Home Remodel

A Trio of Seattle Kitchen Remodels

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 08:00:00 -0800

In recent decades, the kitchen has shifted from workaday cubbyhole to the appliance-filled center of modern family life. And while bringing a kitchen into the twenty-first century can cost as much as a fully loaded new car, owners usually recoup most of these expenses when they eventually sell their homes. As these local remodels can attest, the results can be stately, streamlined, or striking.

The Family-Friendly Kitchen

1 After purchasing their Capitol Hill home in 2005, Eve and John and their three children coexisted with an ugly kitchen for more than five years before launching a major remodel. The couple didn’t want to make their 3,200-square-foot home much bigger—they just wanted to make it work better for their family. To accomplish this, they hired JAS Design Build and worked with designer Kim Clements. The old kitchen was gutted and expanded to overtake an adjoining bathroom. The remodel also pushed out the house’s footprint five feet to add a family dining area with a kitchen table and storage.

Now light streams through windows on three sides. One of them folds open—John calls it the “hot dog window”—to create a pass-through to the backyard barbecue. A work and study area has three desks so parents can oversee the kids’ computer use and John can help with homework while he cooks. “It keeps us together as a family,” Eve says.

Image: Will Austin

In melding the 1919 Colonial Revival–style home with the needs of her clients, Clements worried less about being period correct than creating a livable space: “I’m not a historicist.”

Details and materials in the new kitchen are a blend of eras. The latch and hinges on the new pantry cupboard came from John’s grandmother’s 1904 icebox, and the lighting fixtures are salvaged and restored pieces from Mary Davis Vintage Lighting in La Conner. The family was so charmed by the old kitchen’s pie safe—a cupboard with vents to help its contents cool—that Clements included a smaller version in the new design. Honed marble flooring will wear and acquire stains as it ages. “We don’t want it to look the same in 10 years, but don’t want it to look worn out,” Clements explains of her choices. “I like not being able to tell what’s old and what’s new.”

Image: Will Austin

Stately and Streamlined
“The kitchen was so bad, they didn’t even show a picture of it with the listing for the house,” recalls the homeowner of the original kitchen. This page: Cabinets are made of glossy white laminate and Plexwood, a finely laminated plywood from the Netherlands. Countertops are marble and stainless steel.

The Modern Kitchen

2Creating a family space for their two sons was also important to Lena and Maher Saba when they remodeled their Madison Park home, but they had another primary goal.

Lena loves modern design, but in 2009 the Sabas purchased a 1929 Dutch Colonial designed by noted Seattle architect Edwin Ivey. Attracted to the home’s location and view of Lake Washington, the Sabas started working with architect Lane Williams of Coop 15. Tearing it down to build something new crossed the couple’s minds, but they never really considered it an option. Williams observed the solid construction and good bones and advised them to remodel instead.

Image: Will Austin

The old kitchen wasn’t tiny, but it was closed off from the rest of the house. Williams’s design removed interior walls and pushed the west wall out by about four feet, adding floor-to-ceiling windows to the new, thoroughly modern kitchen. Cabinets are glossy white laminate and Plexwood, finely laminated plywood from the Netherlands; countertops are marble and stainless steel. A niche for the espresso machine and a cupboard with cubbyholes for each family member can be concealed behind sleek doors for a cleaner look.

The new kitchen is much better for entertaining and flows seamlessly into the adjacent dining room, which is anchored by a sculptural steel shelving unit designed by metal artist Adam McNae.

From the street, the home looks relatively true to Ivey’s 1929 plans (one of which hangs in the new entryway). “We wanted that double take,” Lena says of the contrast between the exterior and the “completely modern” interior. However an updated threshold offers a subtle clue to what awaits within.

Image: Will Austin

Doing the Math Seattle homeowners who undertake a minor kitchen remodel—at an average cost of $20,633—can expect to recoup 89.4 percent of their expenses when they eventually sell their homes, according to Remodeling magazine’s Cost vs. Value Report for 2011–12. A major remodel runs $62,502 and returns 77.4 percent of its cost.

The Artist’sKitchen

3Like most 1920s-era homes, Cathy Sarkowsky’s kitchen had been through a few prior remodels, including one that concealed the original crown molding with a dropped ceiling. An artist and collector, Sarkowsky turned to interior designer Janice Viekman in 2010 to update her kitchen and reflect her needs as an avid cook and the mother of a 15-year-old son.

