my home

Full House view from the garden

More than 60 plant species were used in the layered design.

“During summer there is so much greenery, and it grows and changes every day. It’s very different in the autumn and winter—even the acoustics are different,

"In some ways the strongest attributes of the house are probably the outside spaces,” says Court. The original cedar deck was replaced with Kebony decking that wraps around a century-old cherry tree. A pair of Andy rockers from Mamagreen face an ottoman by Kenneth Cobonpue. The accordion doors are a NanaWall SL-60 system that allows the main room of the guesthouse to open completely to the deck.

Before the remodel, the house had no front door. A path led to the deck between the structures, and you entered through glass sliders. Now, a custom bridge leads to a new entry. The door is made of pitted steel salvaged from a ship bottom and fabricated by Seattle-based studio She-Metal.

"It was our job to hold on to the spirit of these buildings. They worked so well with the site and the views, so the project was really about exercising restraint,” says architect Brian Court. In the guesthouse, Gulassa wired a wisteria branch preserved from the property into a chandelier. The armchair is by Jens Risom and the windows are by Unilux.

The “prow deck,” which extends out toward the water, features a Henry Hall Tru Pure sofa and a Great Lakes lounge chair from Sutherland. The accent table is by Antoine Proulx.

“We’re hoping this renovation provides some solutions for how to take our existing homes and make them sustainable into the future, because we’ll never build completely new homes for everyone in time to handle the climate crisis,” says resident Todd Vogel.