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Storied Spaces S04E09
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00:01houses are more than shelter the second we walked through the threshold of the
00:09door we both looked up looked at each other this is it yeah this is the space
00:15we wanted to live in the light and we wanted to live in the landscape for us
00:23it was a way to sort of connect my roots and expose our children and continue
00:28that legacy from our parents he sort of fell in love with the place and each other at the same
00:36time
00:38this building it's a real landmark around here it's an unconventional house but it's pretty fun
00:48the fact is that houses are dreams they're an expression of who we are and what we believe in
01:03being close to the loch is very special for us the loch is a place of freedom and escape
01:15if you go for a swim in the loch it completely clears your head it has a really special effect
01:23it just resets we've discovered that if ever there's kids in a bad mood the one cure of it
01:31is get them in the water and all the problems disappear it's that easy
01:37we wanted to design a building that felt as if it belonged to the location we're very privileged
01:42to be able to live here it's a really special place my name is neil stephen i'm an architect
01:49and i'm laura stephen also an architect and this is our home on lyle of sky in scotland
01:55we live here with our three children morag who's 13 lackey who's six and anna who's 18 months
02:06and our flippet two sausage dogs nine heberdean sheep and a cat
02:16is the sky is an island in the northwest of scotland
02:23in 2014 we came here and we were able to acquire the land there was nothing here on the site
02:30but we had a vision of how we could build our own home
02:33our house sits on the shores of loch naglinja we wanted to live near the loch we could make the
02:39most of living on an island welcome this is our home as you can see we've built it in a
02:48wild and
02:49windy place but that's what makes it special it's called tycrea which means the house of clay so
02:56even though it's covered in larch it's actually constructed with clay blocks which gives it its
03:01gallic name so it's a very solid building here by the loch we get lots of storms but that's what
03:08makes it magical it's the variety of weather the weather's a huge part of living here you know you
03:12have to hunker down in the winter and you emerge in the spring it's like you take a deep breath
03:19this is a typical winter day but this is the height of summer yeah yesterday was the longest day
03:24yesterday was the summer solstice
03:28so here leads to the rest of the house
03:35here you get the first glimpse of the the view on the loch beyond
03:42the weather's terrible here quite often so we designed this space with these built-in shutters
03:48so we can close down and make the space a bit more intimate and cozy we have these really thick
03:54walls
03:55the clay block walls are covered in clay plaster which is a natural material so natural that we find
04:01that the dogs like to eat it and our and the baby actually our toddler likes to lick it i
04:07think she
04:07gets minerals from it so that's okay mineral lick yeah we don't mind we've gone for a limited number of
04:12materials we've got oak and we've got a terrazzo floor which the stone has come from a local quarry
04:18we've tried to use as many natural materials as possible so it feels like it's part of the landscape
04:24we grew up in glasgow but myself my twin would spend most of our holidays in sky at my grandparents
04:30house just on the beach or bird watching so we we love sky and we always felt connected to it
04:38i moved to sky when i was just straight from uni we first met when we worked on a project
04:44together
04:44i suppose you're my boss yeah it doesn't feel like it yeah but yeah that's how we met
04:55i didn't move here till we got married so it was a big change at the time for me moving
05:00from glasgow to
05:01here but i fell at home straight away it's only when you come up these steps that you get the
05:14full
05:15view and that you see the expansive loch i think everyone's sort of drawn to this special picture
05:29window and that connection for whatever reason even the cats it's gone to the space
05:42we're passing through the hallway big thick walls this was always going to be a kind of mixed-use space
05:52like a flexible space tv area place for the kids to art toys and you also circulate off the space
06:00into
06:01the bedrooms these are the kids bedrooms they're both exactly the same size and we've done something
06:08quite deliberate with these rooms which is to to use a different color of clay plaster so we've gone
06:14for a sort of deep olive green and it makes it feel a bit quieter a bit more intimate which
06:18i think is
06:18important within a bedroom the kids get the view out to the loch so over this side the space of
06:27the
06:27circulation we go to our bedroom which is the the main bedroom in the house which is exactly double the
06:33size of the kids bedrooms and it was deliberate for us that we didn't get the view of the loch
06:40we looked
06:40back into the landscape so this is a very quiet space for us so actually we get a better night's
06:48sleep
06:48than the kids yeah it's very quiet in here
07:13time spent down there by the loch is like time to contemplate time to relax take a deep breath
07:20breath that's canna around the corner there's rum muck and egg they're known as the small isles here comes tov
07:30you do feel a sense of freedom and a connection to nature which is a privilege
07:37and so yeah we're we're very very happy
07:58we're very happy to have a place to go where you feel like you're alone
