How do we choose to live?
How do we choose to walk on this earth through our lives?
More importantly than our lives, what kind of earth do we wish to leave for our children, a better place? Hopefully yes.
Recycle, reuse, restore, and most importantly, preserve. Preserve our resources, our independence, our individuality, our passion for life, our families, our faith, and our country.
Walk lightly, walk honestly
—Peder Norby

There is a reverential feeling about the home they call Herons’ House. The home speaks to some part of the being, speaks of things such as honesty, integrity, commitment and love. This home begs to have walls that could talk, because the story it would tell would give us all pause for reflection.
The saga began when Peder and Julie Norby married two years ago and began a journey together. Part of that path would include whatever trials and tribulations any couple might experience during a shared future, but their immediate challenge was to build a home. Its construction would be a joint project, a creative endeavor that would involve thoughtful, philosophical and artistic decisions in order to become the personal haven they were attempting to achieve.

Moreover, this home was never intended to be anything less than the home they would live in for the rest of their lives, share with friends and extended family, and one day pass on to their children and their children’s children. Truly, from the outset, this was planned to be a “home for all seasons.”
The site that Peder, a downtown manager and executive director of the Downtown Encinitas Mainstreet Association, and Julie, the principal of Solana Santa Fe Elementary School in Fairbanks Ranch, chose for Herons’ House is on a hilltop above Carlsbad overlooking Agua Hedionda Lagoon. The vista takes in a breathtaking view of a wetland, rolling hills and the ocean in the distance. Peder claims that nature and the setting of their lot were more than inspirations; they were partners in the home’s construction.

However, when the couple first found the location it had a house sitting on it that the Norbys needed to all but level. Only the garage would be retained, and that would eventually become a guesthouse named Egret.

Peder, who participated as the builder of Herons’ House, is an artist who drew upon various influences and combined them with the use of natural materials in order to create a harmony between the house and the land. Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School; Gustav Stickley and Craftsman Farms; and David Lewis, the principal designer of Bang & Olufsen, were all sources of inspiration. The house is a blending of the Prairie style with a Danish influence; the result is a clean, sophisticated and playful design.

Peder’s insistence on the use of “honest building products” became an important part of the philosophy they used to build the home. Whenever possible, the materials were either recycled or nonmanufactured components. To that end, the Norbys commissioned their architect, Bart M. Smith, to design a green house. As a result, the home has 6-inch exterior walls with extra insulation. The use of tankless water heaters, low-flow toilets, dishwashers and washing machine (front loading) reduces water use.

All of the home’s 98 Pella wood windows and doors are dual-glazed glass. Herons’ House generates 80 to 100 percent of its own electricity with a 7-kilowatt solar photovoltaic array. The wine cellar is mostly subterranean, utilizing the natural cooling and constant temperature of the earth.
The handsome exterior of the home is cedar, a smooth Santa Barbara-finished stucco and sedimentary ledger stone. But upon approach, arguably the first detail to grab one’s attention is the copper garage door. Copper is used extensively both on interior and exterior applications in the house. The use of real copper provides for a changing color palette, from shiny copper, to dark bronze copper, to a verde green patina; Peder wanted to use it to mimic the changes in the lagoon’s diurnal colors. After a thorough search, no copper garage doors were found on the market. Peder solved that problem by spraying a metal door with acid and electroplating it through the application of an electrical current.

“I love that kind of thing—approaching a problem and finding a unique solution that works,” he says.
Entry to the 3,400-square-foot main house is through a front door with a handsome, custom-made panel of stained glass. Naturally, the glass has a depiction of a heron to welcome visitors. The entrance is on the lower level, as the home is inverted, with the major living space (and most dramatic view) upstairs.

The lower level houses a great room, two bedrooms, a wet bar with a hand-hammered copper sink that includes the home’s heron logo, a ledger stone fireplace (one of the home’s four fireplaces), and a state-of-the-art Dolby media center. Because the Norbys love to entertain and are passionate about food, wine and friendship, Julie wanted a bar downstairs where people could gather and converse. In the great room, a 1946 Seeburg jukebox competes for sound with a Bang & Olufsen stereo system that runs throughout the house.

