Located on an oversized lot in the village center, the house was a modestly sized post-war home with three small bedrooms. However, the homeowners were looking for a better designed space that was more modern, open, and connected to the rear yard. A space that would be comfortable for just the two of them and her mother, yet able to handle visits from their children and grandchildren. The solution was a renovation of the main house into the primary residence and the adding of a new guest wing for the visiting children and grandchildren.

The renovated home is organized by a series of long parallel bars that extend from the entry point to the interior, and back outside to the exterior. The bars run in the east-west direction and are faced with warm gray panels that conceal storage cabinets and closets held within their thickness. The ends are expressed as a vertically layered ribbed surface. These bars both organize the interior layout of the home and the exterior fenestration with large areas of glass between them.

To the east, the living and kitchen areas open onto the rear yard through 14’ and 10’ wide sliding doors. A full-length deck is covered by an overhanging structure faced with horizontal ship-lapped Alaska yellow cedar siding. The Guest House is oriented perpendicular to the Main House and frames the rear yard as a sheltered courtyard.

The organizing bars have been cut and carved away to create connections between rooms and alcoves. Lined in dark charcoal panels, these alcove voids are used for kitchen counters, desk, media center, dressing room counter, and an outdoor shower. Long views through the house to beyond are created by allowing the organizing bars to run past the large areas of glass to the exterior.

The Guest House is reached via the hall gallery and her painting studio with views to the yard along one side. The studio is top-lit with a large centrally located skylight and furnished with built-in shelving for painting storage. The Guest House is modest in size and is able to be closed off from the Painting Studio with a custom sliding steel door that doubles as a pinup surface with magnets for her sketches. A bedroom for the grandchildren has four built-in bunk beds with integrated nooks and reading lights.

The primary suite bathroom walls are lined with a gray vertically oriented tile. The sizing of the tile varies in width based upon the orientation of the walls – similar to the expressive grain of the organizing bars. Over the large shower, a full-length skylight fills the room with natural light while maintaining privacy.