It feels like you can reach out and touch moored boats on a still summer night, the sounds of laughter drifting across the calm waters; lantern-like light leaking through the brise soleil in the moonlight.

Set on a tiny plot on the northern shore of a picturesque harbor, this relatively small house replaces a beloved 500sf family cabin that was donated, relocated, and now loved by a new family. “Cabin Too” celebrates its connection to life outside at the waters edge. A delicate cedar bris-soliel allows the covered patio to become a true outdoor room; shaded from the southern sun at midday, yet open to the marine landscape, and warmed by a stone fireplace on cool evenings. At 2100sf this home lives large for its size. Intended to be a second home, we were paid the ultimate compliment when within a year of completion the owners made it their primary residence.

Exposed timbers are grouped to form tree like column clusters with exposed joinery supporting a stoutly beamed upper floor. High clerestory windows bring in precious natural light without compromising privacy. The interior spaces are dominated by honest timber framing, with generous wood cabinetry providing boat-like storage efficiency, both rendered in the deep warm red-orange of Pacific Northwest Douglas fir.

The compact footprint and efficient, cockpit-like, interior spaces serve their functions well without gratuity. A rooftop photovoltaic solar panel system offsets power consumption, and careful attention to natural day lighting and ventilation combined with a high efficiency radiant floor heating system help make the house a modest energy user.

The backstory of the move

A house move is inevitably a neighborhood event, with lots of looky-loos with all manner of sage advice for the moving crew. This move no different, but special in knowing that the old cabin that occupied the site for more than 100 years was being donated for reuse by the Housing Resources Board, whose mission it is to provide affordable housing in the Community. With a new foundation awaiting its arrival, the old cabin traveled safely and with a fresh coat of cheerful yellow paint, is as good as new. The best kind of recycling we know!