Marin Home / BACKSTORY
On the main floor, for example, he sourced
100-year-old redwood from a mill in Ukiah.
“We put it on the ceilings and on the floors to
give the space a tavern-like feel.” The kitchen
also got a redesign, with an island at the center
fashioned from a vintage mercantile counter
retrofitted with a soapstone top.
The biggest structural change: Scott
knocked down a wall between the main home
and an attached guest cottage. The cottage
“used to have its own kitchen, but I got rid of
it and repurposed the area into a master suite
with a TV room, and billiard’s room.”
Scott’s soft goods choices are as integral
to the home’s design as the architectural
details. In the billiards room, for example, the
bookshelves — repurposed rope ladders from
an old ship — were procured from an antique
fair. Other flea market finds include a wasp’s
nest and a mounted deer head. The cobra skin
pelts, which hang off a post in the living room,
come from a trip Scott’s dad took to Africa.
What truly makes the home exceptional,
however, is the transformation of the outdoor
spaces. Bifold doors off the dining room open
to a deck with a poured concrete bar and grill
area, a steel fire pit, and a Balinese-inspired
pergola. But that’s just the beginning. The
18,600-square-foot property also includes a
pool, a henhouse, several rope swings and even
a zip line. “It goes down the hill and over a creek
to the far end of the property,” Scott says. “My
daughter uses it to shorten her walk to school.”
Future plans include a pool redesign.
For the moment, however, Scott decided to
embrace the pool’s retro vibe. “I found an old
pool slide from a guy in Sacramento through
craigslist,” he says. “The guy said ‘if you pick
it up, it’s yours for free.’ ” More proof that one
man’s junk truly is another man’s treasure. m
OVER THE YEARS, realtor Scott Kalmbach has bought, rehabbed and resold a dozen properties. He planned to do the same to a three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-
bath Mill Valley fixer-upper he and his business
partner purchased together two years ago.
“Our intent was to remodel and expand the
property,” Scott says. “But I fell in love with the
place and decided to buy my partner out so I
could make it my family home.”
Scott executed his style — let’s call it bohe-
mian wine country — on both the macro and
micro levels. “I used to have a home up in
Healdsburg, which we ended up selling, but
the idea was to make it feel like we had a little
bit of Sonoma here in Marin.”
And while he didn’t end up expanding the
footprint, every surface, every fixture and
every cabinet was swapped out or refinished.
