Small houses

Jeff Waldman and Molly Fiffer built this 200-square-foot cabin themselves on the site of their 10-acre property in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Their previous cabin, which they also built by hand, was destroyed in a forest fire in 2020.

Every piece of the cabin's wood was either chainsaw milled by Jeff, Molly, and their friends out of trees killed by the fire on site, or is old-growth salvage redwood from a nearby mushroom farm.

The daybed uses a Japanese futon mattress. The smaller piece of the sectional daybed is on sliders and able to function as a coffee table, or as seating that opposes the daybed for dining with a folding table in between.

The cabin does not have running water or electricity, and relies on a simple propane stove top. The sink was salvaged from a previous project.

The cabin contains a sleeping area that can be closed off via curtains, which are made from Japanese Shashiko cloth from Handa Textiles.

Molly and Jeff built the outdoor picnic table by hand.

The home is off a gravel road beside a stream, and features a front and back deck. The angles of the home allow for sunlight to reach far into the interiors.

The 1,600-square-foot home is surrounded by pines—the same type of wood used on the exterior. “Bears roam through the neighborhood, and they watch them from the deck and through the windows,” designer Lisa Carolla says.

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The landscaping features encore azaleas, arborvitae, and Japanese cypress. An oak forest in the backyard provides a sense of privacy and seclusion.

Open shelving in the kitchen

Eight-foot-wide sliding glass doors connect the interior of the cabin to the natural landscape. "Window placements are always a fine balance of several ingredients that include amount of light, type of light, privacy, heat loss, especially in Canada, heat gain, cross ventilation, framing views, how the exterior of the house looks, and of course functionality,

The custom cabinetry for the bathroom is made of laminated pine board with a water-base finish that's resistant to color change and similar to what you see in the rest of the house as we wanted to create a consistent story,

An expansive picture window frames the natural surround in the living room, where a built-in sofa and bench provide perches for soaking in views and sunlight.

The interior of the micro cabin is finished with pine plywood walls, ceiling, and floors that lend pattern and an organic quality. Stainless steel cabinetry, counters, and appliances in the kitchen offer a more industrial quality that balances the materiality of the wood.

“Our primary consideration was to have a home that was comfortable and functional for the two of us,” says architect William Samuels. “That consideration outweighed all other aspects of the brief and was our only non-negotiable.”

The interstitial space between the two modules is a low height space which becomes the storage and services zone, including laundry, wardrobe and storage cupboard. This also helps to "zone

The home is clad in corrugated iron coated with Zincalume. “We chose the cladding so we could curve the metal sheets and create barrel vaulted roofs,” says architect William Samuels. “The finish gives a natural reflection to the surface of the house, picking up on the colors of the surrounding bush and the changing daylight.”

White oak flooring, cabinetry, shelves, and ceiling beams add texture and warmth and reference the tree trunks of the wooded landscape.