The Good Place

Thanks to a few twists of fate, a Texas architect found a getaway that couldn’t have been more perfect if she had designed it herself

- LAURA KOSTELNY

A SUCCESSFUL Texas-based architect, Christy Blumenfeld had long intended to draw up her own plans for a vacation home on the banks of A Cedar Creek Reservoir, located about an hour from where she lives in Dallas. But years passed, and designing houses for clients kept getting in the way. Finally, her daughter took action and cold-called a real estate agent about touring a property. "She set up an appointment for us," says Blumenfeld with a laugh. "I told her I'd go, but I wasn't invested. I knew in my core that one day we would build a home for ourselves."

True to her word, Blumenfeld was prepared to keep her nose in a book on the day of the tour. But as soon as the agent steered them through the gates of the ranch, the idea of constructing a new build from scratch suddenly lost all its luster. "We were on this winding road through the woods. Then there was a clearing, and two horses came into view along with a giant spinning windmill, this incredible house, and the lake beyond that," Blumenfeld says. "We immediately started screaming."

While it was definitely love at first sight, two big coincidences made finding the property (which includes the spacious, guest-ready main house plus a boathouse and a barn) feel like kismet. “It turned out that Robbie Fusch, the architect who trained me for 10 years, designed this place," she explains. And once they walked inside, some very special artwork caused a full-on triple take. A decade before, Blumenfeld's husband had gifted her a Laura Wilson photograph of a cowboy's hand holding spurs. "It looks like my dad's hand. Laura printed only a dozen in that size," she says. "And there, hanging over the fireplace, was another one. That's when we knew this was meant to be."

CREATIVE HAVEN