Best Reminder Of Key West In Kansas City

We have to admit that, at first, we hated the house built just across Brush Creek from the Plaza. It didn't fit with the vine-covered stone of the Tudors cut into the hill above or with the Spanish Mediterranean style of the Plaza itself. Apparently we weren't alone. Owner-designer-builder Rudy Langer says he got a lot of calls when the concrete walls started to rise, including one from a "snobby-ass" lawyer who lived in Johnson County and was bothered by the affront to his downtown commute. "I gave him an earful," says Langer, a retired auto-repair businessman. Langer didn't have to chew us out for us to change our opinion. As soon as the fake palm tree sprouted on the groovy, metal-railed porch, we were sold. We love it because it does clash; because the barrel-vaulted roof is made of steel, not shake shingles; because the bisected tower out front reminds us of Rapunzel; because the clean lines make us think of Key West, and we begin to thirst for margaritas; and because we'd like to be retired and rich and confident enough to tell our snooty neighbors where to stick their Tudors.