Lopez Island, WA

Written by Jim the Realtor

May 20, 2011

This 1800 sf home is located on a heavily wooded, medium-bank waterfront property on Lopez Island, Washington.  The house is carefully sited amidst the existing trees and the existing land form which slopes up to the bank and view. 

Connections to the outdoors and other features of the property informed the arrangement of space and form.  The angle of the living wing corresponds to the bank and creates an embraced outdoor deck area.  The house reaches out to the southeast path to the beach, to the gardens further to the east and most importantly to the west and northwest views of the water.

13 Comments

  1. LM

    Too much on the IKEA side of the spectrum for me, but having lived in this type of set up I can vouch that it is comfortable…and actually relaxes the mind. So I could see how they would build something like this in the woods.

  2. mark

    Wait! I cruise bubbleinfo so I can dream of leaving the rainy Northwest. (We haven’t hit 70 degrees in Seattle since last November. I’ll bet those blue skies were photoshopped.) Guess I can’t escape!

  3. North county girl

    This is such an intelligent design- sensitive to the landscape- it fits in. I would live in this house on Lopez Island in a heartbeat. I bet it’s a second home with Microsoft money. Whatever, it’s a home design that people in San Diego County may want to heed for its respect to the earth and the environment. As for the rain, that’s right, Californians, it rains ALL the time and is completely terrible miserable. Don’t EVER move there- you would hate it. Lots of slugs too.

  4. GeneK

    Mark, I have a 2800 sq ft rancher in Sunny San Marcos. Tell me you have a house like this one and find me a job up there and I’ll trade you. 🙂

  5. YetAnotherMike

    The San Juan archipelago is quite a bit drier than Seattle. I lived there for a few years. Island life isn’t quite the same as the mainland, even if it’s only a 20 minute flight or an hour or two on the ferry away. Lopez used to be pretty boring; Orcas and San Juan islands had more people and more going on. Things may have changed in the last 40 years, though.

  6. Sol

    Really like this. And, while the Pacific Northwest is one of the areas we have under consideration for an eventual retirement move, my sister (lives in the Portland area) and everyone else she knows are whining big time over the continuing doom and gloom this year. We could probably hack it, if we could also hang on to our current Carlsbad get-away, but that’s financially dreaming.

  7. Local Boy

    I don’t see Ikea at all. I see a nice clean Bauhaus Modern–I love the house and I Love the setting–not sure about the weather though. We would like someday build a place like that in Olivenhain–maybe the bridge loan /lot loan from the earlier post is not such a bad idea!!!

  8. Ronald McMansion

    Paint those tetherball poles black to match the rest of the accents. They stick out like like a sore thumb. Other than that, it’s quite lovely.

  9. Former RB Resident

    This replaces the all glass one in Big Sur as my favorite among the Jim interesting homes. There a price on this?

  10. chrisanthemama

    mid-70s today in Portland, sunny last few days. We’ve camped the last several summer/falls on Orcas/San Juan/Lopez Is. in rain/sun and in-between. Incredibly beautiful, and the ferries rock. Nothing like NSD County, though. When I want to see the sun, I tune into bubbleinfo.

  11. mark

    Ocrenter: Here is the quote from USA Today: “States ranked by the prevalence and seriousness of depression among residents, from the least at the top to the most at the bottom.”

    1. South Dakota

    2. Hawaii

    Hawaii is second LOWEST in depression.
    Hawaii’s suicide rate is 8.9 per 100,000. Washington State (including the sunny side of the state) has a rate of 13.2 per 100,000)

    Depression/suicide/ are major issues in the Pacific Northwest, and many ascribe that to the weather. It doesn’t rain much on any given day, but day after day it is cloudy and gloomy. SD is blessed with the best weather in the country. You are so lucky. So enjoy!!! (and just for the record, I LOVE Seattle! It’s just the weather that stinks!)

  12. lopezian

    Heh, I live on lopez island. You can move up here and get a great job. Let’s see, you could bartend the Galley, or maybe serve burgers at Bucky’s (closes in the winter). Carpentry is a good job here, or maybe farming, but you’ll need to buy or lease some pasture. In other words, anyone looking to buy this house does not come from Lopez. That’s ok, looking after the houses of folks who actually live in the city makes for a nice income here.

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