Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Mid-sized mid-century modern gray one-story brick exterior home idea in Dallas

Project Developer David Waguespack https://www.houzz.com/pro/david-waguespack/david-waguespack-case-design-remodeling-inc Designer Carolyn Elleman https://www.houzz.com/pro/celleman3/carolyn-elleman-case-design-remodeling-inc Photography by Stacy Zarin Goldberg

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

This house was originally a modest country inn, and hosted, among others, members of the Group of Seven on their summer sketching trips to the Credit River Valley. We extensively restored the badly deteriorating main house and added a visually compatible side addition to provide a larger kitchen below and a new master suite above. Photo: Michael Andrews

Modern pool and cabana where the granite ledge of Gloucester Harbor meet the manicured grounds of this private residence. The modest-sized building is an overachiever, with its soaring roof and glass walls striking a modern counterpoint to the property’s century-old shingle style home. Photo by: Nat Rae Photography

This custom home in Glendora had restrictive height limitations which forced the design along a certain path. And while the house seems modest in scale on the exterior, the inside is expansive. My client was hesitant to spend what was estimated for the interior entry staircase, but was pleased after installation.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

Pool and Pool house on a modest sized lot in-town. Fully Featured pool house with kitchen and bath can accommodate short or long term guests with sunny views of the pool and hot tub. Outdoor kitchen and wet bar give flow to the newly paved entertainment space.

A modest dwelling undergoes a complete metamorphosis when a second story is added and the exterior is made over in the style of a New England estate.

Size: 2500 SF This guest house was designed to welcome the owner's children and grandchildren for extended visits to their large working farm in North Stonington. Nestled into the courtyard behind the original 300 year old Manor house, the guest house is modest in scale but surprisingly spacious. Designed with a large open living area, the guest house includes 5 bedrooms and a game room. The views over the fields and forests will be enjoyed for generations.

The Bluestone packs four bedrooms and loads of style into a modest footprint. With an open and efficient arrangement of the great room, kitchen, and dining areas, a deluxe master suite well separated from the secondary bedrooms, optional office/study or 4th bedroom, huge laundry room, roomy screen porch with fireplace, skylit porch flooding the interior with natural light, and enormous bonus room over the garage, the Bluestone lives much larger than its square footage, and is the ideal family home. Built by Kent Homes, Inc. http://www.kenthomes.net

It's a unique opportunity when an architect gets to design a house for one's parents. Mine moved to Ottawa from Southern Ontario and wanted a modest bungalow similar to the one they left behind. It featured energy-efficient construction, deep overhangs and wrap-around deck. The ramp was added by a later owner.

Audrey Hall
Example of a mountain style two-story wood exterior home design in Philadelphia