A two-story country house is designed to meet the needs of six children and at the same time to make a busy mother's job as easy and pleasant as possible. Living room, dining room, kitchen, and activity rooms are large to fulfill a big family's need for elbow room, but they contain a minimum of dust-catching, wasted space.

The 17-acre site of this house is out in the country, and the children find much to do outdoors. This makes playtime a delight for the children, but pro- vides a bundle of laundry for their mother. Anticipating this problem, the architects put a laundry-sewing room on the second floor, near the bedrooms.

When the older children leave for college, the family will need fewer bedrooms. At that time, the partitions that now divide three large bedrooms into six small ones will be removed.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967

With careful attention to the site and climate and to the owners' needs, this large house in the country exploits the traits of the traditional Western ranch house. It is a house with a timeless quality. It embodies the easy informality, the sense of shelter, easy movement indoors and out, and warm materials traditional with the ranch type house.

The site is a knoll. Access is from the road to the West, the only side where the site does not give complete privacy. On this side, privacy is achieved by an almost blank, but not unfriendly facade, fronted by the parking area. This west-facing facade also minimizes the effect of the hot afternoon sun. Other windows that face west are sheltered by wide overhangs.

The owners made sure their main outdoor living area-off the living and dining rooms, and used for entertaining-faced east to provide afternoon shade. They also wanted a good view of the wooded slopes from the kitchen southward and a terrace off the master bedroom on the north. The site was to be disturbed by grading as little as possible, and particularly the fine old oak trees were to be preserved.

Every room in this house except the kitchen opens to an outdoor living area. Movement in and out is easy, through large passageways onto floor and terrace surfaces at the same level.

The living room separates the bedroom wing from the cooking and eating wing. It opens to two paved out- door living areas, the more intimate patio and the more expansive east-facing terrace, for a choice of sun or shade any time of the day. You can enter either wing without passing through the center of the house.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967

To fit its Northwest climate, this house features a large deck with overhead roof frame. The deck's roof frame was designed with the idea that it could be covered with translucent plastic or with vines to make a secluded outdoor living area. The house has a central hall floor plan and a large unfinished lower floor opening onto a roofed lower outdoor area. The house was an award winner in an A.I.A.-Sunset Western Home Awards program.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967

Car storage and the main entry are on the lower level, entry to the main level is through a central core stairwell skylit from above. The house was an award winner in an A.I.A.-Sunset Western Home Awards program.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967

Situated on a steep site, this small house (1,400 square feet) works well because it uses space vertically-living, cooking, dining areas on the top level, sleeping on the two levels below. Entry is by steps and a deck to the middle level, by bridge to the top level. The house was an award winner in an A.I.A.-Sunset Western Home Awards program.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967

This 800-square-foot house has exteriors which are straightforward and interiors which are simple and uncluttered. Both of these elements are characteristic of a thoughtful design for prefabrication. The house is intended for a small family or for a retired couple. The exterior features prefab panel sections that reveal post-and-beam framing. The house was an award winner in an A.I.A.-Sunset Western Home Awards program.

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source: Sunset Books - Sunset Homes 1967