Tucked away in a forest of tall Monterey Pines in picturesque Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, sits this modern but contextual home. Originally this was a very small, run-down, one-bedroom stucco house that was sited to the rear of a 40 x 100 lot. The owner kept this portion and added two new bedrooms and a shared bathroom to the front of the house. The original and new sections are separated by a deliciously private interior courtyard. A corridor to one side connects the existing living room to one of the new bedrooms. The second new bedroom has a set of double doors that opens up to the courtyard and can be utilized as a rental unit. Doors from each of the new bedrooms to the shared bathroom can be locked accordingly depending on whether the rental room is being used. A new single-car garage was added in front of all of this to provide some rare off-street parking.
The steeply pitched roof, large round windows and round-butt cedar shingle siding in combination with the symmetrical massing provide the distinctive character of this home. Upon seeing the initial design, the owner cried out, “…it looks like an owl!”, and proceeded to show off the owl ring that he happened to be wearing. Thus, the name was born!
