Our new home is in a development called the Santa Lucia Preserve
(www.santaluciapreserve.com),
just south and east of Carmel, California.
“Development” may conjure up visions of houses packed cheek-by-jowl,
but not in this case. The Preserve is 31 square miles of original
untouched California hills and valleys that will have a maximum of
300 homes when fully built out. (We’re number 16.) Most of the
land is in a permanent nature conservancy, and even individual lots
must leave most of the land in a natural state. The Preserve has
all of the amenities of a high-end community – golf course, equestrian
facilities, recreation facilities, a lake and pools – but mostly
it’s about peace and wilderness.
Our lot is classified “Savannah” which means a mixture of oaks and
open land. It is 32 acres, but we can only use four of it (the “homeland”)
for buildings. The rest is in a conservancy easement. Our homeland has
a flat meadow in the front (where the house is sited) and a wooded hill
that rises about 100 feet behind the house. Our nearest visible
neighbor is a mile and a half away.
The Design
We followed the philosophy of “houses built for living” as developed
by the architect Sarah Susanka in her book “The Not So Big House.”
We did not want a “starter castle.” The result was 2,850 square feet of
living space, 600 square feet of garage, and an outdoor patio. We broke
ground in August of 2002 and finished in April of 2004. Our architect was
Cathy Schwabe, AIA, and our builder was DMC Construction, project
managed by Ray Byrne. Our interior designer was Sherry Williamson,
AIA, and the landscape architect was Joni Janecki, ASLA.
The house is basically linear, running northeast to southwest.
The “private” wing housing Barbara’s study, the master bedroom and baths,
closets and utility room, is turned 45 degrees from the main line of
the building. Roughly 40% of the floor area is one large space, a
combination of great room, kitchen, dining area, a media “inglenook”
and a screened porch. There are four bedrooms (two of which we use
for our studies, in Jim’s case a music room/study,) a large utility
room, and 2.5 baths.
The entrance to the house is through ten-foot high doors opening onto a small foyer with dramatic windows framing the wooded hill. To the right of the entrance, a narrow hallway leads down two steps to the “private” area of the house including Barbara’s study, the utility room, a half-bath and the master bedroom and bath.
Turning left at the entrance, a very short but wide hallway opens onto the
main living space. Walking toward the southern end of the house takes you
past the kitchen and dining area on the left and the great room and inglenook
on the right. Further along, you enter a hallway with the guest bedroom and
bath on the left and a screened porch on the right. The hallway ends in Jim’s
study/music room, which has large south-facing windows and west-facing French
doors opening onto a small patio.
The main architectural feature of the house is a high (24-foot) clerestory
over the center of the house. The clerestory has operable windows facing
east, so the rising sun washes the interior of the house in light and warms
it quickly in winter. Although the Preserve can be quite warm in the summer,
the house was designed for natural cooling, with the clerestory serving as a
“chimney” drawing heat out from both ends of the building. The house uses
radiant heat, and does not have or need air conditioning. Ceiling fans are
used to circulate air. The design theme was “bringing the outdoors in,” and
the color scheme reflects the browns, yellows, greens and greys of the
glorious natural setting.
Interior construction is mostly drywall with acid-stained decorative
concrete floors. Walls are golden-yellow and the ceilings are a powder
blue. Accent is provided by Douglas fir ceilings in some rooms and
mahogany built-in furniture and shelves.
Exterior
The house has a brown stucco exterior with moss-green windows and extensive cedar
trellises designed for temperature control as well as beauty. The design and
engineering emphasize passive solar temperature control. There are more than
75 single and double-hung windows, all operable. They use low-e-squared glass
for thermal efficiency, and the house itself is heavily insulated.
This
combined with the large heat sink provided by the concrete floors, keeps temperature fluctuations within 10 degrees of ambient on all but the hottest or coldest of days.
Entrance
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You enter the house from the porch into a small foyer with large doors and windows
on each end. The decorative branches on the side wall are from a fallen branch
of a "granary tree," in which woodpeckers drill holes, stuff them with acorns,
and then return to eat the worms inside the nuts and stuff in new acorns
the next season. It does not harm the tree. Cool! (The woodpecker Barbara
is observing is a gift from one of the carpenters.)
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Great Room
A central part of the house, the great room opens off the central
corridor. The walls are painted sheetrock, and the cathedral ceiling
is clear Douglas fir. A wood stove provides a decorative focal point
as well as heating the house quickly if the radiant system has been
turned down for any length of time. We originally specified a fireplace
wall, but because of earthquake codes and foundation issues it would have
added about $30,000 to the cost of the house. We worked with the
contractor, structural engineer and architect to find an alternative
solution and this was it. As was the case throughout this project,
cost reduction and design elegance were allies, not adversaries.
Inglenook
A small alcove with flat 10’ ceilings just off the great room, the
inglenook has a built-in day bed and a media cabinet for entertainment, both
made from mahogany. The concept of an inglenook comes from the Craftsman
school of architecture, and provides what Susanka calls an “away space”
for privacy in an open floor plan design.
The lower ceiling provides a sense of coziness when compared to
the high ceilings of the great room. We used a low-pile brown wool carpet
in this room for sound insulation. The master bedroom and Barbara’s study
are also carpeted with the same material, but the rest of the house has
elegant stained concrete floors that mirror the yellow and brown grasses
around the house during the dry season.
Screened Porch
This little jewel of a space lets us enjoy the wonderful Carmel
Valley weather without being bothered by insects. Our landscape architect
proposed it on a hot day, when there were many bugs out and about. Access
is from the great room through large sliding “barn doors.”
