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Looking for a better separation between work and home life, Seattleites Natalie Rohde and Patrick Haig asked local firm Linework Architecture to draw up plans to replace an aging backyard shed with a standalone workspace containing two acoustically separated offices. To make it work for their budget, the couple convinced Patrick’s father, Rob, a retired contractor, to lead the build.

Front Door at Night

“Finding this house was like finding a treasure,” says Jessica. “A lot of people who saw it wanted to tear it down. But we wanted to do right by it. The pool has become a shared social space—it’s a very good hangout.”

A dune grass “meadow” by garden designer and horticulturist Roy Altaras grows at one end of the pool.

Playing off the design of the concrete pad outside the living room, Frank laid out a series of stepping stones that lead from the house to the pool. “These circles bring you through the grass, but when you hit the pool, the baja shelf is itself another big circle,” he says.

Also in the foyer, beside a wall of glass that brings light into the living/dining area, is storagefor coats, bags and shoes.

“I’m a pool person,” says Jessica. Daltile penny tile lends a retro feel to the water feature. “Orange and blue are our primary accent colors for the house, so taking them to the backyard was kind of a given,” says Frank. “The orange refers back to the burnt orange from the [1950s] era of the house itself.”