PINE TREE PEEK

Tamaplais Valley, Marin County, CA

Note from the clients:

“25 years ago, we walked into the house that we would end up buying and raising our 2 children in. My husband loved the neighborhood, and it was close to San Francisco. So, despite the dark living room, strange corner fireplace and terrible (but newly renovated) narrow kitchen, we put in a bid that afternoon.

The house fulfilled so many of our dreams for our first home…. so I reassured myself; we will remodel the kitchen (I love to cook), raise the claustrophobic ceiling and remove the wall separating the galley kitchen from awkward-shaped living room to fill the space with light. Haha. Fast forward 22 years – the kids were gone and my husband and I were still saying ‘when we remodel the kitchen we’ll…’

About seven years ago, I’d read an article in Sunset magazine about a Los Angeles architect who had completely redone her cramped dark Venice Bungalow. Reading about Isabelle Duvivier and seeing the photographs of her amazing renovated home, including her beautifully landscaped drought tolerant gardens, I knew she was the one to design our remodel. It then took me 4 years to get up the courage to call and convince her to come north to discuss our project.

On that first visit, we climbed up to the roof so my husband could show Isabelle the gigantic pine tree behind our neighbor’s house that he hoped to see from our new kitchen/living room. Her approach was intentional and generous as she navigated us through a process that was completely foreign to us.

After writing our ‘wish list’, Isabelle began to draw up plans – remove the wall separating the kitchen from living room and raise the living room ceiling to the roofline. Instead of a skylight that would attract all the falling leaves and pine needles from neighboring trees, she visioned an artistic triangular dormer in the raised ceiling.

As I look back at that original ‘wish list’ I am amazed that most everything on that list was accomplished. Isabelle was an incredible advocate throughout the process. We sit in our kitchen and marvel at the transformation. Some things are worth waiting for.”

—Jan Waldman Brown

————

“The sense of light and space in our living room has completely changed. For twenty plus years, we never sat in there. Now we’re in there all the time. Every morning I sit at the end of the island sipping my tea looking through the triangular dormer at “my” beautiful pine tree and savor the morning light.

I now call our kitchen “the factory”. It has elevated our game in every way – canning, cooking, churning ice cream… We love being surrounded by family and friends sitting around our counter in the kitchen we’d been dreaming about for 25 years.”

—Jeffrey Brown