Forest Retreat House

At CTA Builds we’re pretty excited about our new “forest retreat” — this new house is situated in a large 2nd growth wooded parcel overlooking Puget Sound. We’ve designed what we hope is a timeless but contemporary lodge-like house, an architecture reminiscent of the early 20th Century National Park lodges, like Timberline at Mount Hood and Paradise at Mount Rainier. As you travel the driveway that purposefully circumvents the site, you get glimpses of a view but then first see the home with it’s masonry base, stained wood shingles, and metal roofing.  Arrival reveals how the house and the detached garage/studio creates both an arrival and greeting area;  inside you see large fireplaces, a double volume interior space, natural fir trim, steel and wood railing systems, a host of sustainable building materials, and an open and connected floor plan. Through big steel sliding glass doors in the “back”,  there are decks with large overhangs so you can stand out and enjoy the view of the Sound and mountains beyond, or grille in any weather. Strategically placed windows capture the sun through the trees, so that even in the forest, you can enjoy a light filled home throughout the day.