Second floor Addition removes A-Frame after numerous studies- Anacortes, WA

“After” shot of a Lakefront House (Heart Lake) in Anacortes, that once had an A-frame top.

The A-Frame had been built by the clients uncle in the 1960’s. I tried every conceivable way to do an addition to increase the useable space.

The first idea was just to pop out one side of the A-frame to be able to get a full staircase in to access the upper loft, which just had a ladder up to access.

Staircases take up so much room!

So then, I extended the pop-out to add more useable room in the living room.

But that looked kinda weird and they decided no.

So finally after much pacing not he cost to do the pop-out, it was cheaper to tear off the whole A-Frame and build a place that has more useable room.

This was a better use of the 2nd floor that allowed for. more light to bath the space, instead of being under a huge roof that sloped down tot eh floor.

It is just finishing up construction, as you can see from al of the ladders and equip. still scattered around, but I wanted to see how it was turning out.

The exposed beams go from one side of the house to the other, in a nice shed simple roof.

I really like the rusted corrugated metal siding that they wound up using- kudos to a no maintenance siding that never needs paint! It is called “Corten Steel”, if you ever want to specify it for your house. It comes shiny metal and rusts very quickly over time, to a finish that stops rusting once the surface is coated. It does not keep rusting.

San Juan Island WATERFRONT CHANGED!

From the water, it will be still hard to see, because there are huge trees surrounding the house.

From a drone or airplane, it would like like this shot.

From the street, it will look like this. A wall of glass is creating the new entryway with a cascading staircase that drops you down to the main living level of the house.

Here is a shot from the side of the house. I am working with a Brazilian Architect, who is the brother of the owner, so it has been a collaboration of ideas and Pacific Northwest twists.

NEW MODERN HOUSE- SAN JUAN ISLAND

This is a working model still in progress- the site has a pretty good slope to it, and I like to leave the grade showing as how it intersects the building.

This is showing the Entry feature, that is actually the back of the house. This is the way visitors will first see the house. They wanted a high ceiling entry flanked with stone walls.

One of the most important features that they wanted was a large covered deck with a BBQ, Fireplace and TV to hang out on that faces the Western Water view. A place to enjoy the sunsets.

How a "Massing Model" helps envision a New House

The first step in figuring out a new house, is to block out the rooms and their relationship to the site.

Then from there, the basic shapes can be created in 3D- the black dashed lines are the setbacks required.

The site has been surveyed and a model of the site is used in conjunction to further define the spaces.

The next step is to further define the roof planes, the windows, the decks- the model still has not been altered, so that it is clear to see how much of the slope will have to be removed. The upper part of the house sits on top of the ground, while the lower part will require excavation.

Together with the floor plans, the shape of the house begins to take place, considering the height restrictions through cross sections of the site and setbacks thru the site plan.