Cape Cod Times, MA
Sept 25 2005
Rock star
Mason’s elaborate stonework becomes two-year dream project
By JOHANNA CROSBY
STAFF WRITER
EAST DENNIS ”’ Only a portion of Tigran Gichunts’ ”masonry
paradise” is visible from the road in this seaside neighborhood.
Tigran Gichunts’ stone work at Fawaz and Jo-Ellen El Khoury’s home
in East Dennis began with a wall to stop erosion, and blossomed into
a “masonry paradise” that took two years to build.
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Halfway up a long driveway, a rambling yellow, federal-style house
perched on a hilltop comes into full view. The sloping front lawn is
framed by two tiers of stone walls.
But Gichunts didn’t stop there. His handiwork includes 10,000 square
feet of stone walls that wrap around most of the secluded 3-acre
property. Some of the 4 1/2-foot-high walls – which run for 1,500
feet, or more than a quarter of a mile – flaunt built-in planters and
graceful columns.
Gichunts also built three patios – a large one of Turkish marble in
the backyard with an outdoor gourmet kitchen for entertaining; a
fieldstone patio in the backyard; and a side-yard rectangular patio,
made of concrete pavers that resemble bricks, that is designed with a
herringbone pattern. He combined landscape materials of different
textures and colors throughout the project. In the front yard, a
network of fieldstone pathways trimmed with cobblestone is connected
by a circular walkway of concrete pavers. The formal entranceway is
made of tumbled bluestone edged with granite.
The ambitious project took Gichunts, a masonry designer whose
business is based in South Yarmouth and Brewster, two years to
complete. He finished it last month.
His first day on the job, he walked the property and ideas began
percolating in his mind.
Gichunts did not work from a blueprint. Instead, he relied on his
mind’s eye to detail the plans.
”I’m usually a hands-on kind of person,” says owner Fawaz El Khoury
of Westborough, a real estate investor
who is also in the import/export business. But after seeing Gichunts’
work on the entranceway he was hired to build, El Khoury and his wife
Jo-Ellen had confidence in Gichunts’ talent and vision and gave him a
fairly free hand on the project. The designer would run his ideas by
them and they usually agreed.
The couple declined to say how much the project cost. But Gichunts
says he builds fieldstone walls for an average of $50 per square
foot, including material and labor.
A family trade
Gichunts, 24, was eager to showcase his stonework skills on such a
grand scale.
This gourmet kitchen built by mason Tigran Gichunts boasts a double
chimney oven made of river rocks and fire bricks, with an upper oven
for baking and a larger one below that can accommodate a whole pig or
lamb.
(Staff photos by VINCENT DeWITT)
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”It’s an art,” he says, of doing masonry, a trade that apparently
runs in his genes. Gichunts is a native of Armenia and his
grandfather was a mason.
Piecing 15 truckloads of stones together artfully to build a wall is
like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle, he says. It’s also very
detailed, labor-intensive work. The rocks were secured with mortar,
but it was recessed so it wouldn’t show.
The two stone walls in the front yard are primarily decorative. But
they also help to prevent erosion of the hilly terrain. ”At first we
had a concrete wall, but it was ugly,” El Khoury says.
With an artist’s eye toward aesthetics, Gichunts came up with the
idea for two levels of stone walls. He chose attractive tan-colored
New England fieldstone, which blends in with the surrounding
landscape. Besides its natural beauty, the stone was chosen because
it’s durable and maintenance-free, Gichunts says.
But Gichunts wasn’t finished with just the two tiers of stone walls
on the hill. Instead, the walls grew longer and one of his ideas led
to another.
”I never in my wildest dreams thought it would go around the entire
yard,” El Khoury says. ”It became an addiction. Once you do a stone
wall, you want to do another.”
Besides the privacy it affords, the wrap-around stone walls are in
keeping with the historic integrity of the neighborhood and provides
a ”certain harmony” with the natural landscape, Mrs. El Khoury
adds.
Their own castle
The sprawling yard is landscaped with numerous plantings, including
100 rose bushes along one of the stone walls. Hydrangeas, flowers and
other shrubs dot the sweeping front lawn.
At night, when the landscape lights are turned on, the house looks
like a castle, Gichunts says.
The El Khourys bought the 3-acre site, which is bordered by
conservation land, four years ago. They helped design their spacious
12-room summer house, which has a view of Cape Cod Bay from the
second floor. There is also an attached guest suite.
Mrs. El Khoury has fond memories of summering on the Cape as a child
and learning how to swim at nearby Cold Storage Beach. Her parents
live in the neighborhood. The setting attracts an assortment of
wildlife, including birds and deer.
”It’s a dream to be here,” Mrs. El Khoury says.
The couple, who have four children, enjoy entertaining outdoors and
cooking for their guests. Gichunts built a gourmet kitchen at the
edge of the large backyard patio, which is made of marble slabs in a
geometric pattern and a granite border. The 37-foot-island is fully
equipped with a stainless steel bar sink and faucet, stove,
refrigerator, ice machine, and charcoal gas grills.
The double chimney oven – made of river rocks and fire bricks –
features two separate ovens, a small one for baking breads, pizza and
cake and a large one that can accommodate a whole pig, lamb or 10
chickens. The counter top consists of a mosiac of tiny tiles and
sleek granite.
A circular fieldstone walkway from the backyard patio leads to a lawn
area where the owners plan to build a swimming pool. Gichunts is
already envisioning his next project: a patio for the pool.