I couldn't resist the opportunity to photograph this house! Who knows who will buy it next and I want to remember it as Rudy (the owner) had left/designed it. This is exactly how it was intended to be! I'd also like to copy many of his details for our house.
I took many, many pictures. With Dave out of town I had both girls with me. You will see them quite a bit. You will also notice many tilted shots and other peculiarities but this is as good as I could get it on a Sunday afternoon after a long weekend. I'm so grateful to Hilary and Debbie for letting me come in at the tail end of their open house!
Because I shot so many pictures, all worth sharing imho, I'm dividing them up by sections. Today will be the backyard. The first thing I noticed in the picture above was the great large tree at the southwest corner of the lot. It was giving the backyard amazing shade at 3pm when I took these pictures. The tree is ideally placed.
You'll also notice that the back patio isn't parallel to the house. Instead it jets out and I'm not sure why but this positioning propels you out into the yard and also draws you back into the house.
There's a path that circles the backyard and it starts off with a perfect fountain! Perfectly placed and perfectly designed.
Outside two of the bedrooms there is a row of olive trees and just past them is a rose garden. From the inside you feel shaded by the trees with highlights of the roses. The brick pathways seem to "announce" the outside. In a portion of the house that integrates the inside and outside you will see how these particular bricks play a part in the continuation and delineation of spaces.
I love the garden art.
I love the lines of the house from all angles.
At the far northwest corner of the house there is a huge silver dollar eucylaptus tree. When you look out towards the back yard the two large trees at each corner anchor the space. Then there are two sections with multiple trees that have obviously been kept shorter and the same height. I'm not sure if the electric/phone wires are dictating the height or if it was a stylistic choice.
I love the different heights of the garden. So smart! And I love the hanging vines!
These cement rounds line one fence. Not sure why. I sense it's a function thing and I like the solution.
I love the different types of brick and how they coordinate/complement one another.
This is the north wall of the house. The kitchen and dining are on the other side. The dirt patch is where they kept an herb garden. I love the genius placement of the herb garden and how useful, not just ornamental, the outdoors was to them.
This is part of the area I mentioned where the brick integrates indoors and outdoors. Inside the sliding glass door is an indoor patio that follows through to a courtyard. The brick sets the three spaces apart and unties them: the outdoors, the indoors that feels outdoors because of all the floor to ceiling windows and the outdoors surrounded by indoors. Brilliant!
A fence detail. Just having redone part of our fence I loved seeing that this is the same fence style we used for the back. Except, he capped it with a plank which makes it more refined and Mid Century. The plank might also help keep water from going inside all of the wooden planks below. Better to replace one plank than all of them!
Details of the recessed exterior lighting in the patio.
This is sheer genius. He left spaces where the wiring could easily hide instead of it hanging out and messy.
I love his philodendrons. I love his pots. I love the brick. I just love it all!
If you love Mid Century architecture and you want to see the house call Hilary and Debbie!
I'll post more of the interiors tomorrow!
Labels: etc, garden, Mid Century, neighbors, outdoor living
