As this family has grown and moved, we are proud to have moved with them, collaborating on 3 gardens. For this summer house, the clients asked us to design a contemporary garden & pool that would work for their active kids as well as the traditional architecture. The narrow site, which sloped down to the house, had drainage issues, which were solved by dividing the grade into 2 levels, with a dining terrace outside the kitchen/family rooms, adjacent to an lawn panel for the children's games and performances. The pool terrace was set 2 steps above the lawn, creating a stronger relationship to the guesthouse which serves as an important backdrop. An open air changing room w/ shower was added to the side of the guest house. Stepping stones on the side of the lawn, along with the landscape lighting, create a corridor that connects the house, guesthouse and parking at night. Gray granite was chosen for the paving and pool coping because in this context can be interpreted as both a traditional and a contemporary material. For the pool interior, charcoal gray plaster and tile were chosen to take advantage of solar heat-gain, as well as to increase dramatic reflections of the Vineyard's changing skies when viewed from the house's upper windows.