by Melissa Fox
Life changed for Coye Conner Jr. nine years ago when he was involved in a 75 mph head-on collision on I-35S in Fort Worth. Shockingly, he walked away essentially unscathed, but part of his recuperation from the bumps and bruises was a physician recommended daily walking regimen. Coye took the next two weeks off and retreated to his ranch in the Texas Hill Country to clear his mind and recover. It was during one of his daily walks along the well worn paths of the rolling hills that he stumbled upon the skeletal remains of a white tail deer, which he estimates had been dead for about 5 years.
The bones were sun bleached to a perfect white and as his eyes followed along the vertebrae they landed on the unique shape of the pelvic bone. A defining thought came to him in that moment, as he remarked to himself ‘that kinda looks like a mask’. He then took it to his barn and started contemplating what he could create and how he could repurpose this natural treasure that he had stumbled upon. Up until this juncture he had not considered himself all that creative, his extensive and successful career as an attorney had awarded him many titles along the way, but at that point everything changed. Coye Conner became an artist.
As fate would have it Coye, a Texas native, would reconnect just a few years later with longtime family friend Andi Clark. Coye and Andi, an avid hunter herself, each had their own high-fence game ranches at the time and when Andi was seeking advice on some property improvements to her hill country ranch a mutual friend recommended she give Coye a call. So that she did. When Coye asked her when she wanted to come visit, she replied ‘well, how about this weekend?’.
The time came for him to meet her at the front gate of the ranch and he was a little surprised to find Andi driving a 45 foot motor home and pulling a Ford F150 behind it, but that’s just the strong, independent type that she is. Wearing a cowboy wild rag around his neck and armed with a bottle of tequila and two shot glasses, Coye rambled up to the gate in his Ranger and invited her to hop in. After taking shots of tequila they took off to tour the ranch and have been together ever since!
Coye and Andi soon determined that they wanted to share property so they each sold their individual ranches and began looking at other ranches in the hill country together. They debated staying in the south central part of Texas, but realized that their children, family and friends were all “back home” in, and not too far from around, East Texas. Coye grew up in Tyler and moved around the state with his family as he got older. He even rodeoed for a time and also played football on scholarship at Baylor University in Waco. No matter the distance though, East Texas was their familiar territory and they ultimately decided there was no sense moving somewhere where they didn’t know anyone, so they narrowed their search.
They knew they wanted a good amount of acreage and found an ideal ranch property located about 20 minutes south of Tyler, near Troup, Texas in 2017. An existing barn stood on the property, so they had a builder finish it out into barndominium for them to call home. It has living quarters, a large kitchen, and a generous sized game room. When they completed that project, they realized they didn’t have a legitimate barn anymore, so they then added a 40 by 40 extension onto the back so they would have some place to put the things one would normally keep in a barn. They lived there for almost four years and were quite happy but knew the bardominium wasn’t their ultimate residence.
In addition to the two beautiful, fully stocked, spring-fed lakes on the property, another appeal was the opportunity to experience free range wild animals living naturally on the ranch, as well as running a working cattle operation for a period of time. Coye has since sold the black angus cows and now he and Andi are considering whether or not they want to make the ranch high fence and introduce exotics as they had in the past. Andi has experience in managing a variety of exotic animals like axis deer, red stag, orix, black buck antelope, fallow and sika deer.
In early 2020 Coye sought the advice of his close friend, Jeff Bigbie, about who he would recommend as a home builder. Jeff told Coye he would give him one name…Kyle Johns, owner of KJ Homes, Inc. Coye then called Kyle and during the course of their conversation, they realized they had done business together many years ago and that Kyle’s wife, Jana, was the architectual designer for his custom home building business as well. It couldn’t have been a better fit. Coye and Andi felt great about their decision to move forward with the Johns and got straight
to work.
Both Andi and Coye had traditional ranch style homes at their ranches previously, so they knew they wanted something different to reflect their eclectic taste. They wanted to embody what they called “cowboy contemporary” or “western modern”. But even after scouring the internet extensively they could not find anything that incorporated both of these styles simultaneously. So they set out to create a first-of-its-kind dream home.
