As you gain entry through the automated metal gate and continue on a long, winding drive, you wonder if you came in the right gate to the Goddard residence. As the winding drive passes a large pond with an old Weeping Willow sighing from a manmade platform, your gaze goes out a long, broad view of forest in the distance. As you make another turn toward a lovely wooden structure peeking through a stand of trees, you wonder if you haven't arrived at a retreat of some sort instead.

And you would be partially right. In 1992, the Goddards bought eight acres that topographical maps identify as a retreat center called "Boys Camp." The same old willow might have watched the boys swimming in the pond 30 to 40 years ago.

"We bought the land and a funky bungalow," says Lance Goddard, recently starting his own business in the same field. The "funky bungalow" overlooked the pond and was a weekend get-away from the Bay Area for the Goddards. During that time, they added another 40 acres to their setting for preservation, privacy, and "a home for the coyotes." (Needless to say, they have no domestic animals.)

Joan Goddard is now a marriage and family therapist, a career she launched much later in life after 30 years as a piano teacher.

"I found I was counseling and coaching friends and colleagues all the time anyway," says Joan, "and I wanted to legitimize it."

Joan had been part of an organization that required years of leadership training and personal and professional development, self-realization and enlightenment that developed her skills. She went to San Francisco State as a "mature student" and received her degree in counseling psychology.

"I frankly didn't feel I was doing anything differently after I was licensed than I did before," she laughs.

In 1998, Lance and Joan decided to build their dream home and searched for the right architect. After many interviews, they settled on Jeff Gold of Jeff Gold & Associates, architects, "not only because of what he showed us," they admit, "but because of who he is: a Zen-like, beautiful, peaceful, unflappable, creative man."

The project was not completed until 2000 and it was well worth the wait. The approach to the 3,600 square foot wood and glass home boasts natural rocks walls, smooth decks, gardens, trellises, natural swaths of grasses and flowers.

Carolyn Singer, owner of Foothill Cottage Gardens, author of "Deer in My Garden," and now dear friend of the Goddards, created the landscaping.

"Her approach is not to do it all in one fell swoop," explains Joan. "The garden has evolved and looks natural. It has something beautiful to see in every season."

A stream cascades down from a fishpond to the larger pond below, its banks consisting of rocks carefully and lovingly placed by the architect himself. Decks incorporate "special" rocks the Goddards collected through the years, interspersed among more generic stones.

The oak door to the house incorporates a cherry wood design by Gold, a real piece of craftsmanship skillfully made by the carpenter with many beautiful angles, curves and shapes. The art of the door is so lovely that the Goddards had its original template - the model for the actual door - hand-painted and it now sits proudly at the end of a hallway, a matching beautiful Oriental runner pointing the way.

The rooms in the Goddard residence contain open, flowing angles. Your vision bounces and flows. Ceilings and walls are angled, lifted; the rooms are light, airy, musical. You achieve a long, tantalizing view into other rooms but interspersed in mid-view or close-up is an angled wall, happy home to a beautiful piece of art, or sandblasted glass that teases with what's just behind it in the next room.

The dining room is round, with a rounded recessed ceiling above. Lance was hoping to achieve a "tower" in the house similar to that built by psychologist Carl Jung, and the architect accommodated as best he could.

The round theme repeats in the bedroom above, and, as the story goes, friends wrote well-wishes on the wood framing of the house before it was enclosed.

Vertical grain Douglas fir is found throughout the house except for the kitchen, where cherry wood cabinets hover over a wide slab of brown and black granite festooned with occasional blue flashes of Labradorite shimmering from the countertop.

Another deep, rich, granite side cabinet adorns the dining room and again near the living room. This warm, brown granite contains orthoceras fossils said to be 400 million years old. Incredibly, Joan found a plate with the same fossils at the Empire Mine gift shop. The plate is displayed on the cabinet as if it erupted from the granite overnight.

That the Goddard home shares a strong resemblance to quality music is no accident. Both Joan and Lance are deeply involved in the musical community of Nevada County, Joan on the board of the Twin Cities Concert Association since first coming here. Benefit concerts for non-profits are held in the Goddard living room (the only square room in the house.)

TCCA Board parties and events often take place on the spacious patio and pool area overlooking the pond. There are plans some time in the future for a jazz-on-the-pond concert with Ken Hardin, TCCA artistic director, and other local jazz musicians. "We're open to even more intimate musical experiences," says Joan. "We can accommodate 40-50 people at the house concerts, and many more at the pond."

In addition to attracting music lovers, the Goddards host meditations and women's and couples' retreats. The setting is ideal. It is quiet, peaceful, calm, reassuring, loving, spiritual, and full of the energy of music and beauty.

Sounds like the definition of a retreat.

ooo

Terri Bianco lives in Nevada County and enjoys looking at other people's houses. If you have a home or garden that would make an interesting story, she can be reached at 272-2811.