"My mother was an amateur archaeologist and as I accompanied her on trips to see the old deserted stone pueblos in backcountry Arizona, I began to appreciate the degree of thought and integration with nature that those mysterious ruins still suggest. Most frequently, they were built where rocky plateaus break away to former streams. I found a remarkably similar site on a south-facing slope of fractured granite descending into an intermittent stream in the Central Arizona Highlands. My imagination went wild and I bought it. It was 1991.

For the next four years I researched how the indigenous people of three continents built using regional materials, made use of topography and local weather patterns and perfected spaces that suited both comfort and function. I drew my own topographic site plan, took classes in Permaculture and learned a 2000 year-old stone building technique from an architect and friend. I studied passive solar design and visited Anasazi ruins. I took aerial photographs of the site to minimize the loss of vegetation and limit  damage to the area's intrinsic beauty. I drew plans. I built models. I aligned the first wall with Polaris, the North Star. It was 1995."

Nothing about building on this site was easy. The bones of this structure were jackhammered into the native granite by hand. Every board, every panel and nearly every yard of concrete was hand carried up the hillside to it's place. The process, from design to it's current state, has taken 18 years. It is a labor of love and it continues to evolve. It is embued with life.

-R. Michael Mithuna, Architect, owner and builder