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This semi-retired couple found themselves empty nesters in a huge home on Lake Washington that had served them well while raising their family. When they decided that they wanted a smaller home in the Laurelhurst neighborhood, they found an existing home perched on a steep hillside, with a spectacular view of Lake Washington.

The home was built in 1910, and the owners asked us to design the restoration with a clear preference for an arts-and-crafts type of look. An old photograph of the home provided the inspiration for the restoration. Another factor important to the design was a beautiful Stickley dining room set that would become the focal point of the dining room. The architect delivered with a generous amount of solid cherry throughout. In addition to the extensive cherry millwork, we included period light fixtures and period craftsmanship in the joinery.

The two-story home has a full daylight basement complete with kitchen, bath, and utility that can be used for guests coming through town. The whole studio aspect was completely soundproofed to be a separate unit from the house. Given the age of the original structure, we also performed major structural upgrades to bring the house up to seismic standards.

In addition to the restoration of the home, we added a garage with a master suite on the second story. We were able to add this structure by building a 14-foot-high retaining wall to reclaim a substantial amount of previously unusable land.
For the outside of the home, we salvaged the original Klinker brick from the rear of the house during demolition and brought it to the front to further enhance the early 1900s look. We added curbs and sidewalks for the entire street frontage of the property, as well as a low masonry wall to create beautiful architectural garden space.

One more element was still needed. The homeowners like to entertain, but the property provided a limited amount of yard space. We solved this issue by building a large entertainment deck constructed from 2x4 specially selected and culled clear cedar. This radius deck was built to achieve a furniture-quality deck element with a custom iron and glass rail that does not obstruct the view from inside the house.

This project was both a National Renaissance award winner and a Remodeling Excellence award winner.

Awards

• REX: Major Remodel
• Renaissance Honorable Mention for excellence in design & construction
• Featured in Building Ideas, Winter issue