THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009 • HOME & GARDEN, DAILY COURIER, Grants Pass, Oregon 9
8 HOME & GARDEN, DAILY COURIER, Grants Pass, Oregon • THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2009
Spirit of the West alive in Hugo
Manardo enjoys cooking for and entertaining friends in his kitchen, below,
which is open to his home’s dining and
living areas.
30 years later, teepee-style home still captivates
I
n Larry Manardo’s Hugo home, peeled
log beams fan out in a sunburst pattern overhead, supported by soaring
posts.
The unusual design recreates the
ambiance of the teepee he lived in almost
40 years ago.
Story by
“I took the conSusan Goracke cept of the teepee,
then laid it out horizontally,” explained
Manardo, who built
Photos by
his 2,200-square-foot
Timothy Bullard house out-of-pocket
over five years in
the early 1980s. “I designed it on a napkin
at the Mousetrap Restaurant.” (Now it’s the
Tee Time Coffee Shop on southwest H
Street).
Fourteen-inch-diameter beams start over
Manardo’s bed in an upstairs loft, then
stretch out to an impressive 30-foot-wide by
24-foot-tall wall of windows. The westward
view is stunning across a manicured lawn
and forested valley to the Siskiyou
Mountains beyond.
Manardo said he got the idea from lying
on his back inside the 20-foot diameter
teepee he lived in for 18 months on 40 acres
west of Grants Pass.
It was the mid-1970s, and Manardo, who
stands 6-foot-four, must have made an
impressive figure, walking the streets of
town in a striped wool poncho and Western
hat, accompanied by his dog. Incorporating
American Indian designs, he hand-beaded
his hatband and wove the poncho on a loom
inside the teepee.
In 1975, Manardo purchased 6 acres covered in cedar trees near Hugo, then lived
frugally in a small trailer on the property
while he built his teepee-inspired home.
Erecting posts, beams and that 30-by-24foot window wall was a challenge, he concedes. But the structurally sound home has
stood the test of time. The only updating
Manardo has done since then has been
mostly cosmetic, including changing the
texture and colors of interior walls.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
At right, Larry Manardo is proud of the home he
designed and built on 6 acres in Hugo. Erecting the
window wall behind him to connect with ceiling
beams that fan out above was an engineering feat.
Above, Manardo designed many of the furnishings inside
his home, including log furniture, which he had built by
Kauffman Wood Products in Selma. He recently selected
Pendleton wool fabric and vinyl that resembles ostrich
leather to reupholster the couch he purchased from
Gates Home Furnishings 30 years ago.
At left is Manardo’s loft master bedroom. Fourteen-inchdiameter beams start above his head and fan out to windows on the opposite wall.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8
Living his dream
This photo was taken of Larry Manardo at
the age of 27 in his teepee on 40 acres west
of Grants Pass. Manardo said that from his
boyhood, he had always wanted to live in a
teepee.
Now, he’s now in the process of creating an upstairs guest
room.
For the past 40 years, Manardo has made his living as a
house painter in Southern Oregon. Unlike many in the construction industry, he survived the recession of the early
1980s, thanks to a 10-year job painting interiors at the former
Josephine Memorial Hospital.
Manardo said he designed just about everything in his
house, from doors, molding and cabinets to the peeled log
furniture, which he had Delbert Kauffman of Kauffman
Wood Products in Kerby build for him.
The modified lodge-style home is an ideal setting for
Manardo to display his extensive collection of Western and
American Indian arts, crafts and furnishings.
“I like the Indian philosophy,” he said. “When they talk
about the earth, they say so much by saying so little.”
He recently had a large sectional sofa reupholstered in
Pendleton wool Indian-design blanket material and vinyl that
resembles ostrich leather.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 10