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Inside, the couple's vintage organ anchors the space. A new pink sofa from Interior Defined is one of the only new items purchased for the home; most are vintage or pieces the couple inherited. The rug is a vintage horse blanket the couple picked up at a flea market in Kansas, and the white chair is a piece they found in a friend's old building in Corsicana, Texas.

The carriage doors open to a side yard with a fire pit where Adam and Amanda like to entertain friends and family, while also enjoying their lush property. "The sliding doors were the biggest ticket item, but really worth the money,

Before: Adam and Amanda loved the original carriage doors on the garage, so Butcher maintained them while adding a set of new glass sliders behind. This way, the structure still reads as a garage from the outside when the carriage doors are closed.

Five House by M Gooden Design floor plan

“The approval process wasn’t easy. It’s just a guesthouse, but we may as well have been trying to build an apartment complex in the backyard,” says Marks. Walls of board-formed concrete are warmed by the cumaru wood ceilings and decks.

Rather than expand their midcentury home, Anthony Marks and his partner built a guesthouse on the unused half of their double lot, in Denton, Texas. The gated fence borrows from the material palette used for the dwelling. “It’s like an introduction, or preview, to what lies beyond,” says architect Michael Gooden.

Kim Moellenberndt and Ryan Tyner found their future home at a corner store built in the 1940s. The deal started with a handshake deal between the couple of the store's owner.

Ryan salvaged the living room fireplace from a demolition job done by his company, B. Wilde Builders. The coffee table is made of a wooden beam left over from a downtown office renovation that Ryan helped manage. “A lot of the stuff we have is stuff no one else wanted,” he says.

The couple requested low-maintenance materials. Says Carol, “We don’t want to paint on weekends—we want to enjoy the place.” - Tehachapi Mountains, California Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

The master bedroom occupies one of three units extending off the main space. Like other furnishings, the bed was made by steel fabricators. - Tehachapi Mountains, California Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

Working with owner Bruce Shafer, who acted as contractor, architect Olson Kundig’s “gizmolo- gist” Phil Turner fashioned a 12-by- 26-foot steel-framed window wall that opens the structure to the out- doors. “We can feel the evening breeze move through the house, - Tehachapi Mountains, California Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

For Bruce Shafer and Carol Horst's vacation home in the Tehachapi Mountains, architect Tom Kundig of Olson Kundig chose materials suited to the harsh climate. "The area is super cold in winter and super hot in summer," says Kundig, who designed a deep overhang to shade the core of the house from solar gain. "In the high desert, it's not just about being in the sun, it's about getting out of the sun."

- Tehachapi Mountains, California Dwell Magazine : November / December 2017

As part of the remodel of this 1960s home in Los Angeles, owners Whitney and Carlos painted the exterior a dark charcoal hue and landscaped the property with native, low-maintenance plantings.

Lane also designed a detached screen porch for the property. Its orientation captures the view of a small mountain across the lake. “A New Hampshire lake house always has a screened porch,” he says. “This one allows for a separate experience that connects you to nature.”

DeNiord designed a simple concrete bench with a honed top to run parallel to the randomly sized concrete pads that lead to the covered entry. He planted blueberry bushes behind the bench and a river birch tree behind the boulder. To conjure a wabi-sabi feel outdoors, diNiord poured concrete around a boulder. “It represents the interruption of perfect geometry,” he says.

While the owners really liked the idea of shou sugi ban, they opted for a more cost-effective black stain. The random-width, reverse board-and-batten siding reflects the wabi-sabi concept. “The builder said the math for the random siding was torturous,” the wife said. “We didn’t know how hard it was to make things look simple.” DeNiord planted hay-scented fern and lowbush blueberry sod around the house. “We didn't want any side of the house to feel unconsidered,” he says. As for the local boulders he placed around the house and terrace, he says, “They give the feeling that the house grew up around the outcroppings.”

The deck is framed as an open-air room where the ceiling and walls have been peeled away. The grill is a vintage Weber Genesis 1000. LG solar panels from Pick My Solar contribute to the home’s net-zero energy profile, as does a moisture barrier in the walls that allows heat to escape.