Lapp RiverHouse New Years 2013

I live with my husband Greg Lapp on the Kings River in Piedra, California in an amazing, yet efficient organic home designed by Arthur Dyson, who apprenticed under Frank Lloyd Wright, Bruce Goff, and William Gray Purcell.  Not only that, but my late husband Dennis Lencioni and I built a Dyson home in the Sanger Riverbottom.  Living in these spaces inspires me every day.

Lencioni Home balcony

When my late husband Dennis Lencioni and I were in our twenties and we built this unusual organic home, some people “got it,” and others assumed it was a phase of youth.  Amid accolades and jest, I was content to know the home influences and inspires those who live in it, that it’s an embracing and stimulating space.

In another season of life, children grown and outgrowing the Lencioni Residence, Greg Lapp and I embarked on a second home designed by Arthur Dyson.  We’re teachers, not wealthy patrons of the arts, so some friends shook their heads.  Why go to the time, trouble and expense?–we could buy a Tuscan Mansion in a gated community, much larger and probably for less.  This entire work is devoted to the answer to their question:  because it’s worth it.There’s no denying that the Kings River is an inspiration in itself–and the Sierra foothills that surround us, but this house engages us with the setting, rather than separating us from it.  This is the view north during construction.  The view isn’t much different with walls as most north-facing walls are windows.