Inside an Iconic Home Built on a 200 ft Cliff!

Today we are in Sedona, Arizona at honestly the most unique property I have ever seen. The house you see above me was built in 2021 by a local named Glendon Good. It cost him several million dollars and took him several decades to pull off. And one of the many things that makes this place so special is that the only way you can access the house is by taking a three-minute and 15-second tram ride to the top of the mountain. Glendon bought this property in 1998 and at the time nobody even thought it was possible to build a house on top of that cliff. But he pulled it off even though he had all the cards stacked against him and in today's episode we get to meet Glendon and tour this amazing home together. We're about to take the tram ride to the top and if you didn't notice it's a very windy day so I'm not gonna lie I'm a little bit nervous about that. Plus I've got about a thousand questions for Glendon and I'm gonna try to get as many of those questions as possible answered today. Some of the things I want to know about are how he got construction materials up there when he was building this home because there's not a whole lot of room on that tram and the location of this house is way too high to even be accessed by crane. I'm also very curious what it's like to live in a place like this full-time for the owner. Glendon is going to share all kinds of interesting information with us today including how much it cost him to build this house, what the construction process looked like and possibly what I'm most curious about how in the world he got this tram contraption approved by the city. It's going to be a jam-packed episode. I'm really excited to see this house. I'm even more excited to be taking you guys along for the ride although I am still a little bit nervous about that tram ride but let's do this. So a tram or a gondola like this like as far as I've ever seen only exists with typically like a ski lift type of environment. So in Washington and Oregon where the company is located a lot of people use them to go down to their lake to their ski boat or down to the beach actually if they live up on a hill above the ocean. So that's the primary use and basically I'm using it backwards so these are basically rails. Okay. But it also meant that there was no impact in the environment because it only touches two points and you don't have you know struts or trusses along the way. And did you have to make a lot of modifications to this rock in order to fit this? Only at the top. Okay. We ran into rock there and I basically spent four weeks with a jackhammer. Yourself? Yep. What are you gonna call to do this stuff? Just hanging off the side of the cliff right here. Hanging off. Oh my gosh. Big Bosch jackhammer. Well you did a pretty clean job. So I knew I wanted to investigate places in Sedona and I hired an agent and she took me around and showed me all these houses that I could afford. And I'm like no this is not what I'm looking for. And then I'm like okay just show me raw land. And she would take me around show me all these kind of buildable lots. Like this is not working for me. There's got to be I told her there's got to be something cool out there. Something interesting. Something different that you haven't shown me yet. And her comment was well there is this one cliff for sale. I'm like well take me there and show it to me. And she brought me here and kind of begrudgingly and she said look there's no power here. You can't build here. It's almost impossible. There's no water. I'm like well. So I got in touch and talked to a builder. Yeah I can build here. And talked to an excavator. Yeah I can break that rock up. So I built down below and pulled that off. But every day I'm hiking with my dog up to the top of the cliff. And I'm like I really want to stay up here. So just above the sculpture on the left you see one of my ladders. Okay. And that's the way I got up there. Right. Because I had to build this thing. You know to build the tram first was the main big slate. And so I was up and down that ladder every day. Month after month. And you lived down here? Yeah so I lived in the other Dulu's. Okay. At that time. And so you would just load a backpack up. Climb to the top of the mountain via ladders. And then once you got up there you just were thinking and stewing. I know exactly how to. Getting at it. You started getting at it right away. No no no. It took years of planning. Yeah. Literally years and years of planning. But once I actually started doing the work it was getting to the job site. Right. And it's steep too. I mean 45 degrees. No way. Here. Oh my gosh. Okay so what what are we looking at from here then? This is Sedona this direction. Sedona is actually over that well it's kind of over that way. And that's a famous rock formation called Cathedral Rock. Okay. Pretty darn famous. There are a bunch of trails. I'm a runner and