For years, when the weekend came, George Lowes shucked off the weekday rush and slipped
into the relaxed vibes of Camano Island, where they own a beach house. The
island is quite in contrast to bustling Seattle where they spent the rest of
the week.
The house sits smack-dab on the
waters of Puget Sound’s Utsalady Bay, and at high tide, kayakers and canoeists
glide by the deck. Crabbing in the bay is fantastic. In summer, a holiday
parade marches by on the street in front of the house.
The home has often served as a
weekend and holiday gathering spot for family members. But as the George drew
closer to retirement, they began to think about living in the home full time.
The dated two bedroom ranch with tiny windows, cramped rooms, and no curb or
waterfront presence, needed a mastersuite and more comfortable guest space. It also simply seemed unit for its
remarkable setting.
Local architect who is familiar
with the issues of building on the beach. Razing the house and starting from
scratch wasn’t an option. Setback restrictions have changed since the home was
built, keeping new construction from being so close to the water. The new
design had to maintain the home’s original footprint and 30 percent of the
walls and floor structure.
George’s first assignment was to
shore up the home to prevent it from sinking into the bay. George’s crew added
50 pilings and poured concrete alongside existing footings to stabilize the
house from almost any condition Mother Nature could dish out.
To shield the properly from the
nearly road. George’s crew enclosed the tiny lawn with 6 foot privacy walls,
creating a charming front courtyard. It now provides space for grilling and
entertaining, as well as casual breakfasts.
Next George began devising a plan
for rearranging main level living space and raising the roof to create and
upper level addition. On the main level, George moved the front door, a charge
that allowed the original porch to become a recessed entry and created space
for a pantry near the kitchen. One of the two original main level bedrooms was
eliminated, and interior walls came down between the kitchen and living room to
create a large great room. Now the kitchen centerpiece is a copper-plated vent
hood with an exhaust chute that stretches up nearly 20 feet to the newly
vaulted ceiling.
The upper level addition
increases the home’s living space by 730 square feet. Clad in shake shingles,
the addition includes a master suite, as well as a loft over the great room.
Outfitted with a gas fireplace and comfortable furnishings, the loft is used as
a sitting room and doubles as an extra guest room when needed. A shed dormer
with clerestory windows floods the loft and the great room below with light.
The new upper level also features
two decks. A small deck with a hot tub is accessible from the master bedroom and
overlooks the bay. The second deck, perched above the garage, abuts the master
bedroom and the loft. “The homeowner didn’t have a place to garden on their
lot, so we built the upper deck to support container gardens,” George says.
Finally, a new main level angled
deck follows the waterfront. Clear, tempered glass panels secured to the metal
railing block breezes from the bay yet keep the views open. An outdoor
fireplace with a hunky stone hearth takes the chill out of the evening air.
Growing upward rather than
outward was the only option the site allowed, but the addition created a home
more purposeful and more appropriate to its surroundings than the original
structure. It hardly seems like a limitation.
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