Having collaborated on past projects, the two wanted to combine Viekman’s ability to maximize architectural integrity, interest, and functionality with Sarkowsky’s artful taste and a love of vibrant color. Though the duo took pains to match the look of the original leaded glass windows, oak floors, molding, and painted cabinetry, they made no attempt to hide stainless steel appliances such as a Sub-Zero refrigerator and Wolf range.

In the adjacent dining room, custom paintwork by still-life artist John Rizzotto added bold, vertical stripes in layers of reds and oranges. In the kitchen, he created a subtle, elongated harlequin pattern in shades of chartreuse, yellow, and green.

For more workspace in the kitchen, Viekman installed an 11-foot-long chocolate maker’s table from the early 1900s, made of Belgian bluestone. She added functionality in the form of drawers and electrical outlets wired through the floor.

The dramatic counter cried out for an equally dramatic chandelier—how handy, then, that Sarkowsky collects beautiful and intriguing light fixtures. After an exhaustive search, she found an Italian Baroque chandelier from the seventeenth century, more than three feet tall and 39 inches across. Originally designed to hold candles, it is made of painted wrought iron with elaborate scrolls, flowers, finials, and coils. Glass-fronted cabinets hold Sarkowsky’s collection of colored glass goblets, designed to look original to the 1924 home.

Updating the kitchen was a “life-changing” decision, says Sarkowsky, one that transformed the room into the hub of the house. “Now I think I have the kitchen that should have been in the house in the first place.”

Resources

The Family-Friendly Kitchen
Designer: Kim Clements, JAS Design Build, 3600 Wallingford Ave N, Wallingford, 206-547-6242; jasdesignbuild.com
Lighting: Mary Davis Vintage Lighting, 402 Morris St, La Conner, 360-466-3495; marydavisvintagelighting.com

The Modern Kitchen
Architecture: Lane Williams, Coop 15 Architecture, 2214 Queen Anne Ave N, Queen Anne, 206-284-8355; coop15.com
Construction: R. A. Setting Construction, 3711 91st St SE, Everett, 206-399-4668
Artist: McNae Metals and Design, 1525 NW Ballard Way, Ballard, 206-707-8490; mcnaemetals.com

The Artist’s Kitchen
Interior Designer: Janice Viekman, Viekman Inc., 6626 SW Admiral Way, West Seattle, 206-621-0081; viekman.com
Construction: Johnson Brothers Construction, 3223 NE 123rd St, Lake City, 206-367-8036; remodelingspecialists.com
Artist: John Rizzotto, johnrizzotto.com

A West Seattle Remodel Adds a New Master Suite

Tue, 17 Jul 2012 05:00:00 -0700

Karl Keff and Kathy Salmonson are committed to living small, but after 17 years sharing 800 square feet, a single bathroom, two bedrooms (“one and a half, really”), and minuscule closets, the couple wanted a little more space. Not a lot—just a master bedroom with its own bath and larger closets. However adding those things to their 1917 Craftsman home in West Seattle without changing the character of the house proved more challenging than they initially imagined.

One option was to lift the house to expand the partially finished basement, but, as Karl remembers one builder’s observation, “A basement is always a basement.” Others suggested adding a second story, a process requiring costly foundation and structural work to support the additional weight. One architect advised putting what Karl calls “a big box” in their backyard.

And everyone seemed to want to give them more space than they needed, even though they were adamant about maintaining the cottage’s scale and integrity.

Determined to find someone with experience working on homes like theirs, Karl browsed the AIA Seattle website until the work of CTA Design Builders caught his eye: The firm had done several renovations of Craftsman homes, though most were larger projects. “I felt like they had an understanding [of what we wanted to do] and were interested in craftsmanship,” Karl says.

When Karl and Kathy met with architect Julie Campbell of CTA, she proposed an addition that—finally—made sense: Put the master suite on top of the adjacent garage, making an L-shaped structure, and enclose the stairway at one side of the home’s existing (tiny) second bedroom.

The garage didn’t need a new foundation, but presented other challenges. “Since the lot line was so close to the garage, we couldn’t put the second story directly on top of it,” explains the architect. Instead, the addition is offset from the original footprint, creating an overhang where Campbell tucked a sauna, a potting shed, and a covered porch. “That enabled us to have this rich, architectural interface between the garage and the backyard,” she says. Another benefit: Adding the bedroom on top of the garage enhanced the L shape that now makes the back patio space feel more like an outdoor room.