so I run all around here. So do you have any architectural experience or building experience before this house? So when I first found this property I actually hired an architect. We worked together for a few months and I realized he wasn't doing what I wanted him to do. But given that I had many years experience designing furniture a house is really very similar. There are just many more layers and it's a larger larger thing. So I did my own drawings and plans and worked with my engineers and did it. Yeah. Kind of interesting when you explain it like that because it's going to make me look at this house as if we're almost walking through a big piece of furniture. And it is. What would you say was the single most challenging part of that design phase? What comes to mind is getting the money to actually pull the job off. Because you can put me in a room with a pencil piece of paper and a ruler and I can figure some stuff out. There were a lot of challenges along the road. A lot of things that had to be figured out. But it's amazing what you can do when you really want to do something. And there were a lot of naysayers along the way. Basically this is impossible. Even some of my best friends. After I got the permits approved. Like I got the permits. I'm so excited. And like he's never going to pull this off. And I had to work through that negativity. Basically that's one reason I don't share my ideas so much anymore. I kind of incubate them. And it helps them give birth to them. I found. And just you know having the gumption to go for it. To get on the rope. Do whatever it takes to make it happen. Oh my gosh. Because this is sort of what it's all about. Being here and enjoying the view. I wouldn't mind waking up to this every day. And you live here full-time? Ever full-time. This puppy wakes me up before sunrise every day. Yeah which is really nice. You got a cup of coffee. And I love being in the kitchen. And watching the sun rise. It rises over there. But the way it lights up all these hills and the trees in the morning. Amazing. I read something else that mentioned that you had a pretty early wake-up call whenever the masons were working on this house. Is that right? I don't know why they start so darn early. And I had to be there ready for them at 5 a.m. And I just I wanted to work with that crew. Because that getting out of the ground was super important. And did you work hand-in-hand with most of the subcontractors and crews? I always had something to do. But since I work with metal for a living. I worked with the masons and I was responsible for the steel. Making sure that they did their job right. And it was a very sketchy situation because there was no scaffolding. We're on a cliff and they're working there. Their boss was flipped out. So he bought all this safety equipment. We had all these lines all over the place. And the guys after three days they're like this all this safety equipment is really unsafe. And they decided to move all the lines out of their way so that they wouldn't trip and fall. And this is especially good at night. Right now there's a lot of glare. So when you used to hike up here every day then you would get up to this relatively flat mountaintop and you would be okay. I'd get up there yeah. Okay. And I had a ladder here so I could get to this little shelf area. It's a little bit of a shelf in the rocks that became the focal point for where I could build. Oh my god. So that was a perfect vantage point for you to look down at what would be the future footprint of your house. And then from there you were able to kind of sketch up with the plan. Exactly yeah. Basically using the only somewhat level of sort of level area. And how cool that your vantage point from there as you were designing the house ended up being basically the same one you have in coffee every morning. A lot of people thought it was like some rich guy that is just paying gazillions of dollars to have this made. And then once people found out that it was really you know a guy with a passion who just wanted to build his own home on his own property they kind of came around. I had a pretty limited budget but the entire project cost me about 1.7 million. Wow. Including everything. How much is the tram alone? Tram wasn't bad. It was like 102,000. Wow. Yeah to make it possible. I did build the island. It's concrete. It's a wolf stove. You know so I built this stuff because it was a very special sort of element of the house. And kitchens are so important. We really spend a lot of time in our kitchen. Also since I build things for a living a kitchen is really like a workshop. I see people have these gigantic kitchens and they're like walking from place to place. And my mother was an interior designer so she taught me early things that make sense. You know you want these triangles so you're not having to run across. So everything works. It's really easy to work in this kitchen and make good food. So