There’s a concrete connection between the top-floor kitchen and lower-level master bath of this Oregon mountain retreat: A two-story, thermal mass, block wall housing all the mechanical systems serves as the main wall for both rooms. It was commonsense placement, explains architect Liz Olberding, because people tend to use the bathroom and kitchen first thing in the morning. Being next to the thermal wall gives them the benefit of the warmth released by the wall throughout cool nights, plus it keeps plumbing runs short. “The idea was to use less material and mitigate the dissipation of heat as the hot water passes through the pipes.”
Olberding kept the master bath small to conserve space, “but we had to pack in storage options to make up for the lack of storage in the many convertible sleeping/living spaces.” She clustered cabinets in floor-to-ceiling banks to prevent the ample storage from overwhelming the not quite 120-square-foot bath and used pale wood to lighten the visual load. Cabinet doors and drawer fronts were milled from logs found on the bottom of the nearby Columbia River. To complete the room’s spirit of recycle and reuse, builder and homeowner Tom Kelly fabricated the sink from recycled aluminum and searched through discarded granite remnants to find slabs for the countertop and backsplash.
Builder/Interior designer: Neil Kelly Co., Portland, Ore.; Architect: Liz Olberding, Anchorage, Alaska; Structural engineer: Froelich Engineers, Portland; Photographer: Photo Design.
Resources: Fittings/fixtures: Hansgrohe; Washer/dryer: Frigidaire.