The patio required as much vision as the rest of the home. Landscaping on its upper level is comprised of all native plants. Deer grass, sage, monkey flowers and sedge all dance in the breeze in one area. The grasses are then met in another area by a 75-foot waterfall that flows into a creek that they call Sheawhaanah Creek. (Julie asked for a creek, so it’s “she-a-wanna-creek.”) The creek took 14,000 pounds of Arizona rock and a lot of Peder’s strength to make. Its flow eventually trickles downhill into the lagoon. Other areas of the patio are acid-stained concrete that Peder stained by hand. In the center of this tier of the patio is a fire pit where friends gather to sip wine and admire the view. Peder custom made the 24-inch pilaster caps of the wall that surrounds the pit out of copper that was hand-hammered with copper nails and then heat sealed.

“Peder and I shared a bottle of wine out here and saluted our achievements every Wednesday night as we were building,” says Julie, pointing to the fire pit. “At first I couldn’t wait until it was done. But Peder said, ‘No! We have to celebrate the journey and enjoy the process.’ And he was so right; I came to love all of the daily triumphs.”

Several steps below the fire pit level is the manifestation of the Norbys love of wine: their own vineyard! They had the soil analyzed at the University of California, Davis, so that the right soil amendments and rootstock could be ordered. The vineyard has now been readied for 100 vines from Nova Vines in Sonoma Valley. But like so many of the love projects that have gone into this home, patience and a vision are necessary. It will take three years before the first grapes will be picked and six years before the first taste.

Just steps away from their vineyard is a 440-square-foot semisubterranean wine cellar. A custom-made leaded glass door depicting an egret leads into the warm area where 2,000 bottles will be stored. A long table is positioned for friends to sit down and enjoy tasting and companionship.
Because it was built to last many generations, many features have been added that make the home handicap-accessible throughout. For example, an elevator runs from the entry level to the main level up to the main living space and the master bedroom suite.

Throughout most of the home, the floors and cabinets are North American cherry wood. The Norbys selected the wood because, just like copper, it changes color and improves with age. Cherry is also seen throughout the home in the Norbys’ furniture, which is both original and reproduction Stickley. In the dining room, a Stickley dining room set was custom-made to fit the buffet. Diners can enjoy the warmth that the fireplace at the end of the room brings to the atmosphere.

But diners must first tear themselves away from the open kitchen and its magnificent views. The windows accordion back on a NanaWindow system for a screenless, open expanse. Below the large window is a countertop of San Francisco verde granite. The same granite appears on the cooking island, and was the object of much debate between the Norbys. They had agreed on granite. But though Peder wanted blue, Julie managed to get her choice of the green. (It was a perfect choice.) The kitchen has two 36-inch commercial Viking ovens; a 66-inch brushed stainless refrigerator and freezer, and Schuler solid wood cabinets. Both Norbys love cooking, and this is a blissful setting in which to create.

Adjacent to the kitchen is an indoor/outdoor tour de force. Under a pyramidal ceiling of cedar, the room is divided into two spaces. The larger area is 600 square feet of an outdoor porch area complete with a fireplace. The indoor portion of the music room is a cozy space of 300 square feet that is separated by wood and aluminum-framed glass doors that accordion back in order to make the two areas into one. Yet the glass corners of the rooms were designed to be invisible, and the effect is very special.

The word “special” doesn’t truly convey what Herons’ House is. Having completed their home, both Peder and Julie feel that it is more than they ever imagined it would be. Today Herons’ House is truly is an enchanting place, built with passion, dedication and incredible attention to detail. The Norbys continue to be amazed at the quality of craftsmanship in every aspect of the home; and they believe that those who worked on it did so with the same level of excellence and ardor that they themselves invested. Now and in the future, there will be many good bottles of wine shared with friends and family as the fruits of their endeavor are enjoyed and relived.