you made everything the doors the boxes even? I did not make these. Okay. I did in my other house very similar design. Okay. And I remembered how hard it was to do unless you're a shop that just makes cabinets. When I first moved in we had a lot of parties because there were a lot of people that wanted to come over. I'm sure. It's a pretty great place especially you know with the outdoor areas. I tried to make it not a gigantic entertainment house but a really cozy home. So far it feels that way. It feels like a home that you could definitely live in. And what's the total square footage here? 2150. Okay. But obviously the big part is this you know amazing view. These are nothing that I did build. The doors. Oh you did? I built these sliding glass doors. Wow. And they are smooth as butter. Nice job. Thanks. And even the tracks that are recessed in with the tile like this. I love that detail. I store this here. What is that? Here's something I made I guess 2008. So I added this lounge chair that I had for a long time and I'm like gosh it sure would be awesome if it had wheels and moved. So I made this. Oh my gosh. Let's see if it's. So you steer here like this and look out buddy. I need to try that. You want to try it? Yeah. I'll spin it around for you. That's your steering. Oh that's your steering. Okay. And it's on. So nothing. It's on. Okay. If you go forward you'll go. All right that's all I'm going to do. That is awesome. Oh my gosh. I want one. Here's a blast. I'm going to park it over here. You are creative. That's for sure. The first time I saw the land. Well when I bought the land was 1998. But then it wasn't until 2006 that I got serious about like trying to figure out a way to build up here. And my initial thoughts were oh a prefab. You know that's already mobile. You know it comes in units. I could have that lifted up. It would have taken a really big crane and another crane to build the really big crane. And three semi-truck loads of counterweights just to do it. And they would have had to close the road to do it. Anyway. So I went through a lot of process to get to the end result. This is actually a door. Whoa. So I can open or close this area. And part of the reason I did that is so I could control winds. Yeah. You know there's this. Sometimes you want the flow of wind to cool you off in the summer for example. Of course. But you feel how it picked up now that we opened it. Right. So it was really protecting us to be in this enclosed area without the passage. It's so windy now. Right. So it really does serve its purpose though in the summertime. You're right because it gets hot up here in the summer. So the summer sun doesn't go in. Perfect. But you can see how the sun is just streaming in to the living room warming it up. And this is passive solar. Passive energy. And it really works. It really helps. And you do have solar on the roof. And I've added solar on the roof. So it costs nothing to run this house then. Yeah it's really cheap. Wow. Yeah. Should we go up there and look at the solar? If you want. Okay let's do that. Okay. We can all fit in that elevator. It's gonna be even scarier than the tram I think. It's a little sketchy. Let's take the stairs. No you can watch us get in and go up. Okay. And then you can go up with the camera. Okay. Jump on in. I'm not nervous at all. After the big ride. Yeah. All right we'll see you up there. Okay you coming with us puppy? All right. This is fun. Pretty cool right? It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it was going to be. These are called solar tubes and they produce a huge amount of light. I basically never need to use lights during the day. It's all lit naturally. Okay so this is the top of the mountain right here. Pretty much the top of the mountain. Yep. And that ledge that you were talking about behind the kitchen was right about here. Down below there. This is sort of my first year's attempt at a garden area. Okay. I'll be adding. You know the best is my son comes up here with me and he'll pick his tomatoes and pop them in his mouth and he just loves it. It's like candy. Want one? Sure yeah thanks. That's what I actually used to do as a kid just... It's good. So you hired someone with a helicopter to haul this material and just drop it off up here. Well then they dropped it very softly. They bring it down and then we unhook it. Oh my gosh. That is crazy. So all these spools, super heavy stuff. Yeah. And steel beams. That was handy for everything that was heavier. So this is the alternate route. But one of the great things about this this build is you can drive up in your car and there's not one step you have to take. You can wheel anywhere you want. I have a friend who's in a wheelchair and I thought about her when I was building this. I'm like if I can, I'll make it no stairs. So you can roll right in and throughout the house and use the elevator to get between floors. You know the floor to