Disney exec turns Hap Arnold house into family dream home

Chris and Barbara Montan built a welcoming white home on Sonoma Mountain that speaks to who they are – while subtly respecting what the property once was.

The couple’s El Rancho Feliz was originally the retirement estate of Gen. Henry H. “Hap” Arnold, the leader of the Army Air Corps during World War II, and the namesake of Arnold Drive.

Where the general and his wife Bee once raised cattle and fed quail and hummingbirds on the patio of their mid-century style, smallish ranch house, the Montans enjoy a 4,000-square-foot, soaring ceilinged architectural dream – complete with pool, guest house, outdoor fireplace, pathways through the native-plant landscaping and six-acres of vineyards planted to cabernet and cabernet franc.

While the baby grand Bosendorfer in the entry hints about who lives here, it’s Chris’s Grammy for “Frozen” sitting on a shelf near a copy of Gen. Arnold’s “Global Mission” which reveals that this home was earned by his career as president of music for Disney, where he’s responsible for all music in the animated films, Broadway shows and theme parks.

Barbara has devoted many years to enhancing life for the hearing impaired, and because of her efforts there is now open captioning in first run films. From a hearing-impaired perspective, she describes their home as “bilingual,” meaning is has open sight lines – making it easy for the family to use sign language with their sons Spencer, 24, who is deaf, and Nils, 27.

“When you remove the communication barrier you remove the disability,” Barbara said.

Their home is airy and light-filled, with window walls revealing hillside vines on one side, and the in other direction the eye is carried all the way across the Valley of the Moon to the Mayacamas. In the white tiled and marble kitchen, where Chris does all the cooking (“I set a lovely table,” Barbara laughs) you can see the panoramic views from the island. Off the kitchen is the wine room, where an enlarged cover from an old Time magazine shows a smiling Gen. Arnold.

“I just want to keep his spirit here,” Barbara said. They salvaged redwood paneling from the general’s home, using it on the walls in bedroom, where it has been painted white in keeping with the mostly-white palate of the home. Accent colors are used sparingly and are earth tones drawn from the surrounding land.

The couple has been married 37 years, and attended the same nursery school and high school in New Jersey, although they weren’t drawn to one another until they met again in Boston after college – Barbara went to Tufts and Chris to Cornell. They lived most of their married life in southern California, and Chris still commutes there for work when he’s not on a plane headed to New York, Tokyo or Paris. “We have always bought turnkey houses, this is our first project,” he said. “I was in charge of finance and Barb was the brains on the job.”

Barbara credits her great team. The architect was Luke Wade, the builder Earthtone. Paul Rozanski did the landscaping and Jennifer Macdonald was the interior designer who helped Barbara pick alabaster lamps, neutrally upholstered furniture and bedding, black iron light fixtures and accent tables and an immense reclaimed-wood dining table with custom off-white leather benches that anchors the room.

“I am a magazine hound and I had so many tear sheets,” Barbara said. “I wanted everything to be smooth and easy on the eye,” and uses the cliché “She who buys quality cries once,” to account for the exquisite furnishings. She especially treasures a painting by Sonoma artist Brigitte McReynolds that she acquired at the Sonoma Valley Museum of Art’s “wet paint” fundraiser.

Although Nils is traveling the world pursuing a music career and Spencer is working on his masters at Rochester Institute of Technology, the family gathers here often and Barbara admits the twin-bed-size window seat would be great for a grandchild someday. They moved into the home three years ago and, “We are here to stay,” Chris said. They have even relocated Barbara’s 93-year-old mother Rita to Sonoma, and she loves it here as much as her daughter.

Chris is so enamored with Sonoma and their home that he has decided, at age 63, to semi-retire early. He will step down from his position next June, and will work mostly from home as the executive music producer for the Broadway version of “Frozen.”

“I don’t want to not be here anymore,” he said, and he looks forward to being with Barb and their Havanese dogs Lela and Rufus almost everyday. He’s retiring to the Valley of the Moon, just like Gen. Arnold.