Mountain Cabin Retreat

Project scope: Whole house remodel & façade improvement

Construction completed:

Location: Woodside, California

Features of interest:

This project is primarily a façade improvement, with a 280 square foot addition to the two-story living room, a new fireplace, overbuilt new roof, and a relocated front entry included.

Nestled on a mountainside in the Santa Cruz mountains, shaded by tall evergreens, and looking out upon a view of the Pacific in the blue distance, this home could not be in a more idyllic location, and therefore is very much in need of a facelift and reorientation so as to become one with the site’s beauty. The existing exterior is functional and nondescript, but the interior has handsome qualities that will be incorporated and magnified in the remodel: heavy timber beams, wood plank floors and ceilings, a spacious cabin atmosphere. Those interior elements have served as the inspiration for the exterior facelift: a new standing seam metal roof will be added on top of the single-plane existing roof, river rock stone will make up the walls of the first level, board & batten will side the walls of the second floor. New wood windows, substantial corbels and exposed ridge beams, 12” fascia on the gables, shaped posts and arched beams all should contribute to a home with a sense of age and anchor, the materials echoing and blending with the natural context. To bring more light into the home, a custom ridge skylight will span the length of the living room addition, glass open to the stars and trees, straddling the heavy timber ridge beam.

You will note that the front entry has been relocated to what was the right side of the house: the current front entry opens to the driveway and a steep hillside; the new front entry is more prominent and welcoming, facing the main path of travel to the front door. A new covered porch extends out over the steep grade, with a stone-clad first-level mudroom side entry below.