Bayside Pair Are Minding Their Manor
When Barbara Harris designed her 5,400-square-foot English Manor home on Harbor Island Drive, she had more than aesthetics in mind.
“All the men in this family are over six feet tall,” she said, laughing. “I couldn’t see some delicate French design, and Italian didn’t quite work. English is heavy, a little more masculine, with sturdier chairs to go with our guys.”
From the cellar with its walk-in safe to the rooftop entertainment area that seats 40 people, this home combines function with beauty. Six fireplaces, four bars and seven televisions blend with the massive English antiques scattered throughout eight rooms and four bathrooms. Every possible square inch of storage space is utilized. All glass is beveled, all openings are arched, and all doors and doorways are rounded.
It’s also a house full of surprises.
Secret wall panels hide small closets. Buttons move a stained glass window and a chandelier, and pop open a door disguised as a bookcase. A dumbwaiter that starts in the basement moves food from the kitchen to the second-floor hall and roof. Literary sayings are etched into marble hearth insets and each ceiling is unique.
The house is modeled after those that Barbara, a former interior designer, and husband, Ben Harris, an apartment developer and concrete-block manufacturer, have admired on their frequent trips to England since marrying 15 years ago.
Before moving into the house in 1990, the couple, who have six children--five boys and one girl--from former marriages, lived for 13 years in a house they built down the street. It was one of 62 homes that line Promontory Bay, a body of water between Bayside Drive and Balboa Island. Although they were happy with that house, they wanted to make some changes and remodeling was impractical, they said.
They had eyed a vacant lot owned by former Irvine Co. President Peter Kremer, who lived two doors away from the lot and planned to build on it, Ben Harris said.
“One day, I saw (Kremer) working on his house,” Ben Harris said. “I just stopped in and in about 15 minutes, we made a deal and shook hands.”
A crew spent six months framing the house, then five carpenters spent 2 1/2 months remodeling the framing by curving all openings that were square, bullnosing all corners and making and installing the 5-foot-high oak panels that line the living room and extend up the stairs to the entry hall.
“Wood had to be soaked and bent and laminated,” Ben Harris said. “Everything was handmade right here.”
The Harrises started construction in January, 1989, and completed the work in August of the next year. They didn’t mind the wait, Barbara Harris said.
“This,” she said, sitting in her living room, “is it. It’s everything I’ve always wanted.”
he living room, with its sweeping nautical view, opens onto an outdoor dining area for small parties. That area is elevated from the rest of the patio to save going up and down steps when entertaining, therefore makes serving easier. Also, the added height helps the Harrises see over the boats when the tide comes up.
From there, steps lead to the Indian slate-covered patio with fountain, sink, stove and barbecue. The planter box is built of stone imported from Guadalajara, as is the cornice around the home’s exterior.
Steps also lead down to the dock, where the Harrises keep four boats--two electric “cocktail” boats for parties, a 28-foot sailboat for leisurely cruises and a 44-foot motorboat called “Cabo Fever” for fishing local and Mexican waters.
From the living room, with its Italian marble floor, signed Persian rug and copper ceiling imported from England, Barbara pointed to the leaded arches over the patio doors.
“When the water is rough, the sun comes in and the light dances on the floor,” she said. “It’s a prism effect--so beautiful.”
Also in the living room area are a bumper pool table and the Harrises’ English pub, complete with a wood sign, glasses, towels and napkins that all sport the couple’s personal crest. A stained glass window etched with Barbara’s maiden name (Burton) and Ben’s last name was copied after a window the couple saw in an English pub.
The oak bar took a month to build. It has shell-backed oak bar stools, a television and a telephone. A professional bar dispenser squirts cranberry juice, soda water, Diet Coke, 7-Up and tonic water. Beneath the bar is redwood grating that camouflages a stainless steel floor. Liquids from cleaning or spills flow from the floor into a central drain.
Around the corner from the bar is a large bookcase full of treasures collected on travels to China, Russia, Europe, Japan, Alaska, Antarctica, Australia and the Amazon.
