(Editor's Note: This story first appeared in the January 2004 issue of Mammoth Monthly magazine. Subscribe here.)

The old standby Mammoth A-frame does not have much of a reputation, as Mark and Mary Anne Bewsher discovered as soon as they bought one.

"The contractors told us when we started, ‘Why put so much money into something when you could tear it down and build a much more expensive home?'" Mark Bewsher said.

But the Bewshers, who split their time between Mammoth and the Bay Area, had a different idea altogether, and the happy result is one of the more interesting examples of modern home design in town.

Working with Corinne Brown at The Finishing Touch, the couple turned a funky, old A-frame into what Mary Anne Bewsher said is a home based on "simplicity and modernity."

"I like the simplicity and purity -- the architectural bones -- when you're inside an A-frame," she said. "There really isn't any substitute for good architectural bones from inside a house."

"Mark and Mary Anne have a real contemporary aesthetic," Brown said, "and the A-frame is perfect for that because it's a pure geometric form -- a triangle. The furnishings we chose were clean and contemporary, and there were a lot of things with a geometric nature.

"In one part of the house, we used circle mirrors that come out from the side of the sloping walls on articulated arms. We used circles and triangles and really played that up. The geometric nature of the A-frame has been repeated throughout the whole house."

Moreover, the couple chose as many natural materials as they could to reference the environment around them, creating a living space that also is respectful of the surroundings.

"We felt it was sufficient for our needs," Mary Anne Bewsher said. "I like the feeling of living carefully, respectfully, and simply in the environment and not having to have more space than we need."

Added her husband: "The more stuff you have and the bigger the house, the more maintenance headaches you've got."

One of the problems of an A-frame house is, of course, what to do with the sloping walls. The Bewshers took advantage of the angling walls, building in a desk, drawers, and a spot for a flat-panel, LCD television.

In addition, the furniture "floats" in the middle of the room instead of being pushed up against the sloping sides.

Another challenge was lighting. Many of the lights are dropped from the ceiling, and the couple chose custom-made "hockey-puck" light canisters for places such as the kitchen. Throughout the house, the Bewshers used wall sconces to light difficult spots, then added a really terrific touch: They removed all the traditional doors and replaced them with opaque glass doors, letting the light flow throughout the home.

For the railings on the deck and stairs, the Bewshers called on Tony Lober at Sierra Reflections, who installed crackled glass panels.

"There's a really open feeling in an A-frame," Mary Anne Bewsher said, "and we tried to maximize that by bringing more light in between the rooms."

One of the many surprising aspects of the home is the use of concrete, into which is embedded everything from sea glass to coins from faraway places.

"Concrete is an old and seemingly lowly material," Mary Anne Bewsher said, "and it's amazing what they're doing with concrete. We're finding new use for an old but natural material."

Elsewhere, the Bewshers have heated slate floors in each room except for the bedroom and living room, and they have metalwork crafted by Mammoth's Henry Means, who built a very modern, striking entryway.

Taken as a whole, the entire home is so well done that it will force even the most jaded to reassess his or her opinion of the old Mammoth A-frame.