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Kitchen 2024

Front Door Metallic Paint and Flea Market Hardware - 2024

Back pasture looking south to house

Backside of pastures looking at house located in center of photo amongst ancient oaks - 2024

800 year old California Oak Lower Pasture - 2024

Sand blasted kitchen cabinets with flea market handles from Scotland - 2024

Driveway Entrance - 2024

Back patio with fireplace and BBQ - 2024

Back Patio - 2024

Master Bathroom with custom built-in tub 2024

'Zen-Den Yurt' 2024

Dining Room - 2024

Kitchen view 2024

Living Room 2024

This 195-square-foot, shingled studio includes a library, reading nook, and workstation—and it’s totally DIY. Creative couple Michael and Christina Hara built the retreat just steps away from their back door, in order to carve out "space for creativity and respite from our chaotic, toddler-filled house," as Michael explains. The project, called the Fish Scale Studio, took eight months to complete, with Haras doing all of the design and construction themselves—for just $18,275.

"One of the great surprises is the acoustic environment," Simmons says. "These are all hard surfaces and you get a bit of reverberation, but the corrugated walls help to disburse sound, so you don’t really get an echo. It actually has a kind of warm sound."