Time Lapse Video of Log Home Construction
Perched on the Anchorage hillside with full city, inlet and mountain vistas to view, this stately log family home features a brace-frame tower core lateral structural system which is adjustable to accommodate the natural settling of the hand-scribed white cedar log wall construction. A cantilevered articulating staircase also accommodates this process.
Sitka Sanctuary
One couple retires in style in a custom-built home that celebrates this seaside city’s bounty of beauty
River Retreat
What do you do when you’ve got a new piece of Alaskan property and a beloved winter home in Mexico? Combine them! That’s what Don and Lynn Burns did when designing their Kenai Peninsula home, says architect Mark Ivy.
Butterfly Revisited
Looking at before and after pictures of Elizabeth Morgan’s Turnagain home in Anchorage, it’s hard to believe the project was a remodel, and not a custom-build. “Because I didn’t want to enlarge the footprint of the home, the only thing we really added was the entryway and the deck,” Elizabeth explains. The structure of the home – including its elegant “butterfly” roof – remains the essentially same.
Handcrafted Haven
When I travel, the best compliment I can give a hotel is, “It feels just like home!” Strolling through the Stuckagain Heights home, I had the opposite reaction: Parts of the timber frame house felt distinctly hotel-like – in the best sense of the term.
Sunny View
When a neighborhood grows up quickly you can usually tell. The natural environment is cleared away to make room and the houses have not yet mellowed, aged, settled into their land. Sasha and Bryant’s beautiful hillside home breaks this rule. Resting in a preserved hemlock grove, the house is nestled into the mountain rather than perched on it.
Arboreal Appeal
There’s something special about a home that has been loved by the same family for decades. No matter how many changes it undergoes, no matter how many facelifts it receives, there’s a comfortable solidity, a cozy permanence that you feel the moment you step inside. Caroline and James Bennett’s lovely and distinctly Alaskan home, built in the 50s and inhabited by the family since the 70s, is a perfect example of this phenomenon.
Perfectly Perched
Erma MacMillan and Sean Elder’s Sand Lake home blurs the boundaries between nature and culture, wilderness and order, artistry and instinct. Nestled neatly into a gently sloping lot, the graceful exterior boasts more curves than angles. In fact it has been referred to, and more than once, as a modern-day Quonset hut. Inspired by the beauty of an arched garden structure, Erma suggested the shape to Mark Ivy, the home’s architect.
Log Home Luxury
When Dan and Linda Barnes* were planning their dream home, they had one pressing question: What style?
Oceanview Oasis
After walking into Mark and Sherrie Richey’s amazing Oceanview home, it’s easy to tell that they have roots in Texas. Everything about the house is on a Texas-size scale. When a member of the Richey family warns you not to get lost in their home, you’re not really sure if they’re kidding. At 10,500 square feet, with seven bedrooms, eight baths, four full kitchens and a separate two-bedroom apartment over the carriage house, getting lost seems like a probability as opposed to a possibility.
A Dragon Tale in Goldenview
The approach to Kurt and Jai-Her Wong’s stunning home is dramatic. The home rises up energetically from its perch and flexes its architectural muscles — extreme angles, a sweeping drive and dynamic stonescapes take a decisive stance on the landscape of Goldenview.
Home is where the art is
A large canvas hangs in the living room of Denise and George Trefry’s South Anchorage home. Painted by Dot Brady, the abstract painting showcases lovers and children, dogs and rabbits. The words “family,” “friends” and “I love you” are scrawled throughout the piece like friendly graffiti.
Liquid Luxuries
Even when it’s chilly outside, some Alaskans are taking a rejuvenating dip in the water – in their own homes.
Inner Garden
Alaskans are masters of the summer garden. We plant, mulch, water, weed and prune our way to stunning scenery in a span of four months. But what happens when the outside world is saturated in shades of white and gray? Some locals are figuring out a way to stay green in the middle of winter by bringing their gardens inside.
A home where every day is a holiday
After 20 summers of rustic family vacations at their lakeside property, Jim and Susan Baker* turned their second home into their first home. “We decided to move where our hearts already lived,” says Jim. But full-time life in a 12′ by 12′ cabin with no plumbing, water, or electricity was not what the couple had in mind. They wanted the comfort and elegance of modern living as well as the simplicity and natural beauty of Alaska lakeside living.
High ceilings, higher hopes
When Jennifer and Kyle Johnson sought to renovate their entire home in 2010, they had high hopes for improving their master bathroom – literally. Although generous in size, the dark, drab and poorly designed space left much to be desired. So, the couple completely gutted the original bathroom and started anew, beginning with a new and improved layout.