Mystery Bay Cottages LLC: Gallery: Gallery 2

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.

Notice all the features you'd expect in a home of this style: deep eave overhangs, characteristic knee braces, exposed rafter tails, sweeping front porch, three-over-one window lights—just to name a few.

It's all here!

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.

And in keeping with the early-twentieth-century tradition of naming house designs, we lovingly christened this one the "Orcas."

To view a particular photo collection, just click the thumbnail below. For more details and background on this remarkable home, read on!

In the design and construction of the Orcas, we made sure to keep a mindful eye on the past. Just consider the following details.

On the outside, the Orcas features many of the signature elements of its old-house counterparts:

Sweeping eight-foot-deep front porch spanning the entire thirty-foot width of the house
Beautifully handcrafted detailing on both front and back porches
Deep roof overhangs featuring bead-board soffit and exposed rafter tails
Classic front-facing gable dormer
Characteristic knee braces in the gable ends and dormer
Beautiful, hand-stained cedar siding with narrow reveal and signature window and door trim
Period-authentic antique reproduction exterior lighting

On the inside, twenty-first century conveniences, such as the stainless steel kitchen appliances and upstairs laundry center, happily coexist with historically accurate interior details and finishes:

Nine-foot ceilings on the first floor, eight-foot-two on the second
Spectacular one-of-a-kind solid-oak staircase, blending a hint of Art Deco with the Arts & Crafts style
Propane fireplace with custom Art Deco-inspired oak mantel and distinctive ceramic-tiled hearth (perfect for those crisp winter evenings)
Genuine solid-oak hardwood floors (none of this "engineered flooring" nonsense, please!)
Interior doors of solid-core fir with antique reproduction hardware
Craftsman-style cased openings and classic wood window and door trim
Two sets of Prairie-style French doors
Period-authentic antique reproduction interior lighting throughout
Beautifully tiled kitchen and bath countertops and tub and shower enclosures
Farmhouse kitchen sink with integral backsplash and wall-mounted faucet
Pedestal sinks and a genuine porcelain-over-cast-iron clawfoot soaking tub

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 we'll bet you can almost smell Grandma's pies baking in the oven!

Downstairs in the Orcas, the floor plan closely follows the typical old-house layout for this style of bungalow. On one side of the house is the dining room with the kitchen behind while on the other side is the living room with a downstairs bedroom (or, as the use fits, a home office, study or den) behind. At the end of the short hallway flanking the stairs is the downstairs bath.

Upstairs in the Orcas, however, the floor plan has been significantly "tweaked" to accommodate the needs of twenty-first-century homeowners. An extra guest bath is included to accommodate the upstairs guest bedroom, and the master suite includes two large walk-in closets, a huge master bath, and a convenient laundry center.

All of our new "old" house designs begin with a vintage inspiration—or in this case, two.

The first inspiration house 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 building envelope.

There were two structural elements of the Westly that we 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 those 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?

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