Pate’s Place A 100-year-old granary becomes a charming guesthouse and a family legacy in the hands of a father-daughter duo
Story by Mary Barthelme Abel
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Photography by Heidi A. Long
FACING PAGE: The Pate ranch is located in Montana’s Paradise Valley, just north of Yellowstone National Park and flanked by the Absaroka and Gallatin mountain ranges. THIS PAGE: With the exception of a new front door, this granary-turned-guesthouse maintains the early-20th-century structure’s original materials palette. Its rustic exterior conceals a surprisingly modern interior. The natural plantings are by Native Landscapes & Reclamation.
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CONSTRUCTION BY Northfork Builders LANDSCAPE DESIGN BY Native Landscapes & Reclamation
“A labor of love” is how Amy Hyatt describes the painstaking process
THIS PAGE: In the kitchen, concrete floors complement stone and plaster walls, and galvanized steel surrounds reclaimed wood cabinetry. Simple open shelving and sleek below-counter appliances keep the small space from feeling cluttered. FACING PAGE: Once a one-level, dirt-floored, structurally unsound granary, the renovated guesthouse is now a sturdy, well-designed retreat for family holidays.
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of transforming a worn early-20th-century granary into a welcoming place for her family to relax and enjoy Montana’s glorious summer months. It began when Hyatt’s father, Richard S. Pate, decided he wanted to spend his golden years on a ranch and began scouring the West for the perfect property. He eventually discovered nearly 200 acres in Paradise Valley, Montana, just north of Yellowstone National Park. “He loved it right away,” Hyatt recalls. Once a working cattle ranch, the property was dotted with old structures: a log cabin built in 1934 (and previously owned by Peter Fonda) and several rundown outbuildings, including a granary. It was almost perfect, but Pate and Hyatt feared the main cabin would be too small to accommodate the entire family. So, after Pate purchased the property, the pair made plans to add a guesthouse. At first, they considered building a brand-new bunkhouse, but Pate had his eye on the crumbling granary. He thought a little structural reinforcement and a good scrubbing would save it, but it quickly became apparent that a much larger project was in store. “The more we got into it, the more we had to take it apart,” says Jon Evans, co-owner of Bozeman-based Northfork Builders. “We ended up dismantling the entire building, including craning off the roof.” Despite the extensive renovations, the granary’s original form, footprint and many of its building materials were preserved. And while the structure’s shell displays a traditional rustic style, the interior of the 1,200-square-foot space reflects Hyatt’s vision of something fun, modern and industrial. >>
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“ we wanted a casual, fun party place. the living
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room ... is a place where people can put their feet up. Amy Hyatt
small space, big style Making a small space live large can be a lofty goal, but this simple granary’s design team accomplished it with the help of these rules: Limit interior walls An open floor plan might be the easiest way to make a small space seem bigger. Here, the kitchen and living areas occupy one room; the owners even nixed a downstairs bath to avoid additional walls. Maximize outdoor space When there’s an opportunity to connect with an adjacent outdoor living space, take it. Hyatt lobbied for the granary’s folding-glass wall system that connects the living room to a patio, even though it was expensive and requires maintenance. Furnish like a minimalist In a gathering space, it can be tempting to opt for an oversized sectional, but smaller, clean-lined, leggy furnishings take up less visual space. Add an upholstered coffee table and a few small ottomans, and there will be seats for all.
ABOVE: The living room, which opens to the kitchen, is “a place where people can put their feet up,” Hyatt says. The comfortable leather sofa was selected first, then paired with modern gray chairs and a tufted coffee table. “We added the television,” Hyatt says, “but no one ever watches it.” All furnishings and accessories are from Montana Expressions. FACING PAGE, FROM TOP: Jon Evans and his team at Northfork Builders realized Hyatt’s dream of a floating staircase. A cozy stone hearth warms an inviting outdoor pavilion.
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this was dad’s dream and vision. “there’s not a piece of the property that doesn’t remind me of him.” Amy Hyatt
CLOCKWISE FROM NEAR RIGHT: For the guesthouse’s two identical bedrooms, Hyatt chose a quiet gray palette, curtain-free windows (“the views from the bedrooms are phenomenal,” she says) and minimal furnishings. The granary is built into a hillside, which protects it from sun and wind. Like the kitchen, the bath features a mix of rustic and modern design elements, highlighted by a custom concrete sink with “waterfall” detail. A beautiful, classic red barn is just one of the many outbuildings on the property.
The design began in the kitchen, where clean lines create a dramatic contrast with the room’s Montana stone walls, dark wood ceilings and rustic, live-edge wood slab bar. Jerrad Inlow of Elements Concrete devised many of the room’s clever custom details, including open shelving, a range-top cutting board and a unique concrete countertop that’s actually a lighted trough. “You fill it with ice and drinks and as the ice melts, it runs down the side, creating a waterfall,” Hyatt explains. A floating staircase creates a dramatic focal point for the open living space. An engineering marvel, it was a feature upon which Hyatt had insisted. “I think she had wanted that forever,” says Evans, who enlisted Custom II Manufacturing to fabricate its metal structural plates that are embedded in the granary’s new foundation. Three-inch-thick reclaimed-oak stair treads are welded onto the plates but appear to be suspended in mid-air. Upstairs, a pair of bedrooms and a bathroom have a soft gray color palette and coverless windows that allow views of the scenic valley to
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take center stage. The bath features more design ingenuity from Inlow, who created a concrete sink that drains with a “waterfall” effect. The stylish simplicity of these spaces belies the scale of the effort that went into creating them. Evans admits that there was a moment when everyone wondered if the work—and expense—of rebuilding the granary was worth it. “We even paused during construction and reconsidered a new building,” he says. “But now we’re thrilled that we moved forward with it.” Sadly, Richard Pate passed away just two years after the renovation was completed. But though his time on the property was much shorter than expected, Hyatt says, “He did enjoy it. He enjoyed every second of everything we did there.” These days the family gathers on the ranch, usually for the month of July, to celebrate Pate’s birthday—July 4—and the sweeping western landscape. “This was Dad’s dream and vision,” Hyatt says. “There’s not a piece of the property that doesn’t remind me of him.” o
For a guide to this home’s products and pros, visit mountainliving.com/patesplace.
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