08:08this is our beach house in arch cape oregon we call our shelter house we built it as a respite
08:16a getaway
08:16from from our busy lives business kids everything in portland
08:23honestly i never could have imagined ever having a house like this i grew up southeast portland
08:27you know my parents are hard-working people and uh this is a very special dream that came true
08:39the house is about 2500 square feet three bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms dual purpose loft area
08:50and then the great room kitchen dining living all in one space
08:58we live in portland oregon we have our own patent advisory business my husband and i michael we have
09:05two kids and a dog named bernie in 2013 i booked a home for the family for christmas down the
09:15beach and we
09:17absolutely fell in love with arch cape
09:24then this beautiful blank piece of property became available but i honestly could not envision what
09:32could be built here so i called one of my favorite people our interior designer from in portland
09:38and her husband's an architect and i said okay you need to come out to the property
09:43and david needs to tell me if he can build something here i'm david horning my role in
09:50this project was head of design for both the architecture and the interior design components
09:58this lot was on the market and available because it was so difficult to build on and i think it
10:03scared
10:04a lot of people away there were so many restrictions on building on this site we have a floodplain issue
10:08because you're on the oregon coast you do get big wave surges so we designed the house elevated up
10:14and it's on concrete piers so the water is intended to flow underneath the house the floor
10:18has to be five feet up above the base flood level and we had a max height of about 14
10:24feet
10:24so we were kind of forced into using a flat or a low sloped roof
10:28and that really lends itself towards a modern style of architecture
10:35the house is very different from anything else on this stretch of beach
10:40it's kind of a box out front and you don't really know what's behind it
10:45and it does sort of block out everything
10:50as you open up the front door you see the pacific ocean that was a must for me it's pretty
10:57magnificent if you ask me
11:00i love to be able to open the door and just see it right away all the way through the
11:05house you can see it
11:12right off the foyer we've got two guest rooms each bedroom has its own ensuite bathroom
11:20i think it just makes visiting here really comfortable
11:25so when i first saw the floor plans for the house i was a little taken aback by uh the
11:32fact that there
11:32was a bathtub in the middle of the bedroom but the architect convinced me that that it was actually
11:38a really good thing that it allowed us to have more in this space
11:44now we're in the main part of the house the great room
11:49the open kitchen and dining and living area all in one all looking out to the pacific ocean
12:00love the openness of the kitchen love the huge island everybody can work around it sit around it
12:07again built-ins same wood running throughout the entire house it's the hewn oak and it's just really
12:13beautiful and durable right off the dining area is the living area all about the view
12:25we don't have any televisions in the house but we do like to project a movie now and then
12:30sometimes a sporting event onto the wall here so we these big white walls work perfectly for that
12:41in the winter time we get the waves come all the way up to the lower deck but it was
12:46built for that
12:47it was built to be durable and we feel safe here very safe
12:55the building process was super fun so it was just this blank flat piece of property we're always looking
13:02for aspects of the site that can help kind of give us some design direction and in this case there's
13:09a mountain behind the house and there's this one over here in the economy that kind of slopes up and
13:12down like that and so that was really how we used the roof form we used that shape so that
13:19when you
13:19enter the home you're kind of compressed down to a low point and then it opens up again and leads
13:25out towards the view but we use that challenge to our advantage to make the house special and if it
13:31wasn't for those restrictions we wouldn't have this same design
13:37right next to the living area is the primary bedroom
13:44it is very open but for privacy we have this custom it's really a piece of art door that separates
13:52the great room from the primary bedroom and it's very heavy
14:03it's a pretty fantastic view there's a picture of michael standing right here when it was just
14:09framed it's actually a really cool photo trying to envision what the bedroom was going to be like was
14:14insane the cedar goes all the way from the floor and the boards match go up out and out onto
14:25the deck and
14:26it's just a it's a beautiful feature and something that you notice
14:48it's really good people love to come here
14:59the ocean is is a beautiful thing it's magical
15:13no more booking hotel rooms with the does it have an ocean view it has a peekaboo ocean view nah
15:19we got the
15:20ocean view so it's more than i could have imagined it's more than i could have dreamed of
15:29it's just a perfect place to be
15:47to look out and to know that you're on the edge and that there is nothing but water for thousands
15:53of miles
15:55it's pretty incredible you know never in my wildest dreams would i've imagined that from my kitchen sink
16:02i could see whale spouts like it's just such a dream come true
16:10whenever we spend time up here you really realize how little you need to live a happy life
16:19you know it's a thousand square foot home in a village of a couple thousand people