The living room’s massive antique oak fireplace mantel is from Winston Churchill’s summer home, the Harrises said. Both the fireplace and the mantel were moved from the Harrises’ former house.
Engraved in white Gothic script on Italian marble hearth inset is: “Look not for reward from others but hope that you have done your best--Churchill.”
“We kept trying to instill that in our subcontractors’ minds,” Ben Harris said, grinning. “Seriously though, they did a great job.”
The formal dining room that seats 14 people has an English china closet and another engraved fireplace that reads: “There is a tide in the affair of men which taken at the flood, leads on to torture--William Shakespeare.”
A chandelier from England is hung from a ceiling medallion that was painted by an artist to pick up the royal blues, lavenders, corals and greens of an Oriental carpet purchased in Shanghai. Secret panels in this room hide storage areas for table linens and table leaves, and a stained glass window between the dining room and kitchen can be electronically raised and lowered, “all part of the fun,” said Barbara Harris, who has a building contractor’s license.
The kitchen is done in lighter tones. The beamed ceiling, cabinets and center island are of whitewashed oak. Cabinets are topped with granite, and the fixtures, sinks and appliances are stainless steel. One large cabinet for glassware is fronted with leaded and beveled glass. The dumbwaiter is next to the refrigerator.
“In the summertime, we put a meal in here and go up to the roof for dinner,” Ben Harris said. “And it’s great for parties.”
Near the kitchen is the family room, which boasts a big-screen TV that tilts for viewing. Here also is a river-rock fireplace, carpeting from England and a metal ceiling painted a cream color to match the wood trim.
A card table always has a puzzle in progress and a little dining table is next to a slide-out shelf cabinet in which the Harrises keep a toaster, coffeepot, jam, butter and bread for casual breakfasts.
Walking to a bookcase, Ben pushed a button that swung open the left half to reveal a cellar door. In the basement is a holding area for items to go to the couple’s two grandchildren. Another door with a computerized lock is a walk-in 10-foot-by-14-foot safe that also stores wine.
“Since the S&Ls; got so bad, I don’t take chances,” Ben Harris joked as he walked back up the cellar stairs.
Back on the first-floor foyer is a suit of armor made to fit Ben’s 6-foot-5 frame. He had the suit made when his son belonged to a medieval society and was involved in jousting, he said.
From the foyer, a Spanish-carpeted staircase winds up past rounded shelves and stained glass windows that overlook the gated street-side spa and pool.
The curved oak banister, which was built by an English master craftsman, took six weeks to finish, Ben Harris said. “The turns were more than he thought,” he said. “No one talked to him that last two weeks--he was so on the edge.”
The massive stairwell is topped by a stained glass skylight and a large chandelier that can be raised and lowered by a button hidden in an upstairs hall closet.
“It’s for cleaning,” Barbara Harris said. “But you can also play ‘Phantom of the Opera.’ ”
Barbara wanted a laundry chute to the garage, but “it just didn’t work with the framing,” Ben Harris said, “so we decided to put the laundry room upstairs.”
Next to the laundry room is a guest room and a guest bathroom. All bathrooms are marbled and tiled, with spa tubs.
The master bedroom has two fireplaces made of stone imported from Mexico, each decorated with a BHB logo. There is a bar with refrigerator and microwave, a little balcony with dining table and a ceiling painted blue and white to look like the sky.
Also on the second floor is an exercise room outfitted with treadmill, exercise bicycle, trampoline and various weight machines, and a game room complete with pool table, game table, pinball and slot machines plus a bar, refrigerator and marble fireplace. The stained glass window in the vaulted beamed ceiling matches colors in both the Scottish carpeting and the heavy tapestry curtains.
A stairway to the South African-slate roof leads to six solid copper chimneys and the entertainment area with outdoor heaters, large storage area, lounge chairs, tables and potted plants.
“From here,” Barbara Harris said, “you can see forever. I still wake up every morning and say, ‘Oh, I love this house.’ ”
