Award Winning Timber Frame Home

This is truly a house with a view. Perched on a very steeply sloping site high above the Lynn Canal on Alaska's Inside Passage, the house was built on top of an engineered steel platform with lots of windows facing west.

Costs are always high in Alaska, but the demanding site and wet weather made this house even more of a challenge.

The entry is at the second level on the east side, with lavatory, stairs and mudroom tucked away from the view.

The great room is a cathedral space with an oversized kitchen and a dining area to the west for the best possible views. Upstairs are a study, which overlooks the great room, and a large master bedroom.

Because the owners wished an uncluttered bedroom, the second level of the link to the garage holds the master bedroom, which includes an oversized tub as well as a separate shower.

Over the garage are the laundry and his and her walk-in closets. The first level, which is still high up over the fifty-five-degree slope, has a recreation room, plus a guest bedroom and bath.

A special feature is the wrap around double level deck, which has a seven-foot square hot tub on the north side for relaxed outside viewing of the ships passing below. The hot tub is protected by the glassed-in porch above, which even has its own fireplace.

The owners are thrilled with the house. Its open flowing spaces are what they wanted, and the large windows allow them to sometimes see killer whales in the water just outside.

Building on such a steep site was a huge challenge. But the resulting timber framed house, with its combination of indoor and outdoor spaces, is exactly what they wanted.