We’re eating in style now that we have this nice back deck to lunch on.  Great views of the mountains and tucked up above the street with a discreet railing to give some privacy. I also like the different floor heights we are playing with and how you will be able to hand up and out a gin and tonic from the kitchen sink.

The railing design is something we keep coming back to and all five of our houses have that detail somewhere. I like the idea of a having a subtle callingcard on all of our houses.

Thinking more about durability, I really wanted to get away from normal pressure treated wood as even with maintenance, I just don’t think it holds up that well. So we went with a tropical hardwood (Cumaru) that is incredibly dense and hard. It was kind of a painstaking process as we had to predrill every hole for our stainless steel screws such that they wouldn’t break.

We haven’t sealed it yet, so it looks a little dull. But, it really comes to life after a rain when you can see all the variation.

Also, I always like to cantilever the decks when possible as it is much more striking to look at.

We also framed up the front porch. Obviously, it is not very deep as we put most of our bang towards the back deck where the views are. But,we wanted a covered front entrance to take your shoes off and also a roof on it to give some more dimension to the house.  The roof actually staggers outward in the opposite direction as the main roof line as I wanted the house to reach out to the street and draw you in.

One small detail I like: instead of just using 4×4 posts, we used 2 2×4’s with a spacer as I love the sleekness of it. I totally stole that idea from the folks at Alloy workshop.