Finding Manzanita
We had fallen in love with the west coast and the Oregon coast in particular when Anna and I first met in Portland in 1999. We had both grown up spending time beside water, Anna in Devon in the UK and me in Northern MN lakes. We were dreaming about creating some sort of haven by the sea and a dear friend recommended we check out Manzanita. We drove down the next day and fell in love at first site.
Initially we looked to see if we could find a little cottage in need of TLC, which was our own love and passion. However in 2002 the market at the coast was very ‘hot’ and there was very little on the market and what came on was swamped with people bidding each other up. So we started looking to see if we could find a lot for sale that we loved. And we were wondering around the north side of town and saw what looked like a lot but the for sale sign was homemade and had fallen down. I called the number and got someone in California and they didn’t seem to care that much about selling. But we ended up working out a price that was agreeable and we now owned a lot to do something with.
We started visiting in our 1969 VW camper van parked next to our property and imagining what we wanted to create. There was a lovey restaurant at the time in Manzanita called the Blue Sky and one night we had a delish meal there and started doodling on the back of a napkin and sketched out a simple two story home with living space upstairs to take advantage of coast range views with bits of the sea as well, and bedrooms down.
Local and Sustainably Designed
We had been struck by the design of the bank that is at the top of the mainstream and found out it was designed by a rather esteemed local eco architect. We were told he wasn’t really doing residential home design anymore but we reached out to him and told him of our experiences with eco restoration projects and that we wanted to make this place as sustainable as possible and with a simple and elegant design and no more than 1500 sq feet. He agreed to work with us and we gave him our napkin sketch musings and he worked up a sweet plan.
We then needed to find a builder who shared our sustainability and quality ethos, and at the time we couldn’t find one around Manzanita. We had restored a couple homes in Portland and knew that Coho Construction would be a great fit, if we could talk them into taking on a project almost 100 miles away. Once again, the Tao seemed to be smiling on this project and they agreed to take us on and have one of their lead project managers be based at the coast each week during construction.
One of the trickiest things to accomplish was using almost all salvaged wood from the PNW for beams and flooring and furniture and ceilings and trim. The trick was the building inspector was not all that keen on how salvaged wood would meet structural engineering requirements. It’s a paradox as the salvaged wood we had sourced for all main support beams was old growth wood which is much stronger than new wood, but we still had to find a wood assessment and grading expert to drive out from Portland to go through every piece of wood and sign off on each piece. Oh joy.
And then there was the tree.
Tom Bender, our architect, loved integrating whole salvaged trees into projects where appropriate, it was one of the things we loved about the bank building we initially were so struck by he designed. But he usually had the root and base of the tree at the top in buildings. We wanted to have this reversed and have some branches at the top. It proved difficult to find the right size as it was also going to provide structural support. Coho ended up knowing a tree surgeon who was tasked with cleaning trees from the Columbia Villa area of North Portland for a big new development that was going in. He found the right sized maple tree and we ended up installing it in our home. And it took a bit of work as it needed to be hoisted up the back deck and then brought in through the French doors, and it was heavy. They did an amazing job and it feels like one of the iconic elements of our ‘tree’ house.
Transition Time
We finished the home in 2003 and absolutely loved spending time there, by ourselves and having friends and family stay. And then in 2008, we had a bit of a transition in our lives and first Anna and then I were drawn back to England. And we didn’t know if we’d be back so it was difficult to justify keeping our coast place. So we made the difficult decision to see if we could find a buyer who appreciated what we had created. And we did. There was one catch we didn’t anticipate. By now we were ensconced back in Brighton on the south coast of England and we had decided to sell our home fully furnished as much of the furnishings were designed for that specific space. We also left a good mix of our books and cd’s and some art to help the place feel like home until it sold.
Then one night Anna awoke and wondered if the buyers were going to try and keep our books and music. I called our realtor back in Manzanita and she said sure they would, they thought that was part of being furnished. Bummer as for us, books are very personal items and yet we shared responsibility for not being absolutely clear that they were not part of the deal. The story of our books became fun dinner party chatter in the UK where books are also treated as rather sacred and very personal.
Fast forward four years and I get an email from the realtor again wondering if the owner, Andrew, who had bought our place could get in touch. I said sure. The next day I had an email from him saying he had a change in his life with his partner and he had always felt bad about taking the books and wondered if we wanted any back. I said hell yes, we’d love them all back. So over the next year he shipped us a box of books at a time while I also recommended some he may enjoy reading before he sent them back that were supportive of life transition processes.
The Return
After we had been back in the UK for seven years and restored six different houses of very different styles and all over 100 years old, we realized we felt drawn to be back on the West Coast. That we loved our time in the UK, I even became a dual UK citizen, but we felt most at home in Oregon. It’s a real trick of having lives and roots in two different countries, no one of them will ever be able to be all things. And Portland was calling to us. So we moved back and found ourselves visiting the coast and Manzanita a few times and found ourselves again dreaming of how to create some little foothold back on the coast.
Andrew invited us to spend a weekend back at our old place which we took him up on. It felt so surreal to be back in the place we had sketched out on the back of that napkin 17 years previously. And yet, even with all of our furnishings and history, we felt like we had moved on and we’d see if we could find some other little spot. We looked around and finally found one and were negotiating with the sellers yet we couldn't bridge the last $10,000 between what we were willing to offer and what the sellers would accept. And that very day I got a note from Andrew saying he was thinking about selling, he realized he just didn’t spend enough time there to justify owning it, and he couldn’t imagine it going to anyone else but us. He sent along an appraisal that he had done. And while. we were touched by his offer the price was more than we could afford and it did feel a bit like going back rather than some new beginning we were imagining.
So we decided to wait for something else to possibly emerge we may love. And two weeks later I got another note from Andrew saying he really thought we should have it and he’d be willing to sell it to us for what he bought it for 8 years ago and we could pay him off in a couple years with no interest. The home seemed to want us back. We then thought about whether there was a way to reimagine the space, to preserve all we loved and yet to renew it. We came up with some ideas and accepted his offer.
The Renewal
So we set out to create a soft sort of renewal that preserved the heart and soul of our retreat but also would feel a bit more like us now, more contemporary and even a touch of England in our sensibilities. So we:
we updated the dining lights with one of our fave European designers,
refinished the wood floors in a lighter more Scandinavian finish,
we replaced the built in round sofa we had originally built for one more comfortable and that fit the space much better,
replaced the original custom and salvaged metal railings on all the decks with burnt cedar and wire ralings
Light colored wool carpeted the dark brown cob and earth floors we originally created in all the bedrooms
And what may have been the biggest design move, we white washed all the salvaged fir wood beams and ceilings.
Over the couple years we have owned this home again, we continue to do bits of updating of art and music and decor, all making it feel more like our style and sensibility now.