Collection by eric terry
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View from the front entrance towards the kitchen and living room at the rear of the home. The trees in the rear yard are visible through both the ground and section floor windows. The kitchen island and counters are Brazilian soapstone while the lower millwork cabinets are a super matte black laminate. The upper cabinets are a natural finished rift cut white oak. Beyond and at the centre of the the home, the soffit of the of the second floor landing interlocks with the open to above spaces.
Kitchen Stool: Kristalia BCN Stool Cooktop and downdraft: Bosch
Renovating the old mill was a family effort, and Blee called on his sister Kate, a textile designer based in London, to lend a helping hand with the tile work. Kate's repertoire also extends to building installations, including a ceramic wall in the City and Islington Center for Lifelong Learning in North London. "She had several boxes left over," Blee recalls, "which meant another opportunity to use something that was lying around." The tiles, with finishes ranging from heavy glazes to matte coats, offered textural variety, which brother and sister used to "play around with the idea of reflection from the roof light."
A view of the sauna building before the patio and seating were constructed on the other side. The log cabins were constructed by a specialist company, and another builder helped with the interior walls. Jussi-Pekka and his father did all the other building and landscaping work, apart from the electrical and plumbing—often working 12-hour days.
Stepping into the guesthouse’s hot tub brings the eye to ground level, providing a new vantage on landscape designer Marc Peter Keane’s mix of Japanese greenery and native mosses. “We minimized visual cues from the house so that when you’re experiencing it, you’re not thinking about the building, you’re just in life. The reduction of signals creates tranquility,” says Andrew.
After a wildfire ripped through Jeff Waldman and Molly Fiffer’s 10-acre retreat in the Santa Cruz Mountains in August of 2020, the couple was determined to build a new home. They were hesitant about investing too much money, though, as they knew that California was only getting drier and more prone to fires.



















