Back to First Cliff Hickman Residence
Clifford Hickman says he'd wanted to build his own house ever since he took a drafting course in the 7th grade. Later he got to know the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and was strengthened in his resolution. Then, when almost through college, he decided the time was ripe. His parents loaned him some money and he left Greencastle, Ind., and came to Santa Barbara. There he bought a third of an acre high in the Riviera district and began to build this house. He was 24 and worked alone. It took him four years and the only things he subcontracted were the sewer, roofing and plastering. He didn't trust a bulldozer, so he moved all the earth by wheelbarrow. He learned plumbing from a book in the library, wiring from a copy of the local code. "I wanted to build it with my own two hands," he says. "I was almost jealous of anyone else who worked on the house. Like a sculptor, I wanted to do it myself."
"As soon as I got started," Clifford Hickman says, "I got out my stereo so I could listen to music while I worked. Much of it was done to Mozart masses, Beethoven sonatas and composers like Bach, Schubert, Hindemith and Stravinsky. The stonework was done to Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' because it was fast and make me work hard.
"The fellow who sold me the sandstone--from the Kaibab area of Arizona--said it was the biggest order he'd ever had from Santa Barbara. I'd never laid a piece of stone in my life and was scared to death. I literally learned it from the ground up.
"Usually people start out with big ideas, then cut back as costs rise. I never cut back on my original design. In fact, the house grew as I went along. I built one wall three times before I got it the way I wanted it."
Hickman also made the furniture seen in the living room, at right and at left below. The kitchen is at lower right, and the patio on the uphill side is on the facing page. This is an all-electric house, heated radiantly by cables in the ceiling. It seems much larger than its 1,700 square feet, owing largely to the balcony that cantilevers 18 feet. There are 600 square feet of decks.
"This project had no hump," Hickman concludes. "I thought there'd be a turning point when things would get easier, but no. It was hard work….all the way.