Ever Wondered How To Design A Ranch Style Icehouse From Salvaged Materials?

Dale Dibello: But not only did he have these memorabilia, which you can see in some of the images, and a lot of people are interested in that. We’ve had the image of that house, on our home page. That’s the one that gets the most hits. People are fascinated by all those collectibles, but what’s even more interesting, I think, is he had collected over time flooring materials, exterior stone, wood timbers. He’s a roofer, so he’s an expert on doing metal roofs. He had a couple of different metal roofs on there to lend a feeling of age for the different parts of the house because it’s all so broken up. Interesting stuff. He had a stockpile of antique limestone for the exterior.

Rita Heck: Where did he live to keep all this?

Dale Dibello: They were on a different property and he might have had another storage, but the property he was on, I’m pretty sure, he had a barn on that, just a storage barn. He was holding on-

Rita Heck: That, was that New Braunfels?

Dale Dibello: Yeah, yeah, it’s in New Braunfels. He was holding onto those things. That’s kind of what we helped him with was to use those materials in the house, but he had very much a passion for doing that. He-

Rita Heck: Did they use it in the house and barn or …

Dale Dibello: Yes, yes, there was the-

Rita Heck: I mean, the ice house.

Dale Dibello: The house and the ice house, yeah. Inside the house, in the kitchen, you can see it in one of these images. There’s the antique brick at the backsplash, and so it just transforms that whole kitchen into something that has so much character to it just because it runs along the backsplash. We have large windows in there. There’s a lot of natural light, some beams from his own stockpile.

Rita Heck: Beautiful. Yeah, beautiful beams in there.

Dale Dibello: Really, it really makes the house have just a lot of character to it. And it’s things that he already loved. He had already been collecting those things. Now, they’re built into this house.

Rita Heck: They’re forever.

Dale Dibello: It’s forever. It’s like the perfect marriage of those old items, and then bringing them into the new work.

About Dibello Architects

As a custom home designer & residential architect practicing in the Texas Hill Country, Principal Architect Dale Dibello believes that context is key in the design of new buildings. He follows a regional approach influenced by the diverse cultures that have shaped the Texas Hill Country and the Austin/San Antonio corridor. The rugged beauty and complexity of the land as well as the history of the place all inspire our custom home designs.

Dibello Architects, PLLC is known for its vernacular, traditional, and classically influenced homes in town, on ranches, and by lakes and rivers in the Texas Hill Country. For more information visit www.dibelloarchitects.com .