House and deck step out into hillside

Sunset, Nov, 1990

Stepping out in segments, a new addition across the back of this two-story house opened up the interior rooms to daylight and to each other. The addition has four widths and angled walls to add interest.

To relieve the dark and cramped original house, owners Lori and Chris Loosely wanted the addition to be open and spacious. An encroaching hill blocked views and limited room for expansion, so architect Charles Weston and landscape architect Leslie Miles of Morgan Hill, California, carved into it and designed the addition to step up slightly and follow the bowl of the hill.

The addition's shallowest section runs 12 feet across the back of the living room. It ties to a 9 1/2-foot-deep section that expands the kitchen. The connecting walls run at 45[deg] angles to the house, establishing an octagonal rhythm. The kitchen ba and its interior counter repeat the octagonal angles. Centered in the kitchen's outside wall is a high window that butts into a 3- by 4-foot roof window.

The deepest section of the addition an elevated dining room brightened by a 4-by 8-foot roof window-is 25 feet long. A separate 8 1/2-foot-deep laundry room completes the addition.