Pinnegar House : 1962
5612 Kiva Drive, Carmichael, CA
Designed by Melvin R List
This is a house that Tony Natsoulas suggested might be a Carter Sparks (it's not). What it is though, is a wonderful residence with a drive under carport, front facade of windows, bent laminate roof beams and gorgeous 2" clear cedar tongue and groove decking.
Mr. Pinnegar, the original owner who still lives in the house, built the home in 1962. He was first a carpenter, then an estimator at Stoddard Construction and later a contractor. Stoddard Construction was one of the larger contractors that built Carter Sparks' custom homes in those days. Mr. Pinnegar was involved in a Carter Sparks home near the Golf Course off of San Juan (Wullfert : 1959 ??), and some projects in Woodland and Davis. He can't recall all the projects he worked on for Sparks, but remembered him as a great guy and a particular architect. His firm got burned a few times for cost overruns when Carters' specs turned out to be very exacting and frequently changing.
Research shows Architect Melvin R List was an engineer for the State of California, and later at Stoddard Construction where he spent much time pouring over Sparks' plans there. Apparently heavily influenced by Sparks' work, his design for the Pinnegar home includes such Sparks touches as a (near) double height door and exposed redwood framing surrounding a staircase with a door built into the framing. Mr List is still practicing architecture in Nevada.
Mr. Pinnegar recalled a old pencil factory on El Camino would supply their culls to Stoddard and Sparks to use as building materials. Sometimes they would take the culls (with imperfections) and re-mill them in such a way as to resemble "pecky" cedar as seen in such homes as the Steinberg House.
Kitchen cabinets are Teak, and adjacent Office cabinetry is Jerusalem cedar I believe. Original kitchen stove hood was a clear lucite tube. Mrs Pinnegar used to have an outdoor clothesline by the fireplace where she would make the short walk from the laundry room to the back deck to hang the clothes.
Thank you, Mr. Pinnegar, for the wonderful chat!
-- 8-23-2011
O: Mr and Mrs Fred C Pinnegar (Estimator @ Stoddard Construction)
For Sale, Dec 2018
Mr. Pinnegar
