Every inch of the inside and outside living areas are reconceived in this full house and guest-house renovation in Berkeley. In the main house the entire floor plan is flipped to re-orient public and private areas, with the formerly small, chopped up spaces opened and integrated with their surroundings. The studio, previously a deteriorating garage, is transformed into a clean and cozy space with an outdoor area of its own. A palette of screen walls, corten steel, stucco and concrete connect the materials and forms of the two spaces. What was a drab, dysfunctional bungalow is now an inspiring and livable home for a young family. Photo by David Duncan Livingston

Greg Reigler

Front view of the guesthouse overlooking the Napa Valley. Photo by Adrian Gregorutti

My client for this project was a builder/ developer. He had purchased a flat two acre parcel with vineyards that was within easy walking distance of downtown St. Helena. He planned to “build for sale” a three bedroom home with a separate one bedroom guest house, a pool and a pool house. He wanted a modern type farmhouse design that opened up to the site and to the views of the hills beyond and to keep as much of the vineyards as possible. The house was designed with a central Great Room consisting of a kitchen area, a dining area, and a living area all under one roof with a central linear cupola to bring natural light into the middle of the room. One approaches the entrance to the home through a small garden with water features on both sides of a path that leads to a covered entry porch and the front door. The entry hall runs the length of the Great Room and serves as both a link to the bedroom wings, the garage, the laundry room and a small study. The entry hall also serves as an art gallery for the future owner. An interstitial space between the entry hall and the Great Room contains a pantry, a wine room, an entry closet, an electrical room and a powder room. A large deep porch on the pool/garden side of the house extends most of the length of the Great Room with a small breakfast Room at one end that opens both to the kitchen and to this porch. The Great Room and porch open up to a swimming pool that is on on axis with the front door. The main house has two wings. One wing contains the master bedroom suite with a walk in closet and a bathroom with soaking tub in a bay window and separate toilet room and shower. The other wing at the opposite end of the househas two children’s bedrooms each with their own bathroom a small play room serving both bedrooms. A rear hallway serves the children’s wing, a Laundry Room and a Study, the garage and a stair to an Au Pair unit above the garage. A separate small one bedroom guest house has a small living room, a kitchen, a toilet room to serve the pool and a small covered porch. The bedroom is ensuite with a full bath. This guest house faces the side of the pool and serves to provide privacy and block views ofthe neighbors to the east. A Pool house at the far end of the pool on the main axis of the house has a covered sitting area with a pizza oven, a bar area and a small bathroom. Vineyards were saved on all sides of the house to help provide a private enclave within the vines. The exterior of the house has simple gable roofs over the major rooms of the house with sloping ceilings and large wooden trusses in the Great Room and plaster sloping ceilings in the bedrooms. The exterior siding through out is painted board and batten siding similar to farmhouses of other older homes in the area. Clyde Construction: General Contractor Photographed by: Paul Rollins

Photo by June Cannon, Natureaged siding

Front facade- Jarvis Architects

Paul Owen, Owen Photo

Conte & Conte, LLC landscape architects and designers work with clients located in Connecticut & New York (Greenwich, Belle Haven, Stamford, Darien, New Canaan, Fairfield, Southport, Rowayton, Manhattan, Larchmont, Bedford Hills, Armonk, Massachusetts)Pool House designed by Paul Marchese & Associates; Steps into the pool along with a classic pool house

Architecture: Mike Lanctot & Zak Fish Structural: Moses Structural Engineers

The left facade of the house. Notice that the house is resting on a network of steel rods drilled into the rock beneath it. Photo by David Relan

This small guest house is built into the side of the hill and opens up to majestic views of Vail Mountain. The living room cantilevers over the garage below and helps create the feeling of the room floating over the valley below. The house also features a green roof to help minimize the impacts on the house above.

Picardy Bedroom Range

Photography: Gil Jacobs

Neil Landino

Rear uplighting high-lights features of the home and guest house. The hot tub at the end of the pool over flows to a fountain and then into the pool. Rion Rizzo, Creative Sources Photography

A hot tub and poolhouse anchor the far end of the swimming pool while the main house is on the opposite side. Widely-spaced slabs of bluestone surround the pool and are set into the lawn.

Original stone church with sheep shed attached to one side has been converted to a holiday house.