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Craftsman bungalow
At just under 1,500 square feet, this new three-bedroom, three-bath home is a stunning example of a beautifully handcrafted 1920s-style Arts & Crafts bungalow. In fact, this little gem of a new "old" house garnered such rave reviews that it prompted us to consider a similar—never identical—"sister" bungalow as a future project.
In the design and construction of the Orcas, we kept a mindful eye on the past and included all the major features you'd expect in a home of this style. Just to name a few:
- Deep eave overhangs
- Characteristic knee braces
- Exposed rafter tails
- Sweeping front porch
- Three-over-one window lights
In fact, we think this new "old" house so captures the essence of the ubiquitous Craftsman bungalow of the '20s that you'd be hard-pressed to distinguish it from an original.
Unlike the so-called "Craftsman-inspired" houses regularly offered on the market today, the Orcas is a dead ringer for an old-house cousin, imparting that feeling of low-slung stoutness and heft that is such a hallmark of the Craftsman classics. Sit out on that expansive front porch on a still afternoon and you can almost smell Grandma's pies baking in the oven. And in keeping with the early-twentieth-century tradition of naming house designs, we lovingly christened this one the "Orcas."
Floor Plan, Main Floor
Floor Plan, Upstairs
The floor plans
Downstairs in the Orcas, the floor plan closely follows the typical layout for this period style.
On one side of the house is the dining room with kitchen behind. On the other side is the living room with downstairs bedroom behind (or, as the use fits, home office, study, or den). At the end of a short hallway flanking the stairs is a downstairs three-quarters bath.
Upstairs in the Orcas, on the other hand, the floor plan has been significantly tweaked to accommodate the needs of twenty-first-century homeowners. An extra guest bath has been added to accompany an upstairs guest bedroom, and the master suite includes two large walk-in closets and a huge master bath with convenient laundry center.
Although the Orcas is a compact though livable size, the nine-foot-high ceilings on the first floor, eight-foot-two on the second, make it feel much larger than it actually is.
The "Westly"
The inspiration
All of our new "old" house designs begin with a vintage inspiration—or in this case, two.
The first inspiration for the Orcas was an "Honor Bilt" saltbox called the "Westly." We selected the Westly as our starting point because it provided just the right size and shape to maximize our site's very restricted building envelope.
Gordon-Van Tine Home No. 521
But there were two structural elements of the Westly that we immediately decided to modify. First, because our building site was a waterfront parcel, we wanted to maximize the views by minimizing the number of columns on the front porch. Second, for the sake of practicality, we chose to eliminate the Westly's second-floor inset porch, an admittedly nice feature but a notoriously leaky one.
With those changes in mind, we selected a second vintage plan, a Gordon-Van Tine bungalow, for additional inspiration. The front porch of this Craftsman classic is clear-spanned, providing the unobstructed views we were seeking. This particular design also avoids the pitfalls of the inset porch, incorporating a simple gable dormer instead. Perfect.
And one final note to you purists out there: Yes, the Orcas, like the Westly, is technically a "bungaloid" and not a "bungalow" since the latter term properly applies only to a one- or one-and-a-half-story home (alas). Now, how's that for truth in advertising?