16:26it really kind of changes your mentality about how the world could work
16:35i'm dr max dean goldstein i'm js renaissance this is baby esther and we're here at our home in mendocino
16:43california god bless you
16:49welcome to our home it's a two-bedroom two-bath cabin with an incredible west-facing ocean view
16:57and we're on about two acres of land esther you ready for some farm work yes she said yes
17:07my mom was a farmer and so kind of raised us with the connection to land and taking care of
17:11animals
17:16i was really intent on this idea of a land project near the coast because i love
17:21the ocean so incredibly much but i also love gardening we were looking all up and down the
17:27california coast just for that property that really spoke to us and what we could also afford
17:32and ended up in mendocino mostly because the property really called to our spirit it was beautiful
17:40mendocino it's very unique it's kind of juts out into the pacific ocean
17:48and you're pretty much surrounded by water on on three sides the home dates back its original
17:56structure to the late 1800s a little small 400 square foot redwood cottage the home was then added
18:02on in the 20s and lived in until about 1980 and then abandoned as of 1980 so this home as
18:09we see it
18:09right now is the same footprint from the 20s when we first bought the house
18:16yeah it was a tumble down shack with no structural integrity to it i work in construction uh so for
18:26me it wasn't really daunting and i think i was able to reassure max quite a bit the home looks
18:34like it's
18:34been around for a very long time although it was essentially rebuilt in 2021 by both of us the only
18:40original window from the home is this one right here um all the other windows are architecturally
18:47salvaged something that was really central to the idea of the home is to kind of work with what we
18:54found and as max mentioned we didn't change the footprint of the cabin but we did open up some
19:01walls and windows in order to draw attention and focus towards the view
19:15so when you walk inside the home you kind of walk immediately into our farm kitchen it's really an
19:21area where we want everybody to be greeted with food and drink and beverage you know there's always a
19:26seat at the table for them and so we have this 14-foot-long kitchen uh table that seats up
19:32to 14
19:32maybe 16 people for squeezed and they're pretty tightly it's really a place of abundance you know
19:38of warmth and joy and welcoming for all of our friends and our family there's also a breakfast nook
19:45nook here this is where we have morning coffee and we also do some afternoon writing here
19:53the only original window we have is this one right here in the breakfast nook and it was
19:57almost like we had to build the whole house around this one window which is incredible because it really
20:02does frame the ocean when we first bought the house i had no idea how the roof was still standing
20:11so we needed to create some extra support yeah these are the five inch diameter um tree trunks
20:19that we were asking for and they're probably closer to 12 or 14. we love it because it feels like
20:25a
20:25tree house and it feels like there's trees growing through the home we built this loft as kind of like
20:31a storage loft so when people come they can kind of throw their luggage up there we also threw a
20:36couple
20:36cushions down so if like somebody wanted to go up there and take a little nap they could
20:40it's a very fun vantage point of the home so this is our sunken living room with an ocean view
20:50this is the perfect place for afternoon naps bye-bye
20:56a reason why we sunk the living room was because we came across these beautiful
21:0016-pane windows that would be too large to install with the floor level in the rest of the house
21:10so you pass through this corridor over here into the east side of the home which is bedroom and bathing
21:17areas when you're in this room it's it's more about being quiet it's not necessarily about a broad expanse
21:24of view she was born almost three months ago and this is her first trip up to the cabin actually
21:33and she loves it
21:39really central to the design of the home is working with what you've got and we had the
21:45access to these discounted tiles many of the pieces cut by hand by myself and two friends over
21:5372 hours of a tiling frenzy so this is our primary bathroom that's like a changing room tub toilet area
22:02that's connected to the primary bedroom
22:06the tile in this bathroom is specifically put with this color palette in mind thinking of the ocean
22:13view that we have in front of us it really kind of ground you and that this is a home
22:18by the sea
22:23so this is our primary bedroom
22:29my best friend from college is an incredible craftsman
22:33paneled this entire room and he wanted to do it diagonal
22:37so you kind of see how perfect it is going from one piece to another through those corners
22:42he also inlaid a beautiful abalone shell that i found while free diving around here
22:48into the wall itself as our headboard
23:00i think you know when you feel grateful in life and you have moments that remind you of that gratitude
23:06every single day it really changes you you know you really feel joy and i feel like it
23:11also allows us to be kind and generous to others
23:19and that's really what we were both looking for is a life project a lifelong land project something
23:25we could plant and develop and cultivate for our family and for our friends
23:32all of those stresses from city life kind of just disappear and you start thinking about
23:39really beautiful things like building a family or taking up a new passion or
23:46i want people to dream you know
23:50you
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