ceiling of just the rock. On the one hand you're looking way off into the distance. On the one hand you're looking like very up close. Wow. This bathroom is a pretty great place to just soak it all in. Rocks take on a color of their own when it's raining up here. I've been up here quite a few times when it's raining and snowing. It's pretty special. It's really awesome when it's snowing. Yeah. Because it kind of goes sideways. And then occasionally you're here and like a chipmunk will cruise by. Oh my gosh. And there are lights back there so the whole thing kind of glows. That was a smart move. You have views in every direction from this house. I had a lot of talks with the fire marshal. One of the very first things I did was went to the fire department and talked to the fire marshal with plans. Yeah. Kind of rough plans. Like will you let me build on my property? And he said our primary concern is to be able to save you. It's not really split out the fire. But our fire truck has a hundred foot ladder and it can shoot another hundred feet. So we can shoot. We can put out your fire and you're gonna have to be sprinkler. If somebody gets injured for example on the Johnham. Yeah. Or somebody with a heart attack. We need to be able to get there and be able to get them out. So they can bypass the tram with their ladder. No I have to give them a key in the tram. Oh wow. Okay. I also. But then as I started getting building there was a new fire marshal. Oh geez. And he had to get him on board. The whole thing. And he's like what the heck are you doing in my fire district? Like this is approved. But I didn't approve it. So I had to go through the whole process again. By that time I had the tram running and I brought him up. He sent out his technical rescue crew to see how fast they could get here if there was a power outage or something. It took him four minutes to climb up my ladder system. Okay. He's like that's okay. By the end of the build they loved it. That is awesome. I can't believe that they got up here via the ladders almost as fast as you get up here in that tram ride. Yep. Well the guy was actually a really. That's his job. Yeah. Like he goes and rescues people at Grand Mountains all the time. Yeah. Views again in every direction. Great to take a shower with an awesome view. This leads out to the lower patio. This is interesting how it drops down here but this is what creates that kind of facade that you see when you're driving up. And this is a great area in the summertime when you want to get out of the heat. And then this leads out. And now you can see sort of the foundation. Wow yep. And we tested the rock and the rock strength is about 9,000 psi tensile strength. Concrete is about three four thousand square feet. So roughly twice as strong as concrete. Yeah I mean these rocks have been here how many thousands of years? Millions of years. Hundreds of millions of years. Yeah. And they're super dense. Yeah. That's why they're so tall and still here after millions of years. That's pretty crazy to think that it's just these rocks that are holding the house up really. I mean they're solid rock. Yeah. They are not going anywhere in a hurry. This is fun. This is this tree was here. Do you do any climbing? I had to. Oh yeah. I actually hired a real professional mountaineer to help me to help train me. Really? Because I didn't I didn't know the ins and outs. And I could do rappelling. But I had to work here for a couple weeks with you know hammer drills and stuff. And be tied off and safe. And um. So you had this mountaineer come out and train you on site how to be a mountaineer. Yeah. Crash course. Exactly. Basically crash course. So you know we're hanging our ropes together and we're working together. He probably got a kick out of that. He did. I think all people have dreams. And all people have dreams that they weren't able to fulfill. And I was lucky enough to have a dream that I really believed in. And I'm a hard worker. And I kept pushing and didn't give up. And I was you know I'm luckier than most people that I was able to pull it off. But I strongly encourage people to dream big. And whatever it is go for it. And make it happen. Don't rely on anybody else to make it happen. I'm able to do a lot of things through all the work I've done to get here. And at the end of the day instead of using the telephone to try to find somebody else to do what I wanted to do. I just decided to do it. And that was a big part of it. Yeah. You know being the guy on the rope. Being the guy pouring the concrete. Doing what has to be done to get the job done. So that was a big part of the success of making this happen. You have no desire to do any more climbing after this build here? You know I still have to do it occasionally. It's part of it. It's part of it. When you're living up here. Yeah. It's fun. And you get used to it. Yeah. There's one of those 36 mile an hour gusts that you were predicting.