976 Vallecitos, Jemez Springs, NM – SOLD

About the property

976 Vallecitos is a straw bale house in the Jemez Mountains, designed by the architect Michael McGuire, AIA, and built in 1994 by Anthony Strain. It sits on 29.13 acres, assembled from five lots, at the end of a private road outside Jemez Springs in Sandoval County, about an hour and a half west of Santa Fe. The land is a mix of open meadow and heavy forest, and the road stops at the property line.

The main house is a passive solar, split level design with two bedrooms and one and three quarter baths under a pitched steel roof, with a studio wing attached. Three outbuildings stand apart from it: a 512 square foot bunkhouse that serves as a guest house, a 580 square foot workshop, and a 770 square foot two car garage. The property runs on a private well, a septic system, and propane, with public electric service. Horses are allowed.

The Webster Estates team represented the seller, and the sale closed in 2020.

The house

Straw bale construction was an unusual choice in 1994 and it was a considered one. The bales are stacked, pinned, and plastered inside and out, which produces walls more than a foot and a half thick with an insulating value that adobe cannot match and that frame construction rarely reaches. In a mountain climate with real winters that matters. McGuire paired the walls with a passive solar orientation, so that the winter sun does a large share of the heating and the mass of the walls carries the house through the night.

The result is a house that looks nothing like a Santa Fe pueblo revival and was never meant to. The steel roof is pitched to shed snow. The plan steps with the site. The studio wing gives a working artist or writer a room of real size with its own light. The house was written about in the architectural press when it was new, and the articles came with the listing.

The land

This is a mountain property first and a house second. Twenty nine acres at the end of a private road, with meadow in front and ponderosa and mixed conifer behind, is a rare thing to find in one piece, and the five lot configuration means the land could in principle be held or divided. The bunkhouse and workshop make it a working place as well as a retreat: room for guests, room for tools and projects, room for horses.

Jemez Springs is a small village on the Jemez River, known for its hot springs, the Jemez Historic Site, and the road up through the Valles Caldera. The property is in the Jemez Valley school district: Jemez Springs Elementary, and Jemez Valley Middle and High. It is well outside our usual Santa Fe territory, and we took it on because the house deserved a serious effort. Our Santa Fe market archive collects the rest of our work, and our guide to Northern New Mexico vernacular homes explains the building tradition this house departs from on purpose. For another property beyond the city limits, see Estancia Serena in Chimayo. The full list of our completed sales is in the Select Solds archive.

About the transaction

We represented the seller at 976 Vallecitos, with Heidi Wilson as co-listing broker. This was one of the longest listings we have carried, more than six years from first showing to closing. A one of a kind house in a remote location has a buyer pool that can be counted on one hand at any given time, and the price expectation had to travel a long way before it met that pool. When it did, the house sold at its full asking price, which is the right ending for a listing that was never about speed.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Who designed 976 Vallecitos? A: Michael McGuire, AIA. It was built in 1994 by Anthony Strain.

Q: What is straw bale construction? A: Walls built from stacked, pinned, and plastered straw bales, typically more than a foot and a half thick, with a very high insulating value. This house pairs them with a passive solar design.

Q: How much land comes with it? A: 29.13 acres across five lots at the end of a private road, a mix of meadow and forest. Horses are allowed.

Q: What outbuildings are there? A: A 512 square foot bunkhouse used as a guest house, a 580 square foot workshop, and a 770 square foot two car garage.

Q: Where is Jemez Springs? A: On the Jemez River in Sandoval County, roughly an hour and a half west of Santa Fe by way of the Valles Caldera.

Q: Which side did Webster Estates represent? A: We represented the seller.

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The Webster Estates Team handled this transaction. Chris Webster, Patti Webster, Christopher Webster III, and Paisley Mason Webster, Associate Brokers at Sotheby’s International Realty, operating from 54½ Lincoln Avenue on The Plaza since 1976.