When these doors
are open they disappear, creating the sense of continuous space with the
great room. The cathedral ceiling (a continuation of the great room ceiling)
is knotty cedar that says “outside” compared to the “inside” clear fir of the
great room. The walls are painted cedar, wiped to show the grain.
The screens provide both us and our cats with an “outdoor-indoor” space.
(The cats can’t go outside because they would be instant predator snacks.)
Kitchen
The countertops are of rolled zinc, which will acquire a nice
patina over time. Since the kitchen is visible from the rest of the
living space we didn’t want countertops like polished granite that shout
“kitchen.” The sink is a farm-style soapstone. There are no wall-mounted
cabinets to interfere with the framed views across valleys and hills -
storage is under-counter and in a pantry. (We’re about a half-hour from
the nearest grocery store.) The range is in a center island, which has
an elevated end panel that
shields the dining area from views of dirty dishes. All cabinets are
gray-green painted wood. A built-in desk divides the kitchen from the
great room – the kitchen side is painted, but the great room side is
mahogany. It’s the place for dumping mail, paying bills, answering the
phone and other mundane tasks that need to be done. Mahogany is used in
selected places throughout the house as an accent touch – we couldn’t afford
fancy hardwood everywhere, and this actually worked out better.
Dining Area
Basically a continuation of the kitchen, it has a built-in banquette
and three chairs around a 3x4’ table. A similar table is in the great
room and can be brought in to supplement the dining table when we have
more than two guests. A low bookcase separates the dining area from
the great room and provides storage, as do high built-in china and book
cabinets. The hanging lamps over the table are hand-blown glass for a
touch of whimsy. Wall lights are bamboo and paper sconces that offer
a warm glow. Most of the lights in the house are on dimmers for
ambiance and energy conservation.
Master Bedroom and Bath
A “right-sized” master suite with high peaked windows and painted
drywall cathedral ceilings, the master bedroom has wonderful views
down a wooded hill into a meadow and across the valley. Many of our animal visitors hang
out in the shade just outside this room. We’ve seen deer, turkeys,
coyotes, bobcats and many birds. Wild boar and mountain lions are
also in the area but fortunately have not paid us a visit! The bathroom
has a glass shower with a skylight and a side vent to exhaust steam. Two
vanities (big for Barbara, small for Jim of course!) provide individual
spaces. A large window above the tub provides nice views of the wooded
hill – privacy is not an issue here!
Clerestory and Frames
Although not a part of the living floor space, the frames and
clerestory form the central visual element of the house. The frames
are decorative Douglas fir beams that provide a sense of spatial
separation between the great room, kitchen and dining space without
blocking access. Low-voltage strip lights inside the frames provide
soft upward illumination at night, so that the clerestory doesn’t
look like a black hole.
Jim’s Study
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At the far end of the house from the master bedroom, the study faces
an elegant small patio with clay pavers, with access through 10? French
doors. The southern windows provide a view down a small valley. The
piano (a Mason and Hamlin BB made from African Rosewood) is the dominant
decorative element. Jim is a fan of small offices, so he built a little desk into the closet!
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Barbara's Study
In contrast to Jim's desire for a "wide-open" study, Barbara wanted a "cozy cave." This is a working office, with furniture from her previous office in the Bay area. It's designed for her height and her desire for lots of working space. She looks out on the back yard with beautiful oaks, the forested hill, and a house for barn owls we put up in the trees. The walls have four pictures of animals - a bull elephant, a pod of hippos, a giraffe family and a lechwe antelope - that we took on our first trip to Africa. Nice memories!
Other Spaces
Other spaces, including the guest bedroom and bath,
walk-in closets, half-bath, utility room and garage, are not pictured here.
The guest bedroom and bath are small
but have fabulous views of the mountains and valleys to the east. The utility
room is oversized to provide lots of work and storage space – it even has a
clothes-drying closet with a drain in the floor! (Thanks, Cathy.)
The Future
Since move-in we have gradually been furnishing and decorating the house and landscaping. The deer ate most of our deer-proof plants (we're the only green area for a mile or so during the summer), but they were here first and we love seeing them grazing in the yard. We've re-planted with things we hope won't be so appetizing. We planted jasmine vines on the front trellis, wysteria on the south side, and climbing roses on the back. We know the deer will browse the lower parts of the vines, but we should have good green cover on top of the trellises.
Most of the furniture is custom-made by local woodworkers. The dining room chairs, guest bed and tables, chest in the front hall were made by the Meier brothers in Santa Cruz - identical twins who had been mechanical engineers and then decided making furniture was more fun. It's museum-quality work, and we'll probably add more over time. The master bedroom suite, dining tables and teak table on the porch came from other craftsmen. The dining tables are each 4x3 feet, made from mahogany and wrought steel. We keep them separated when it's just the two of us, but can join them together for larger groups. The chairs on the porch are made from recycled hardwood railroad ties from a factory in South Africa. Most of the rest of the furniture is high-end commercial, including the sofa, upholstered chairs and ottomans in the great room and Jim's study, coffee tables and miscellanous other pieces. The plaited straw rug in the great room is a 100-year old antique from Indonesia, and the one under Jim's piano is a Crate and Barrel jute special! We've also added two nice paintings (including the one visible in the Inglenook), some beautiful photos of oaks on the Preserve done by a local artist, and a wall sculpture of horses modeled after the Neolithic cave paintings in Lascaux, France. Furnishings are one place we've been happy to spend money - this is another thesis of the Not So Big concept.
Thanks for sharing the story of our home with us!
