When the project was first described to me, I thought it was a little whacky: a site on a private island in Puget Sound with no roads and no other houses in view. Accessible only by private craft at high tide (unless you go to shore in a row boat). And then a half-mile trek through salt marsh with weekend supplies in wheelbarrows. Electricity, but no well water or toilets.

The project is to replace the termite-eaten rodent-sheltering log home on the site, a 600 square-foot cabin that has housed family weekends and vacations for nearly forty years.

The day of my site visit was sunny. The trip across the Sound in my client’s 23 foot landing craft warmed my bones, until it was time to climb into the row boat for a short trip to the shore. The footing on the wet rocky beach was unsteady, and I think my client was enjoying this city slicker’s awkwardness.

The annual solar cycle nears its completion as do several Warmmodern Living projects, varied in site – from breathtaking shorelines to rugged woods, and varied in size — from 1000 to 4000 square feet. 

All are the products of collaborations with wonderful clients of varied persuasions and ages, who welcomed me into their lives and shared their personal aspirations as we wove the details of their daily lives into their Lindal designs. Each trusted me with long-held visions, and without exception their finished homes exceed their expectations.

A varied group of clients and projects. all sharing the same goals.

Read on and enjoy the slideshow of newly completed Lindal projects…

It used to be that escaping to the night sky up on the roof was an urban phenomenon, but no more. The increasing popularity of flat roofed modern architecture to the suburbs and the wilds of North America has created new opportunities to address new needs.

How do modern consumers make important and productive use of their roofs, and what are some of the design considerations for these uses?  In this post we provide a little insight (outsight?) into:

• Roof Decks: Your best backyard

• Photovoltaic fields: Toward energy independence

• Catchment Systems: When nothing else can do

• Green Roofs: Are they worth the added expense and risk?

We need to talk

Hardly a day goes by when I don’t speak to people like you: consumers planning to build a new home - or considering planning to build- and exploring the cost of building. They are trying to understand how to forecast and control cost.     

In these calls, one of the most common miscomputation is that cost is directly proportional to house size; that a 1000 square foot house will cost a third of what a 3000 square house costs.   

Actually, that’s not the case. The average cost of a 3000 square foot house today is closer to $275 per square foot. The 1000 square foot home will likely cost $325 per square foot or $300,000. 

Sheri Koones, bestselling author of over a dozen books on important and timely housing trends (prefab, sustainable small houses, energy efficient masterpieces), is into downsizing. Sheri's coffee table books feature well designed homes of modern and transitional architecture.

Downsize, Koones' latest book, features two dozen houses, all under 2000 square feet, in which she describes how the homeowners chose to reduce the size of their homes and proved that ‘less is more” by collaborating with design professionals to create homes that feel larger and live larger than their size.

How tickled are we that a custom Warmmodern Living Lindal is included in the book about good sense and efficiency? Mighty tickled!

Read on for more on “Downsize" and to hear the homeowners of the featured Warmmodern Living Lindal speak about their experience and tour their home in a special video presentation.