Second floor Addition removes A-Frame after numerous studies- Anacortes, WA

“After” shot of a Lakefront House (Heart Lake) in Anacortes, that once had an A-frame top.

The A-Frame had been built by the clients uncle in the 1960’s. I tried every conceivable way to do an addition to increase the useable space.

The first idea was just to pop out one side of the A-frame to be able to get a full staircase in to access the upper loft, which just had a ladder up to access.

Staircases take up so much room!

So then, I extended the pop-out to add more useable room in the living room.

But that looked kinda weird and they decided no.

So finally after much pacing not he cost to do the pop-out, it was cheaper to tear off the whole A-Frame and build a place that has more useable room.

This was a better use of the 2nd floor that allowed for. more light to bath the space, instead of being under a huge roof that sloped down tot eh floor.

It is just finishing up construction, as you can see from al of the ladders and equip. still scattered around, but I wanted to see how it was turning out.

The exposed beams go from one side of the house to the other, in a nice shed simple roof.

I really like the rusted corrugated metal siding that they wound up using- kudos to a no maintenance siding that never needs paint! It is called “Corten Steel”, if you ever want to specify it for your house. It comes shiny metal and rusts very quickly over time, to a finish that stops rusting once the surface is coated. It does not keep rusting.

REVISITING A-FRAME AFTER 10 YEARS- one of my best projects!

Got to visit this house after 10 years on Blakley Island! This is a very hard house to photograph because of the heritage Fir trees surrounding the house and the new plantings.

This is the house 10 years ago in 2012. The owner’s dad had built the A-Frame in 1965.

This shot is the rear during construction, so that you can see the additions being added onto the sides.

The siding is a very dark Brown, almost black, so it disappears into the woods.

This was a surprise to see that where there had been a balcony, they had enclosed it and cantilevered out a guest Bedroom which really looks cool!

There are double angles here, as the columns are angled and the roof extensions are also at an angle, so from the side it looks very busy from all the visual motion- almost dancing!

The Master Bedroom Wing has an extending covered roof extending into the woods with a hot tub-how perfect!

This is the front of the A-Frame that mostly looks the same except for the wall of glass and the Dining Room Addition that looks like an airplane wing, as the house sits on a runway and the owner was a pilot. Truely a transformation! And to think that it almost got torn down…..

The front facade was clad in “Parklex” (https://parklexprodema.com/usa/) , which is a composite of paper and resin. It seems to be holding up very well. It is a smooth panel that is attached to a rain screen with exposed stainless bolts.

The original A-Frame from the air stripe. The wood shingle roof was encrusted with moss.

ANOTHER A FRAME ADDITION-GUEMES ISLAND. WA

A Guemes Island 1960’ A frame needs a regular staircase up to the 2nd floor. A ladder is hard to get up and down in the middle of the night. A new entry has slanted columns to support the deck extension above.

From the other side, a living room is added with a wood stove with wood storage just outside for easy access.

There are a couple a huge Fir trees that the owners want to keep, so the trick is working around them and the setbacks required for the site.

The tress actually have less limbs on the lower parts, so it will not be as tight as it looks from this model.

EXISTING A FRAME

I wanted to save the look of the existing building.

You can see the size of the existing Fir trees better in this photo. The location is fabulous, right on the West side of the island, right on the water!