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USA Houzz Tour: A Dream Mountain Home for a Lover of the Outdoors

An architect designs a modern Pacific Northwest home for enjoying nature, the sun and the seasons

Julie Sheer
Julie SheerFebruary 6, 2021
Houzz Contributor; journalist with more than two decades of experience as a graphics editor and writer at the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune; outdoor guidebook author; lover of all things outdoors, nature and wildlife. Follow me at https://westcentric.wordpress.com/
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A retired aerospace engineer from Everett in Washington, USA, who’s an avid hiker and nature observer, wanted a simple and contemporary home with interesting architecture. The site was as important as the design – he craved a home that focused on landscape views and had access to hiking trails. He also wanted it to be a place where he could read, reflect and relax. His search led him to a 10-acre site about an hour northeast of Seattle. Though he’s not a horse enthusiast, the site is surrounded by horse properties and an equestrian centre, in a meadow with mountain views of the Cascade Range.
David Coleman / Architecture
Photos by Lara Swimmer

Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: A retired aerospace engineer
Location: Washington, USA
Size: About 139 square metres of indoor living space with one bedroom and one bathroom, plus three outdoor decks, which bring the total floor space to about 186 square metres on 10 acres
Architect: David Coleman / Architecture
Builder: SBI Construction

The homeowner hired architect David Coleman to create a modern home with dramatic angles, multiple verandahs, numerous windows and expansive views. Coleman’s team was tasked with creating a modest-sized home in a large setting. “One challenge of a site like this is that you’re creating a little building in a giant landscape,” says Coleman. “How do you do that where the building has a suitable presence?”
David Coleman / Architecture
In addition to a single bedroom and bathroom, the house includes a living room, dining area, a study used as an office and a workshop where the homeowner does woodwork. Coleman says the home was designed to be energy-efficient. It has a small footprint, is well-insulated, has high-efficiency glazing for the doors and windows, an on-demand water system and utilises a mini-split heat pump system for heating and cooling.

Mini-splits are ductless and the US Department of Energy estimates they can reduce electricity use by about 50 percent compared with furnaces and baseboard heaters. “We minimised energy demand and the footprint as much as possible,” says Coleman.
David Coleman / Architecture
The homeowner requested several porches where he could relax and read, so the team created this dramatic triangular corner with an open oculus in the roof, allowing for both shade and sun on the deck below.

“He liked the idea of having several porches that had an unusual feel and quality to them,” says Coleman. “He wanted something really playful, that was one of the biggest criteria.”

Find an architect near you on Houzz to design the dream home you’ve always wanted
David Coleman / Architecture
The oculus deck also serves as a passive solar design feature. “Having the oculus porch facing south gave us the opportunity to have a wall of glass and a big overhang to reduce solar radiation in summer,” says Coleman.

The porch’s eye-catching design was a natural extension of the home’s theme. “It worked in nicely with the geometry of the building and created a visual feature,” says Coleman. “It’s nice because sun penetrates that opening so you get nice patterns of light and the way it throws shadows.”
David Coleman / Architecture
The homeowner wanted an interior courtyard where he could be inside, protected from the elements, and grow plants. The architects utilised windows of varying sizes on all sides to accommodate natural light and views.
David Coleman / Architecture
Dramatic angles and a multitude of windows dominate this space inside the house between the living area and interior courtyard and the oculus porch outside.
David Coleman / Architecture
Light enters the home through the internal courtyard windows in this photo. When designing the house, Coleman gave thought to how the house would interact with light, a basic philosophy of his firm’s projects. “The theme of our work is light, place and time, so we’re always exploring daylight and the way it interacts with a building,” he says.
Julie Sheer
The home’s floor plan shows how the structure has two parts. The left side encompasses the living room, kitchen, dining room, interior courtyard and the oculus porch. On the right is the bedroom wing, which also includes a bathroom, laundry, studio, office and another deck. The entry porch is off the parking area at the top of the plan.

“To create an offset grid with the structure, we set the structure at an angle to a rectangle,” says Coleman. “By doing that we created in a simple envelope much more dynamic geometric conditions inside the house, which really lends the building a more dramatic feel.”
David Coleman / Architecture
This view shows the living/dining area and kitchen, with the glassed-in interior courtyard on the right. White oak flooring and simple furnishings help define the home’s minimal aesthetic. The tall white cabinets on the far side of the photo are used for storing coats, and beyond that is the bedroom wing.
David Coleman / Architecture
The kitchen is open-plan and efficient, with a bank of cabinets and a built-in refrigerator against the wall and a large quartzite-topped island with a sink, stove and suspended range hood.
David Coleman / Architecture
The 3.6-metre-long island bench unit also includes a dishwasher and microwave, and has plenty of storage, with painted cabinets trimmed in oak on either side of the stove and sink.
David Coleman / Architecture
Here’s a view from the kitchen toward the interior courtyard and beyond to the outdoors. “The owner wanted everything to be orientated to look out toward the views,” says Coleman.
David Coleman / Architecture
The architects considered the movement of the sun and vantage points when orientating the building. They carried one of the walls behind the envelope of the building to create privacy. “It gets nice west sunlight hitting the wall, and still privacy from the road,” says Coleman.
Julie Sheer
Here are the home’s elevation diagrams, which show the planning that went into sunlight and views. During the design stage, Coleman says, he spent a lot of time walking the site, planning the shape and angle of the house. “We really designed the house from what you’d experience from different vantage points and what rooms would be adjacent to those points,” he says.
David Coleman / Architecture
This deck off the bedroom wing is an example of how the team planned for views depending on the time of day. “The porch on the east side is a great place in the morning for coffee and looking into the field,” says Coleman.
David Coleman / Architecture
Two large hanging barn doors separate the bedroom from a hallway. The fixed timber section between the doors is the bed’s headboard.
David Coleman / Architecture
The bathroom consists of a single walk-in shower and no tub. A glass panel stretches to the tall ceiling, helping keep the space light and bright.

Browse more elegant, contemporary bathrooms on Houzz
David Coleman / Architecture
Also in the bedroom wing is the study-office. The horizontal south-facing ribbon window stretches across the wall and is at just the right level to frame the view when sitting at the desk.
David Coleman / Architecture
The home’s siding is fibre-cement composite shiplap from James Hardie’s Aspyre Collection, a durable material that resists rot, moisture and pests. While the home is of a modern design, Coleman feels that, like his firm’s other projects, it won’t go out of style.

“We’re creating a sense of place, so the buildings are dynamic but at the same time quiet,” he says. “They’re not screaming out and full of trendy materials and details. We’ve always strived to create architecture that has a timeless quality so it’s modern but won’t look dated 10 years from now.”
David Coleman / Architecture
In addition to being able to reside in such a beautiful natural setting, Coleman says the owner is pleased with the structure’s varied geometry. “He’s always discovering new dramatic spaces or alignments he didn’t expect – the way light enters the building, at different times of the year how light strikes the walls in different ways. He’s kind of an observer. He loves to be there and look out and follow the seasons.”


Your turn
Which space in this home would you love to sit and while the hours away? Tell us in the Comments below. And remember to like this story, save the images and join the conversation.

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