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Halfway through a pregnancy isn’t exactly the ideal time to buy a house. So after spending months scouting San Francisco’s Victorians and turnkey cookie-cutters—and almost defecting to the East Bay—Lorena Siminovich and Esteban Kerner decided to put the hunt on hold until after their baby was born. But then one afternoon Kerner, a design director with Old Navy, logged on to Craigslist on a whim. He saw a below-market listing for a single-family home in Noe Valley, their neighborhood of choice. With crumbly brick cladding, peeling rust-brown paint, and rotting garage doors, the house lacked curb appeal. But the Argentine couple was drawn to the interior. "It was amazing and strange at the same time," says Kerner of the 1,485-square-foot, multilevel, midcentury maze. "Mind-boggling," adds Siminovich. "It was just a knot of doors and a series of insane stairs to nowhere."

Kindred Motorworks performs every aspect of its auto restoration process under one roof in its Mare Island, CA facility. Paint, bodywork, upholstery, machining, and design all have their own individual shops, and the entire process is managed by the company’s innovative Blueprint tech platform. “Modernizing a vintage car is a huge advantage,” says Kindred Motorworks founder Rob Howard. “The challenges involved with vintage cars melt away and you’re actually able to be present in the moment and just enjoy the ride.”

"Since we're completely off grid we operate off of hauled water, so we have three 1,800 gallon tanks that get filled up every other week. But for those same reasons, people off the grid don't really have pools because they're hard to maintain, but we did it anyway."

In the backyard, the shipping container Modpool is controlled by a smart-tech system which allows it to double as a jacuzzi

The House for Booklovers and Cats by BFDO Architects

A playful mixture of antiques and mid-century furnishings adds personality to the white-box interior of a cottage.

“The design for the house emerged from walking the property. We imagined that as we climbed up from the beach, we’d see little peeks of our home from behind the trees,” says Brad Horn, architect and resident.

Kokoon Homes's exclusive wall panel technology makes erecting your own house shell quick and easy. A fully custom shell kit is achieved with proprietary universally interchangeable wall panels in widths of 2 ft, 4 ft, 6 ft, 8 ft.

This 14-by-16-foot modern dwelling is perfect for the Austin family who uses it as a guesthouse for visitors. It's also become a good investment, as they turn it into a short-term rental during Austin's busy spring and fall tourist seasons.

A narrow and long 8 by 40 feet empty steel shipping container in an artists’ community in San Antonio, Texas serves a playhouse, garden retreat, and guesthouse for visiting creatives.

Constructed out of structural insulated panels (SIPS), the Element House is a modular building that was designed to operate independently of public utilities by instead employing passive systems and on-site energy generation. The house functions as a guesthouse and visitor center for Star Axis, a nearby land art project by the artist Charles Ross in New Mexico.

"From the active downtown to the 1928 World’s Biggest Lemon sculpture, Lemon Grove hosts an abundance of early- and mid-century architecture – the Church Residence being one of the most prominent local mansions."

To the right of the ground-floor hallway is the main staircase to the private area of the home.

A fully screened in porch provides a wonderful place to host dinner and watch the sun set over the neighboring mountains.

Beautiful hard wood flooring and a wide central staircase lovingly greet guests as they enter through the large window-framed front door.