Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Colin and Alisa Sands their three children and two dogs
Location: Mazama, Washington
Size: 2,400 square feet (223 square meters); three bedrooms, 2½ bathrooms plus garage
Designer: Designs Northwest Architects
Builder: Impel Construction
The family chose the valley location for its abundance of outdoor activities year-round, including bike riding and hiking in the summer and cross-country skiing in the winter. They split their time between a home in Seattle and here, where the kids are enrolled in the local school during the winter months, and the plan is to eventually move to this home full time. “The focus is family and being together,” Alisa says.
The main goal for the design was “a house that our family could grow into, not just in the next five to 10 years but in the next generation as well,” Colin says.
Watch now: See this firewise modern-rustic home on the latest episode of Houzz TV
“We were relatively cost-effective with the materials we used and how we used them,” says Nelson. The house was built for about $300 per square foot; he estimates other homes in the area cost closer to $700 per square foot. The materials and structure are minimalist and clearly expressed in the wide-flange steel posts and beams, seen here, and the exposed Breckenridge plywood sheathing and rafters of the roofline. A water-based finish, Pioneer Wood Patina, gives the cedar an old barn-wood look.
- Materials include fire-rated metal roofing, noncombustible metal siding, noncombustible steel support beams, double-pane tempered-glass windows and doors and an elevated deck constructed from noncombustible materials, including Cor-Ten steel.
- Slab on-grade construction prevents fire from moving through a crawl space.
- Landscaping around the house is kept clear of combustible vegetation and large trees.
- Landscape sprinklers allow the area around the home to be kept moist during fire danger. Instead of combustible mulch, pine straw or plantings, the landscape design incorporates rockeries and gabion walls.
Firewise Landscapes Can Help Keep Your Home and Property Safe
The home is hooked up to local power and water systems but is also set up to accept solar power in the future.
For those who don’t enter the house through the breezeway, there’s a dramatic entry procession, past the rugged rock garden, with a clear view through the house to the river and mountains on the other side. Once through the front door, the space opens up wide to soaring ceilings up to 16 feet high and a wall of glass windows across the room.
Watch now: See how this home came together with the help of design professionals
The corrugated-metal siding detail continues seamlessly into the house next to the main entrance.
The hallway to the right includes a cushioned window bench facing large-format games of chess and Scrabble.
The 6-by-7-foot Scrabble board and 4-by-4-foot chessboard use magnetic pieces.
“One of the homeowners got really into the design process and was very involved,” Nelson says. “He worked with Alpine Welding in nearby Twisp, Washington, designing some of the furniture himself.” One such piece is the TV stand, which is composed of flat mill-finished steel and stained cedar boards.
Flooring. The heated flooring is concrete that has been scored via saw-cutting; the cuts were then filled with grout. This gives the concrete the appearance of large-format tile. Buffing gave the floors their variation in color.
Kitchen. On the other side of the open space, another set of transom windows shows how the roof structure is revealed outside on the porch, in contrast to the way it is covered up by the cedar boards on the interior.
Watch now: Go inside this new-build home on Houzz TV
Simple walnut cabinet doors add another wood into the color palette, while cedar boards wrap the island. Note the way the cabinets around the refrigerator are recessed into the wall. The homeowner opted for more cedar boards around the vent hood duct. The backsplash is metal and the countertops are quartz.
“It’s very low maintenance,” Alisa says. “With dogs and kids there’s nothing better.”
Dining room. Double sliding doors open the dining room to views and breezes. The Sands bought the table on Houzz, and Colin had a glass sheet fabricated and placed on top that added 30 percent more surface area.
The homeowners worked with a craftsman to design the large wine rack in the left corner.
The sliding glass doors and header-less windows at the roofline beautifully frame the view. “We don’t have any pictures on the wall. We think of our windows as the pictures,” Colin says.
On a concrete patch outside on the grass sits a fire pit, which the family uses carefully only during months when there is not a fire ban.
The homeowner worked with Alpine Welding to create the nightstands.
“I love what we have and enjoy it,” Alisa says. “When we come here, every time I think, ‘I am so grateful,’ and I know this is a place we’ll come forever, and our kids and their kids. I think this is exactly where our family needs to be.”