Coye had already chosen a front elevation of a home that he liked, Andi had a back elevation, as well as a floor plan, and so they asked Jana if she could basically marry the three concepts together. Jana impressively integrated all three of these components into a sleek, yet somewhat rustic, 3 bedroom, 3 bath custom home design for the couple.
Ultimately, they chose the same hilltop as the bardomenium for the homesite in order to take advantage of picturesque views of their 116 acre property. They’ve been told this site is the highest point in the south end of Smith County and they believe it! At night they have more than a 320-degree view to the southwest starting in Jacksonville, over to Bullard, north of course of Tyler and all the way in the northeast to Chapel Hill, over to Whitehouse and then in the southeast to New Summerfield. Day or night the East Texas views are incredible.
KJ Homes worked for a year in the planning and preparation and in a stroke of good fortune the 5,300 square foot slab was poured in February of 2021, the day before a historic snow storm hit the area. What came to be known as “Snowmageddon” ended up providing the ideal conditions for the concrete to cure impeccably. Construction took place in the midst of the Covid pandemic and even with the associated labor and material shortages that many builders experienced at that time, the project was completed in April of 2022.
As you can see from the pictures the home blends into the topography perfectly bringing a little southwestern flair through the low-maintenance landscaping and seamlessly melding Coye and Andi’s desire for a unique and distinctive style all their own. The clean lines and geometric shapes of both the exterior, and interior, coupled with the use of natural materials accomplishes their goal for “cowboy contemporary”.
Coye’s personal style is reflected in his original art pieces incorporated throughout the home. Grounded in his small town East Texas roots, he has always been intrigued and drawn to the brave, fighting spirit of the Native American Indian as well. When he came across those dry deer bones that very first time and was inspired to design masks from them, he began his experimentation with various paints and embellishments to adorn them and thus his “mystic masks” were born.
The basis of his collection includes shed deer, elk and other various antlers, dry deer pelvic bones and any other useable bones he has collected from his walks. In the beginning he used spray paint and blended the colors together to ensconce the bones. Later on, Andistarted mixing the acrylic paint that Coye now utilizes distinctive acrylic pours to create each unique piece of art. Combining different parts of the dried skeletal remains of large game and then adding feathers, necklaces, eyes and even glasses is what Coye considers good therapy. He admits that how each piece comes together is largely dependent on what music he has playing. Coye’s art has been published in a book, is requested routinely for donation to charity auctions and even featured in a local art gallery for sale. Once you have experienced Coye’s art, you will not forget it.
In addition to their vast collection of art and collections throughout the home are truly unique elements, one of which is the double-sided fireplace from Acucraft Fireplace out of Big Lake, Minnesota. It is a commercial grade fireplace that they fell in love with at first sight and knew they had to feature somehow. Everyone who visits also falls in love with the tile flooring. Made to look like marble, the ceramic tile is easily mistaken for high-maintenance marble but without the price-tag or upkeep.
The striking custom-made Cobalt blue appliances are manufactured by The Big Chill out of Colorado and carried by only three retailers in Texas. Coye and Andi worked with The Brass Maiden store in Houston, Texas to get exactly what they wanted, and surprisingly, at a fraction of the price of other luxury appliance competitors. They initially had trouble finding high quality appliances in the specific color that they wanted but they were thankful when they discovered this lesser known company.
Another special upgrade to the house is the whole home water filtration system, as well as a reverse osmosis water system. The systems ensure that anywhere that water enters your body in the home – whether through cooking, drinking or in an ice maker is safe and non-toxic. The reverse osmosis system additionally purifies the water and filters out any contaminants. This requires specific plumbing at an additional cost which most home builders aren’t doing, but both Coye and Andi have said it’s well worth it and Kyle agrees.
With a setting such as this, there aren’t too many reasons to leave, but Coye and Andi still find themselves traveling, especially when it involves hunting. Andi has at least 6 different exotic game animals she took on an African hunt proudly displayed in the barndomenium’s game room and they have another trip to Africa scheduled in the Spring of 2023.
Coye and Andi know first hand that life isn’t perfect and doesn’t always go as planned. So when it came to naming their ranch Andi was inspired by the Rascal Flats song ‘Bless The Broken Road’. It is a story about how even when our lives become shattered and seem to crumble around us, God uses it all to work together to create a beautiful path that leads us to where we are meant to be. Much like Coye and Andi having found each other along their
broken road.
