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Expansive windows and doors illuminate the interior with natural light while opening onto a shady patio area.

Sliding glass doors emphasize the connection between indoor and outdoor spaces, and bring the landscape into the interior.

The home features more covered deck space than interior living space, evoking a feeling of living in the landscape.

Floor-to-ceiling sliding doors in the bedroom create an instant indoor-outdoor connection.

Artist Cori Creed stands in the kitchen of the vacation home in rural British Columbia that she and her husband, Craig Cameron, built with their friend and architect, Kevin Vallely. Cori made the ceramic dinnerware and pendants, while Craig built the kitchen island and installed the plywood ceiling with the help of his stepfather.

Today, a California live oak blocks a view from the street, and a massive pine sits in the front courtyard—in addition to a Japanese maple, bamboo, and other specimens. Here is a look into the second courtyard and a covered patio off the kitchen.

One of Abodu’s Scandinavian-inspired homes is outfitted with sleek furnishings under a cathedral roof. Decking and landscaping are optional add-ons.

A glimpse of the raised garden beds and a thriving avocado tree. The firm used Australian cypress pine for barn doors, walls, surfaces, planters, seating, and decking, for its resistance to rot. "It can be plunged into the ground and, if used in large enough sections, yields a kind of chunky appeal," says Hill.

On the left, stairs over the sauna lead up to an elevated lookout on the right. Beneath it is the bathhouse.

For the time being, Cori does her painting in the dining room. “Eventually we’ll build a studio here,” she says. “But for now, because we eat outside most of the time, the dining room it is.”

Off of the kitchen, the screened porch helps transition from the indoors to the outdoors, with the artist studio nearby.

Although the pint-sized sauna has a footprint of 62 square feet, tiered benches maximize space.

The view from the entrance looking toward the corridor that leads to the living room beyond.

The enclosed screen porch is enveloped in locally sourced cypress.

The meditation room overlooks a nearby hilltop in one of the clients' favorite views, framed by floor-to-ceiling glass windows.

Some of the furnishings came from the homeowners’ Dallas home, including the wooden chairs they purchased 35 years ago. The sofa is the Madison Sleeper Sofa from Bo Concept, while the side table is from Target. The lamp is from CB2. A British, antique officer’s cabinet contrasts with a modern bookshelf from Crate and Barrel.

Almost everything about Bob Butler’s Nashville home is unexpected. Its sunken living room, open beams, and carport hark back to the 1950s, yet it’s barely more than a year old. The breezy, rectilinear residence transports visitors to midcentury Hollywood Hills or Palm Springs, though it’s located in a city known for Craftsman bungalows and the rococo mansions of country stars. Most surprising of all, Bob designed and built it himself, with only a few years experience under his belt and no formal training, and on a budget that would get the attention of many area residents: $115 per square foot.

The Pretty Good House movement is growing. New meetups are cropping up around the country—including in Tennessee and California’s Sierra Nevadas. Pictured here, the Meadow View House by Atmosphere Design Build is highly efficient. It features mini splits for heating and cooling, exceeds the insulation requirements for its climate, implements photovoltaics, and filters fresh air without heat loss.

A small, affordable home in Parsonsfield, Maine, by local architecture firm Briburn incorporates passive solar design principles and is superinsulated thanks to features like triple-glazed windows. By all standards, it’s a Pretty Good House, as its carbon footprint is greatly reduced.