The Pole House

Here is a home on The Sea Ranch in Sonoma County that has received a lot of praise in the past… owner Paul Mundy has recently completed a remodel and we are happy to share yet another lovely transformation.

Outside, you’ll notice this house sits on a hill – or rather, above it – on seventeen massive poles. Vertical gray wooden siding envelopes the home’s angular structure, which includes multiple juxtaposed roof levels. You can take in the surrounding tall trees pointing to lovely clear skies while reclining in Adirondack chairs on the back porch.

Inside, the owner kept a strict material palette working only with Douglas fir wood. The main focus is to streamline the detailing to achieve the best possible results.

‘I had to work with the angled building walls and paneled the walls with Native Douglas fir that was milled locally. Upgrade to the old single paned windows that needed to be replaced by a pre-manufactured window and door systems installed’. ‘I worked with an exceptional contractor, a best friend from the Ski Town I once lived and issued detailed drawings to achieve the Sea Ranch look and feel I was wanting to desire’.

The living spaces were very open, to begin with, but the kitchen peninsula blocked the flow of the great room. That was removed as well as moving all the appliances around as well as the wood burner that took up a third of the living area. The unused area under the staircase is now part of the kitchen housing the refrigerator and bar area. Recycling the existing solid Douglas fir cabinets was very important, keeping with the original flavor of the home. The flooring has a concrete look adding to the natural appeal of the home.

The bathroom that was split into two, it now has an open vaulted ceiling and also showcases the local Douglas fir matching this no-nonsense approach to the rest of the home.

Original Design by Norman Delano Hale Architects and built by Harold Heinrich’s in 1977.