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	Photo: Deborah Sherman

    Robbie Lemos never imagined that accompanying his fiancé on a business trip to Japan would bring him closer to building his dream home. And never did he think that building a home would land him a new career in the home design field.

    Lemos, 39, was relaxing in an Internet café at the top of a Tokyo high-rise when he found a parcel of Montclair hillside property for sale on Craigslist. He and his fiancé, Joanne Goh, 33, had been living in Jack London Square and had talked about buying property together. Goh encouraged and supported Lemos in his aspirations to create a unique living space, which Lemos says was key to the success of his project.

    Two years later, the couple has moved into the 5,000-square-foot, three-bedroom, five-bath home built to Lemos’ specifications and, in many cases, by his own hands. They hadn’t always planned to live in the home, and they’d received a few offers from buyers. But it’s almost as if such a labor of love can’t be handed over to a third party quite yet. For two years, Lemos basically acted as general contractor (though he’s not actually a general contractor—a friend who is was an integral part of the building process). Lemos says he owes a lot to the amazing engineers, architects and other craftspeople he hired to help him complete the project.

    Lemos combined three lots to create one 4,000-square-foot parcel perched at the top of a hillside with views across the East Bay to San Francisco. The house is expansive, but it’s not crowded onto the lot. Many mature trees still surround the property. In the center of the land, there’s a natural artesian spring that has run down the hill for as long as nearby neighbors can remember. In the design process, Lemos brought in a hydrologist and an environmentalist to help restore the culvert into which the spring feeds and to ensure that the structure of the house didn’t affect the spring. The result is a beautiful water feature that visitors experience as they walk up the long redwood ramp leading to the house.

    “I really tried to blur the lines between the inside and outside,” says Lemos. “Since I’ve started I’ve realized, that’s not very novel, but it was important to me.”

    The house is an interesting play on modern design. Lemos enjoys loft-living style, so there’s a sense of that. But he also appreciates many of the traditional features of his suburban childhood home. The combination makes for a unique space. The layout spans three floors that are each devoted to distinct activities. The first floor is the work area and consists of an office, a gym and a full bath. The gym includes Internet terminals and television, both of which are connected to the home’s central computing system—while working out, one could start heating up the Whirlpool with a few clicks. The office is the hub of the home’s techie features—biometric entry points, wireless home alerts, automatic preference settings for things like heat and lights.

    The second floor is devoted to communal living—a large, open space encompasses the living room, dining room and kitchen, with a wall of glass windows and doors leading out onto a deck with a jaw-dropping view and an infinity pool and Whirlpool hanging off the edge. This is where Lemos and Goh held their wedding ceremony a year ago. The living room area features a drop-down DJ stand. The kitchen design opens up to the entire floor so that the cook can interact with guests anywhere in the space. Throughout the home, it’s natural materials that make the most outstanding features—in the kitchen exotic zebra wood countertops make a striking impression. They’re set among high-end stainless steel appliances, modern Italian cabinetry and a 150-bottle capacity wine cabinet.

    “What I’ve tried to do in many areas of the house is bring out warmer tones through natural materials—glass, slate, different types of wood,” says Lemos. “I kind of turned into a wood geek throughout this project with all the time I spent in the wood shop learning about different varieties.”

    The third floor houses the home’s private quarters—three bedrooms and two bathrooms. Each bedroom features large windows that bring the beautiful surrounding landscape into the home. The master bedroom includes a walk-in closet that’s almost as big as the two other bedrooms.

    Inherent in the home is Lemos’ personal background in design and engineering, which started during his childhood in Modesto where he spent lots of time playing with Lincoln Logs, building skateboard ramps and learning how to weld with his engineer father. In college, Lemos studied drafting and mechanical engineering. After a stint in the music business, he moved into usability engineering, working on projects for Bay Area companies such as Sun Microsystems.

    When he decided to take a break to pursue his interest in architecture and building design, Lemos thought of it as more of a “vacation” than anything else. Now he’s purchased an additional three lots next to his property where he plans to design and build three more homes. He hopes to create “case studies” in green building practices in his future work.

    “I like not having clients,” says Lemos. “I figure I build the way I want it and the way I think it should be built, and if I build it right, the market will reward me; if not, it’ll punish me.”