HOME DESIGNS
The living room at the heart of the house is presided over by an 8- by 12-foot canvas imprinted with an image of Maria Felix, a Mexican film star who ruled that country’s silver screen in the 1940s and 1950s. Interior designer Erin Martin “absolutely understood the grand architectural gesture in this room,” says Haesloop. “She matched it with her own bold move.” When paired with the dramatic image, the custom leather ottoman tooled with images of flowers and a honeycomb pattern seems to speak to the vaqueros (cowboys) of yesteryear.
He describes the structure of the house as a simple gabled space with two “saddlebags” on either side. The high-ceilinged space in the center holds a living room, a dining room and a small sleeping loft; the saddlebags hold bedrooms and a kitchen. “I like how the wings seemingly fold into the landscape,” says Haesloop. “There’s something about the repose of a barn that makes it seem at home in nature.” The front of the home is nearly opaque, but peering through the front door, you see a hint of what is to come on the inside. “Entering the house, you catch only a glimpse of what’s beyond the doors,” says Haesloop. Stepping into the interior, there is what Haesloop terms a visual explosion, thanks to a back wall made of glass.
Houzz at a Glance Who lives here: A couple and 3 kids, ages 7 to 10 Size: 2,500 square feet (232 square meters); 3 bedrooms, 3½ bathrooms Location: Sonoma County, California Year built: 2013 The owners named the place Hupomone Ranch; “hupomone” is a biblical term meaning “joyful endurance and steadfastness.” It’s an apt moniker, as that is exactly what it took to build a home here. “The property had been fallow for 30 years or so,” says Haesloop. “There was a collapsing shed where the house now stands. There was what had once been a farmhouse on the property, but apparently it had been used as a goat barn before being abandoned.” Remnants of both practical farm life and mystery were everywhere; the landscape was marked by a maze of cattle fencing, a long-unused well and a surprising number of old bathtubs. “The family saw the beauty of the land,” says Haesloop. “But there was a lot of clearing and editing that had to be done to bring it back to life.”
“There’s something magical about a barn,” says Eric Haesloop, design principal for this project and with Turnbull Griffin Haesloop architects. Indeed, there is something mystical about this family retreat the firm created in the iconic farm form. Most of the houses in this area of Sonoma County, California, are built atop the surrounding knolls. But to reach this dwelling, a visitor has to traverse the rolling hills before dropping down to the sheltered homestead. As you come up the walk to the front door (a glass portal behind traditional sliding barn doors), a sense of déjà vu comes upon you. The house seems enduringly familiar, as if the architects used some kind of sorcery to tap into our collective unconscious to channel the image of a half-remembered agrarian spread. But this is no sleight-of-hand trickery; the barn aesthetic is woven into the DNA of the storied firm (the founder, the late William Turnbull, was one of the fathers of Sea Ranch, a community of distinctive barn-inspired buildings on the Northern California coast). Not only that, but Haesloop, an Indiana native, grew up surrounded by barns and blames his interest in watching the tractors circling in the fields...
Eichler - big island - kids can work on. To the left of the dining area is the kitchen, which gives views of the living room and also of the backyard through windows and a sliding glass door for direct access. Klopf’s team removed part of the wall in this area, to improve the connection between the kitchen and the dining and living area. They also added the large island that doubles as a place where the kids can work on their projects.
Eichler Enter through patio.Here is the view one gains when entering through the front door. Rather than a living room, great room or even a foyer, this first space is an in-between space that straddles the outside and the private, interior realm. While the front of the house is primarily solid, with only narrow clerestories flanking the atrium, the walls facing this space are almost completely glass, taking advantage of the light and air of this open space.
House orientation on lot. The way a house is positioned on its lot affects how much natural light it gets and can influence heating and cooling bills as well. A south-facing home will maximize natural light — though a north-facing home can be just as bright if the main living space is in the back of the home and there are ample windows all around. In hot climates a north-facing home with deep eaves may be preferable to keep your house cooler.
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