Project Profile: Magid House Backyard, Aptos, Calif.
by David Searls

When a pair of homeowners put their heads together with concrete maestro Tom Ralston, the result was three levels of outdoor grandeur.

The husband-and-wife team of Dr. Morgan Magid and Mary Alves were looking to add a modest basketball shooting court to their shallow backyard for their youngest son, Jared.

“All they wanted,” says family friend and concrete designer Tom Ralston, “was a small extension to the patio for a basketball hoop. Just one hoop and a net.”

For Ralston, of Santa Cruz, Calif.-based Tom Ralston Concrete, it sounded like it would be one of his simplest jobs ever.

“Then Mary started asking me for ideas,” he says, adding with a chuckle, “Bad idea.”

What the Magids ended up with, after a year and a half, was a three-level, four-season stamped-concrete outdoor luxury living space featuring three entertainment areas, four sets of staircases, a cascading waterfall, radiant heat, outdoor kitchen with barbecue pit, stereo system, mini-bar, refrigerator, flat-screen television, warming drawer, two-burner stove and trash compactor. Everything, in short, but the kitchen sink.