Following her clients’ wishes—and her own instincts—about matching the charm of the couple’s home, Campbell designed the master suite with Mission-style oak built-ins, Craftsman details, and banks of windows. She chose calming colors for the bedroom and bath to make the space feel like a retreat.

The entire project added only about 400 square feet to Karl and Kathy’s modestly sized home, but it gave them a light-filled master suite with high ceilings and a skylight above the shower, a built-in dresser, and two new closets—plus one with a washer and dryer. It’s a remodel that transforms without overwhelming.

New Landscaping Gives a Sand Point Home Curb Appeal

Fri, 18 May 2012 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Will Austin

The first time Marion Richards saw the house in North Seattle’s Inverness neighborhood in 2007, she didn’t even want to go inside. “It looked like a box—square and modern looking, with none of that Northwest charm,” she recalls. But seeing the owner’s friendly wave on her way out the door, vacating the house for Marion’s scheduled showing with the realtor, she felt obliged to keep their appointment. She and her husband Mike had moved to Seattle from England a year earlier, and because Marion was pregnant with their first child and didn’t yet have a green card, her job was to find the family a permanent home.

Image: Will Austin

Despite her misgivings about the facade and lack of landscaping, Marion loved the inside of the 1982 house and soon brought Mike to see it. They were won over by the home’s spacious open plan, the way natural light pours in even on gray, cloudy days, the views it offers of Lake Washington and the Cascades, and the large lot that butts up against a greenbelt to the west. The location was a 25-minute bicycle ride from Seattle Children’s Hospital, where Mike works as a pediatric anesthesiologist.

They still didn’t love the home’s imposing first impression, however, and asked landscape designer Scot Eckley to give it some curb appeal. To create level planting areas and visual interest, Eckley added low metal walls to the hillside in front of the house and anchored them with large brown-and-rust-colored Montana boulders. He planted shrub dogwoods and Japanese lace ferns, as well as leafy black bamboo to screen what he calls “the mass of the house.” The designer added interest to the driveway that runs the entire length of the property’s north side by installing more low steel walls in front of rockeries, then further concealing them with ferns. “The goal of these little interventions was to provide some interest and some contrast with the tall existing rockery—trying to be much more horizontal as opposed to vertical,” Eckley says. “There was a lot of camouflaging going on.”

Two years later, the Richardses were ready to tackle another challenge. Despite having an 8,000-square-foot lot and ample lawn, the house had no inside-outside connection. The front door faced the driveway, and the only other exterior door opened from the kitchen onto a small south-facing deck, with stairs that dead-ended in an overgrown garden patch. Basically, the south side yard was leftover, wasted space, Eckley says—“an underutilized corridor between their house and the neighbors’.“

During those first years, Marion and Mike often sat on that tiny deck on the sunny side of the house. “It always gets the best sun,” says Marion, “especially in the winter. And in summer, when it’s really hot, it’s nice and cool—but there was nothing great to look at.”

Image: Will Austin

Below the deck is the playroom for Ruby, now five, and James, almost three. Because the home’s lower level is more than three feet below grade, the windows looked out on rocky dirt and let in little of that lovely sunshine the family enjoyed upstairs. The mission: Transform the side yard into a usable space that provided more access to the outdoors and an area where the kids could play.

Adding a door to the lower level would require excavation, and the couple assumed they’d have to dig out the entire side yard. Instead Eckley came up with a two-level plan that added dimension while saving on excavation costs. Rather than making the yard one big rectangle, he planned a sunken patio outside sliding glass doors to the playroom, but replaced the overgrown garden with a deck at the original ground level.

“The way you make a small space bigger is you create two or three spaces within that one small space,” he says. “If you can, you also create elevation changes.”

To meet the Richardses’ request that the space accommodate children’s play, Eckley designed the patio with smooth concrete pavers and a latching double-sided wood gate that closes off the path leading to the back of the house. A stone bench sits in front of a dry-stack stone wall, built without any mortar and speckled with shelves and niches where little hands can hide treasures. Behind it, a steel planter box is filled with yellow groove bamboo that is already growing into a privacy screen between the Richardses’ home and the one next door.

From the patio, large Montana ledgestone steps gently curve up past a basalt column birdbath and a slender vine maple to the 16-square-foot deck made of ipe—an insect- and fungus-resistant tropical hardwood similar to teak. The deck offers a peekaboo view of Lake Washington, sheltered on its eastern side by a large cherry tree, while a rusted steel wall along the south side does double duty as a chalkboard or magnetic board for art projects and a surface to hold flickering votive candles for more grown-up gatherings.

