In October of 2017, Northern California suffered a cluster of wildfires that burned for nearly the entire month, causing 44 deaths and destroying 8,900 buildings. Michele and Fred Smith’s longtime home on the slopes of Mount Veeder in Napa County was one of them.

The Smiths were able to safely evacuate, but they lost everything. “The house was demolished, even though it was metal,” says Michele. “There was nothing left.”

In the aftermath, the couple, who are retired, had to move five times as they tried to reestablish their lives and decide whether to rebuild. They considered prefab, but discovered that the roads to their property had been damaged by earthquakes and would not be able to handle the weight of a crane.

Then, a longtime family friend, Portland-based architect Risa Boyer, reached out and offered design services. “They’re like family,” says the architect, who’s known the Smiths all her life—Michele and Boyer’s mother had met as teens.

The couple bought a small home in nearby Napa, and they also decided to rebuild on their Mount Veeder land, having realized how deep their connection to the area ran. “When I think about it, I know that it’s stuff,” Michele says of the home that they had lived in for 23 years and lost in the fire. “But what I missed was the sanctuary of my place in nature. This is how I want to live.”

A strong connection to nature was the couple’s topmost priority for the design brief—and they also wanted the project to be small. “Just a modern little cabin,” says Boyer—with lots of outdoor space. To that end, the 700-square-foot plan has one bedroom and one bath, and just-big-enough combined living quarters. The deck that surrounds it on two sides is bigger than the house itself: It measures 800 square feet, and it’s sheltered by a generous shed roof.

“As you make your way around, the house really opens up with that roofline that projects out,” says Boyer. “That was a move to open the whole space up to this land that they really loved so much.”

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Floor-to-ceiling windows capture views that the old house didn’t have. “The orientation is very different from the other house,” says Michele. “One surprising thing that happened was that after we started cutting the trees that were damaged, and clearing brush, we got a view of the valley, which we never had before.”

The interiors are simple, with pale wood floors, white walls, and a plastered fireplace column backed by walnut built-ins that provide easy storage and a spot to work. The Smiths asked for a few aging-in-place elements like a curbless shower, a front door on-grade with the driveway, and passageways wide enough for a wheelchair in the kitchen and hall.

Since the cabin’s completion in 2020, the couple split their time between it and their Napa home, which is only 18 minutes away. They’ve been working on restoring the landscape that surrounds the cabin—Michele went to bat with the utility company in order to save a stand of charred Redwood trees, and has since seen them flourish. “They’ve all come back, and they're beautiful,” says Michele.

Michele is a painter, and she lost her studio and all of her works in the fire—but she has since set up an easel in the Redwood grove. “It’s just beautiful to be back on the property, and to see nature coming back,” says Michele. “I've learned a lot about how life can be impermanent. You just really have to enjoy it. So, that's what we’re doing.”

More from Risa Boyer Architecture:

Before & After: A Radiant Renovation Opens a Portland Midcentury to Its Forested Lot

Acclaimed Architect Risa Boyer Reinvents Indoor/Outdoor Living

Project Credits:

Architect of Record: Risa Boyer Architecture / @risaboyerarchitecture

Builder: Rodman Construction

Structural Engineering: JVC Engineering

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An Architect Helps Longtime Family Friends Rebuild After a California Wildfire