golden oak flooring replaced ugly green carpeting decades ago.
The walls are festooned with a proliferation of Hassett’s artwork. Sun-dried oils to acrylics to metallic paint on canvas, and multiple geometric patterns are balanced by an Ansel Adams print.
Straight ahead through the dining room, floor-to-ceiling French doors open to the garden room, the nucleus of the Hassett home.
Originally a screened porch with indoor/outdoor carpeting, Maeve designed and Brian executed the plan for a marginal room that became the social center for family gatherings and a relaxed setting for early-morning coffee or an evening of wine for just the two of them.
Brian Hassett hired a skilled carpenter to retrofit the former corrugated metal roof, added skylights and installed a flagstone floor that is cool in the summer and warm in the winter.
The entire room welcomes in the season du jour through window walls on the two exposed sides of this artist’s cottage.
On a terrace off the master bedroom Brian and Maeve enjoy a hot tub year round under a plethora of pines looming high above, with an equal abundance of manzanitas, madrones and scrub oaks on their expansive land.
One end of the terrace holds a Mexican chimney pot for warmth on cool evenings.
When they first moved here 23 years ago, the vegetation was so thick it was pressed against the sides of the small 1,500-square-foot cottage that has swollen to more than 1,800 square feet with freelance renovations.
Brian Hassett has cut many trails and fire breaks over the near nine acres, and we hiked up to his favorite spot uphill a few hundred yards from the house which he calls the pinnacles.
As a young man, Hassett boxed and worked out in Newman’s Gym in San Francisco. In time the pugilist became a professor, earning a Ph.D in creative writing and teaching English at Sierra College. During the course of our interview, he gave me autographed copies of two books he authored, both scholarly and creative.
Not content with his life resumé, Hassett retired to the ease of an artist, and last year had a showing of his works at Latitudes in Auburn.
Hassett brings the same tenacity, sensitivity and gentility to his pact with the land where he lives.
He has deep emotional ties to the land and believes, “We never own the land, we are only caretakers. We can only add our small bit to the beauties of creation. It is very humbling to tend the land.”
Talking Houses runs occasionally in Gold Country Homes. Jerry Sellers is a Realtor with HomeTown Realtors in Auburn, he can be reached at (916) 871-8801, or e-mail him at seejerry@seehometown.com.