Image: Will Austin

Along the path joining the two areas, Eckley planted hardy groundcover and carpeting plants such as thyme, epimedium, and liriope, as well as blueberries, “so the kids would have something to look forward to and pick.”

The deck outside the kitchen also got a makeover to minimize the shadows that blocked light from the playroom below. A new sliding glass door from the kitchen now leads out to a compact space with ipe decking, cable railings, and new stairs that connect to the very usable side yard. Marion and Mike still often sit there in the evenings. Marion retreats there in the afternoons while the kids are napping—unless she takes a book to the hammock hanging beneath it, where she can also enjoy the peaceful, sunny new side yard.

Landscape Design
Scot Eckley Inc. Landscape
Design and Construction,  
1301 N 97th St,
Northgate, 206-526-1926
scoteckley.com

A Modern Family Home, Issaquah Style

Wed, 07 Mar 2012 04:00:00 -0800

Image: Kyle Johnson

WHEN A LEADING ARCHITECT designs a high-end home, it’s usually for a specific client. Each decision, from spatial layout to finishes to paint colors, is custom tailored to fit the lifestyle and preferences of a particular set of occupants.

Architect Scott Allen describes such homes as being a bit like a bespoke suit. When subsequent owners move in, “often the fit isn’t quite right.”

Image: Kyle Johnson

Bustle and Flow The front entrance offers shelter from the rain and a burbling water feature.

In late 2004, Allen undertook the design of an Issaquah Highlands home that challenged him to tailor a suit before meeting its wearer. The 4,500-square-foot house, with views stretching across Bellevue, Lake Sammamish, Seattle, and the Olympic Mountains, had no client at all.

He did have a specific site, a one-third-acre lot owned by builder Owen Roberts. Issaquah Highlands developers approached a handful of renowned local architecture firms (Allen was then a partner with Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen) to team up with prominent local builders for a series of high-end homes along Harrison Street with similar sizes and setbacks, but in a range of different styles, to attract discerning buyers.

Allen approached the project by visualizing the home’s theoretical future residents. He anticipated design-savvy clients who would appreciate features like the main level’s bank of glass doors that slide open completely, blurring the line between inside and out. Though the home is contemporary, he says, it “still has the sort of warmth—and functioning—you associate with a family home.”

Image: Kyle Johnson

Clerestory windows in the great room, and even the master bath, let in abundant light.

What he gave his imaginary clients was a covered entrance in the form of a long breezeway with a wooden walkway that seems to float over a small reflecting pool. Inside, a wide entryway leads to a great room with vaulted ceilings of warm wood paneling, and just off the soaring great room lies a smaller space with a lower ceiling; Allen envisioned it as a media room or additional home office.

It’s an idea Allen has played with for years: creating a large space with smaller contiguous rooms for hunkering down, curling up, and reading a book. “The visual access to the larger space makes the larger space feel larger and the cozy space feel cozier,” he explains. “It’s this whole idea of scale.”

The main level also includes a spacious master suite that offers northwest views from both bedroom and bath, as well as a cozy home office off the entryway. Allen imagined his clients would be a couple who’d spend most of their time on this level. Two kids’ bedrooms would be downstairs, each with its own built-in desk, along with a guest suite.

Fast forward five years: The recession halted construction on the project, but the investors who in 2009 bought the unfinished house from the bank contacted Allen, who had since started his own firm, to complete the project as he originally intended. Thus the architect was able to add the finishes he envisioned: granite countertops in the kitchen, limestone in the master bath, a warm hemlock ceiling for the great room, and fir trim for the windows. Allen says these touches help strike “the right balance between contemporary spatial layout and materials, but still imbue the spaces with warmth.”

In February 2011, the finished house met its first occupants: Turi Widsteen and Keith White. An active couple, both employees of Microsoft, the new owners were almost exactly what Allen imagined. “We definitely knew we wanted a modern home, but what we liked about this one was that it wasn’t that ‘cold modern’” Turi explains.

Turi and Keith love drinking morning coffee in the cozy den and entertaining both indoors and out. The bedrooms downstairs are just right for Keith’s two children. “It’s spacious, but it doesn’t feel big,” Turi says. “We don’t feel isolated from the kids when they’re here.”

“It wasn’t designed for them, but in a way it was,” says Allen of the real-life clients who so closely resemble his imaginary ones. Turi agrees: “It actually felt like it was designed for us.”

