This chalet-roofed home was recently transformed from a sturdy 1960s ranch to this expressive, beautiful bungalow. The sellers really put themselves into the house, doing much of the work themselves; look at the beautiful woodwork, all the windows – there’s lots of light throughout – and the beautiful roofline. Julie Anderson, the current owner, can tell you more:
We purchased this house almost 12 years ago. At that time, it was a small (less than 1,000 sq. ft.) 2 bed, 1 bath house with a tar and gravel roof. The eaves were in such bad shape that the sky could be seen through many sections. None of the appliances worked, including an electric wall heater. Numerous other components of the house were in bad shape. However, it had been built by a quite competent owner/builder who used quality materials (true 2 x 6 tongue and groove redwood sub-floor, for example), so we decided to buy the house. We had just moved from Pasadena, so while looking over the plans for a second storey addition (the main reason that we purchased the house, along with the fact that it is in a great location), we began talking to the architect that had been hired by the owner. As it turned out, the architect was a Charles Rennie Mackitosh fan, and we changed the style of this non-descript 1961 stucco house to a chalet-style Craftsman (the architect had just completed a project for a client at Lake Tahoe, who wanted a house that reflected the Arts and Crafts era, but also functioned well in the snow). My husband and I, shortly after the process began, became owner / contractors, and designed, worked, and installed nearly all of the Interior woodwork, examples of which include 5/8 x 4 oak baseboards, similar dimension window trim (in layers, which includes square plugs – literally hundreds of square plugs!), a mahogany handrail a la Stickey – with ebony square plugs, utilitzation of scarf joints, etc., an oak-paneled skylight, redwood doors using a modified cloud-lift design, and narrow double closet doors of redwood. Quite a lot of the redwood is virgin, which we found at building salvage companies, and planed to reveal fantastic straight grain and beautiful color. The crowning elements of the home, however, are lighting fixtures made of mahogany with ebony highlights, which David made – inspired by designs in the Gamble House and other "ultimate bungalows". Some of the lighting fixtures use decorative mahogany ceiling plates and glass fixtures; two wall sconces use hand-blown bungalow art glass shades from Lundberg Studios in Davenport, CA; and several fixtures are basically beautiful suspended boxes with various types of sheet glass – including a sheet of one-of-a-kind iridized glass from Bullseye Glass in Oregon. The fixtures over the dining table and also in the stair landing area are suspended by wide leather straps. David and my son actually wrote for and received written premission to visit the Gamble House after hours so that David could take measurements of some of the fixtures in the house.
Our house is quite unique for our area. We live north of Half Moon Bay, in an unincorporated area of the San Mateo County coast, south of Pacifica, and about 25 minutes away from downtown San Francisco. On the greater Coastside, there are probably a handful or two original Craftsman homes, primarily in the town of Half Moon Bay and one other tiny community. There are some new Craftsman homes, of course, but interior work is often quite contemporary. Our real estate agent, who has worked the coastside for 27+ years, says that she has not ever seen a house like this.
Obviously, if you’re anywhere nearby, you should stop by (additional photographs are also available at that link) for their next open house on Sunday, December 3 from 11 am to 3 pm. Contact Joyce Beckman at Coldwell Banker Half Moon Bay for more information.
