A Gorilla, a Kangaroo, and Queen Elizabeth? This Winnetka Heights Craftsman Has Seen It All!
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Whether you call it intuition, vibe, or gut instinct, everyone knows when they’ve found the right house. I like to think it’s the spirit of the house that attracts us. When Chris Barker and Lee Ruiz walked into this Winnetka Heights Craftsman 21 years ago, they knew in 30 seconds that they’d found their home.
They’ve been imbuing this historic home with even more spirit over the past two decades. If you live in Winnetka Heights, you know what I mean because these two hosted legendary parties on a regular basis.
Barker and Ruiz stumbled onto Winnetaka Heights. They’d been renting on the other side of town but thought it was time to actually purchase. Ruiz needed to be closer to Grand Prairie for his job, so they looked at the map to see what neighborhoods were closer to his work and did what most of us do: they hit up the open houses one weekend. When they saw one of realtor Diane Sherman’s listings, they called her up. After chatting with Sherman, they knew Winnetka Heights was the right neighborhood.
Although they did not buy that first listing, Sherman had more, and when she showed them this 1913 Winnetka Heights Craftsman, it checked all their boxes. With 2,641 square feet, three bedrooms, and three bathrooms, it was sized just right.
“Fortunately, the rooms had already been opened up in the 1980s,” Barker said. “There were high ceilings, and the bones were great.”
Then there is the Winnetka Heights front porch lifestyle. If you haven’t heard of it, well, basically everything happens on the front porch.
“It’s the most important part of the house,” Ruiz said. “We have wine with neighbors at night and have coffee in the morning!”
However, there was still work to be done to make it their own. Ruiz and Barker turned to Cleo Spears, the owner of Orchid Interiors, to create a new sensibility for their Winnetka Heights Craftsman that was decidedly contemporary and eclectic. Entertaining is second nature to these two, so the formal living area has become a reception room where everything from dance parties to wine tastings takes place. Spears had the fireplace surround covered in wood tiles in an updated nod to the Arts and Crafts movement.
“The kitchen is huge,” Barker said. “It was already opened up when we bought it, but we painted.”
The large table was created with casters, allowing it to roll from the cozy dining area in front of the banquette seating to the middle of the room, should you have a large party and need buffet service. You may want to negotiate for that!
The pandemic necessitated a major overhaul of the 865-square-foot second-floor loft, which became not only a workspace but also an additional living area with a significantly improved bathroom. A lovely balcony overlooks the gorgeous backyard, where a lot of entertaining happens.
Getting back to this home’s party spirit, when it and two others hit the century mark in 2013, there was yet another reason to have a celebration. Winnetka Heights puts on an annual Heights Around the World fundraising event. They select a country, and neighbors sign up to host.
“You have the food, decor, drink, and entertainment of the selected country,” Ruiz said. “One year, the country was Italy. I found an 8-foot-tall Leaning Tower of Pisa [and] rented it. At the time, we had a hot tub, so we put it on that, surrounded it with Bellinis, and Chris sang opera.”
During one of the Queen’s Jubilee years, a drag queen arrived as Queen Elizabeth, and Ruiz dressed as an English Bobby. A group of neighborhood ladies showed up as the Spice Girls, and a bagpipe procession led neighbors to the house. In 2022, Australia was the chosen country. That involved a parade tribute to Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and yes, a live kangaroo!
You can just imagine what Halloween is like here.
“We have a thousand kids come to the door,” Barker said. “Lee is the king of Halloween and has been a dancing gorilla. All the kids come up and dance with him.”
Barker and Ruiz aren’t the only ones getting into the community spirit.
“When you live in a historic district, you’ll find the neighbors are very involved. Everyone knows one another, and everyone volunteers,” Barker said. “The sense of community is like no place else I have ever lived. We will certainly miss that, but with our travel schedules, a lock-and-leave lifestyle is calling.”
That’s good news for you dear readers, because it means you have a chance at nabbing perhaps the most spirited home in Winnetka Heights. If it had a good vibe before, it’s absolutely fantastic now!
It just hit the market yesterday, and its sellers just might get the gorilla to make an appearance again!
Open House: Sunday, August 10, from 2-4 p.m.