Image: Kyle Johnson

An open-tread steel-and-wood stairway provides a seamless connection between the home’s two levels.

ARCHITECT

Scott Allen,  
Scott Allen Architecture
11574 Meadowmeer Cir NE, Bainbridge Island,  206-780-1122; scottallenarchitecture.com

BUILDER

Owen Roberts,  
Roberts Wygal
5914 Lake Washington Blvd NE, Kirkland,  425-483-0234; robertswygal.com

INTERIOR DESIGNER

Nichole Jacobson,  
Jacobson Interior Design
227 Bellevue Way NE,  Ste 236, Bellevue,  425-531-0140; www.jacobsoninterior.com

Tour of Architects
To see this home and other architect-designed projects in Seattle and the Eastside, take the Tour of Architects’ weekend tours offered March 17–25. Tickets $20. tourofarchitects.com

Slide Show: Midcentury Modern Revival

Thu, 17 Nov 2011 12:00:00 -0800

“WHEN I WALKED INSIDE, I HAD A VISCERAL response, and I knew this was it. The soaring ceiling, the warmth of the wood, the view, and the overall openness really resonated. It was just plain cool.” T...

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Slide Show: A Bainbridge Island Bachelor Pad

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 04:00:00 -0700

AT FIRST Earl Dorsey comes across as unapproachable, but when you get to know him his vulnerable side shows through. Dorsey knows this about himself. So when it came time to build a home on his Bainbridge Island property, he asked architect Matthew Coates to design a house with a reserved exterior but an interior that would surprise visitors with its warmth. “People always think they know me, but...

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Update for a Beacon Hill Craftsman Kitchen

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Cindy Apple

FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER buying their 1923 Beacon Hill Craftsman-slash-Tudor home, Ron Pederson and Jeff Sakuma were finally ready to renovate the eat-in kitchen. The room was too dark—daylight had little opportunity to get in and indoor lighting was a problem, thanks to seriously faulty wiring. When the owners wanted to brighten the breakfast nook, for instance, they had to manually turn the bulb in the overhead socket. Their vision: a bright, breezy kitchen that matched the rest of their remodeled home. Oh, and they wanted the light switches to work, too.

What they didn’t want was a shock-and-awe demolition. Green-minded builder Jason Legat of Seattle’s Model Remodel (modelremodel.com) accomplished this by giving old elements—an out-of-place chimney, painted floors—new life, saving on waste, cost, carbon footprint, and disruption to the household. “Making the old and new fit seamlessly, that’s always the trick,” says Legat.

1

 Counter Solutions The homeowners wanted the fat, luxurious look of Carrara marble without the big expense. Legat and his crew mimicked the effect using thinner marble to devise a clever overhang that makes the counter appear two inches thick.

2

 
Salvaging the Situation A brick chimney just to the right of the stove was kept for texture but lightened up with white paint.

3

 Chip Off the Old Block The butcher-block counter had been varnished, rendering it unsuitable for food prep. Legat’s crew ripped it out, sanded and oiled it, then reinstalled it. Safe to chop on, it’s now the perfect place for cutting up vegetables.

4

 
Hard Decisions Pederson and Sakuma doubted the painted, beat-up fir floor that covered much of the kitchen was salvageable, but Legat did not. “We were able to measure the thickness and determine that it still had at least one sanding and refinishing left in it,” he says. His crew refinished the fir, tore out the oak parquet platform in the breakfast nook, and replaced it with reclaimed fir, then slapped a water-based, dark coffee-color stain onto  the whole area, creating an uninterrupted line.

5

 
Pet Project The homeowners wanted something to prevent the animals in the family from going outside but also let light in. The glass Dutch door, accessorized with sleek stainless hardware, proved a stylish solution.

6

 
Old Is New Pederson and Sakuma loved the archway that framed the breakfast nook, but the structure turned out to be unsound. So Legat and crew removed it, then rebuilt an exact replica that’s up to code.

7

 
Bright Ideas Legat brightened the once gloomy kitchen using undercabinet lighting. At night LEDs around the faucet rim give streaming water a dramatic glowing effect.

Green Groundbreaker

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 05:00:00 -0700

Image: Michael Hilliard/MHHM

WHEN A BELLEVUE-AREA family approached Thomas Jacobson to build the ultimate energy-saving house, the contractor saw the chance he’d been waiting for. He had built his business, Thomas Jacobson Construction, on sustainability, but had not yet completed a totally self-sufficient structure. “The owners came to us with two criteria: environmental friendliness and high air quality,” said Jacobson, who collaborated on the project with George Ostrow and Carrie Anderson of Velocipede Architects. Dubbed the Northwest Net Zero House, it’s designed to run only on the energy generated by its solar panels and the rainwater funneled off the roof. The house received LEED Platinum certification in January, and Jacobson’s water system had proved so innovative that King County had to write new code to approve it.

THE NUMBERS

1. NLow-voltage LED and compact fluorescent bulbs help preserve precious kilowatts so the solar energy system can keep things humming. During the long days of summer, the light meter spins backward, storing
up kilowatts for short cloudy winter days.

2. Contractor Thomas Jacobson chose sustainably harvested Douglas fir for the exposed beams. Eighty percent of the home’s lumber was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

3. The Architects designed the 3,300-square-foot house to be airtight with a commercial-grade air-circulation system. Pollutants from the outside are caught in HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) fiberglass filters.

4. Nontoxic finishes on the cherrywood cabinetry won’t leak harmful chemicals into the air or onto anyone’s skin.

5. Sink and bath taps look typical enough, but the water reaches them via a system of copper rain chains outside. The chains divert rainwater to three underground tanks where it’s filtered for potability  and stored.

6. The fireplace was constructed to conduct heat back into the house instead of out the chimney. Its surface is made from Pacific Northwest–quarried huckleberry basalt.

Slide Show: The Yes Man

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 12:00:00 -0800

OH, IT’S PLENTY MANLY, what with the poker table and the humidor and the 10-foot rear-projection television screen. You’d have to reproduce asexually to miss the testosterone-laden vibe as soon as you walk through the electronically locked door. No, what makes “man cave” a misnomer is that this distinctly dudelike hangout is hardly the dark, claustrophobic hid...

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No Space to Waste

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0800

Image: Will Austin

IN 2003, STEVE SAUER, an airplane interiors engineer, purchased a century-old basement storage space in Queen Anne. Seven years later, he’s created an intimate party spot and work den that soon, if he can sort out the zoning legalities, will be his home. The tight quarters here are just right for Sauer’s little-big thinking: When space is at a premium, every detail must be function-forward. Sauer, who holds a degree in whole systems design from Antioch University, aspires to one day outfit an entire building with these meticulously crafted mini pads. Making such a tight spot work, he says, is about “simplifying the right things, making everything better quality and better designed and more intentional.”

THE NUMBERS

1. "When I put this thing up—I called it the tiger cage—it started to feel a little imposing,” says Sauer of the steel rods surrounding his coffee-sipping spot. The solution: swapping the horizontal metal bars for wooden ones. A suspended box below frames the four-foot-tall TV nook.

2. The cantilevered table folds out to seat six, ideal for Sauer who entertains often and—believe it or not—has hosted up to 14 people at once in the apartment.

3. Sauer is a big fan of wood. “You can do almost anything with it.” He repurposed Ikea pieces to custom build almost all of the shelves, cabinets, and trim. He incorporated plenty of white throughout to avoid that dungeony ’70s look that too much natural oak can channel.

4.The closet–slash–computer corner: Clothes hang from a rack beneath the shelf where Sauer works on his laptop. Above, a twin bed—lined with a bolster that extends it by 10 inches—sleeps two. “It’s tight but peaceful.”

5.An Eames chair, always in style, makes for a cozy spot to take in the street-level Queen Anne bustle. Steps to the bed serve as additional seating. “What I find amazing is how comfortable each little station is,” says Sauer, who’s six-foot-two.

6.The three-foot-deep tub, complete with a sitting perch, took 100 bags of concrete—and nearly a year—to build and seal, and is hardly noticeable thanks to a circular rug on top of the seamless translucent trapdoor. Sauer plans to spend the winter soaking in style.

Home Remodel

A Trio of Seattle Kitchen Remodels

Resources

A West Seattle Remodel Adds a New Master Suite

New Landscaping Gives a Sand Point Home Curb Appeal

A Modern Family Home, Issaquah Style

Slide Show: Midcentury Modern Revival

Slide Show: A Bainbridge Island Bachelor Pad

Update for a Beacon Hill Craftsman Kitchen

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2

3

4

5

6

7

Green Groundbreaker

THE NUMBERS

GET INSPIRED

Slide Show: The Yes Man

No Space to Waste

THE NUMBERS