She built it herself She built it herself (November 07, 2001)

At home in a La Honda redwood grove

by Susan Golovin

It took Dana Pitchon eight years to build her 3,000-square-foot home in La Honda. That's because she did 80 percent of the work herself. She was aided in her effort by her husband, Matthew, an engineer who did all the plumbing and electricity.

"Basically, I worked all week by myself, and he helped on the weekends," says Pitchon. What's more, to hear her describe the process, it almost sounds like it was no big deal.

"I grew up in Communist Czechoslovakia," explains Pitchon. "If you wanted to have something, you had to make it." She adds, "If you sew, you have to make a pattern. You cut wood according to a pattern."

Well, it's one thing to make clothes, but how did she learn how to build a house?

Her first experience with remodeling was modest: She and her husband redid a kitchen and bath and designed a garden for a condo in Boston. The next project, the complete renovation of an 1875 home in Tangerine, Florida, Pitchon describes as her "building university."

When the Pitchons purchased the La Honda property in 1988, the only building in place was a 600-square-foot cabin. The couple fell in love with the site, which contains 56 redwoods, all in the range of 220 feet tall. There is even an alpine creek. The property is surrounded by Sam MacDonald Park and there are a total of seven houses in their community within a community.

The floor plan consists of a large, two-story living/dining area, a master bedroom and bath, second bedroom, kitchen and half bath on the first floor. The balcony overlooking the living space consists of a computer niche and a corridor to the outside. A deck leads to the 1,000-square-foot studio, which sits above the garage.

The house is built on six levels and conforms to the land. Actually, it curls around the trees, one of which is in the middle of the front deck. The trees, indeed, are a major design element. The Jacuzzi in the master bathroom is surrounded by windows.

"You get the feeling that you are bathing in a redwood forest," says Pitchon. The windows in the second bedroom are set high to afford a view of the treetops.

In order to bring in as much sunlight as possible, there are multiple skylights and large windows throughout. Also, Pitchon chose to use white marble tile for the living and dining area, and white walls throughout, to create as much light as possible. The concrete-and-sand plaster used for the walls creates a rough finish. "I wanted to make it like a castle," explains Pitchon.

No nails were used in the building. In order to spare her energy, Pitchon literally screwed the house together with a power drill.

She describes the home as her "Home Depot special."

"We bought the cheapest materials we could," says Pitchon. "But it's not cheap stuff." All the windows, track lighting, plasterboard, nails -- most of the building materials -- are from Home Depot. The appliances were purchased at Sears, the wood from Big Creek in Davenport. Pitchon ordered the spiral metal staircase from a catalog, and bought the Jacuzzi tub at a home show.

Drawing on her background in photography and design, and with determination and lots of hard work, Pitchon has created a unique statement home.

Goal of the project: To design and build a home that would conform to the terrain of a redwood forest Unexpected problem: The garage is standing on 12 concrete columns that are 17 feet deep. They had to stop drilling before hitting the bedrock necessary to anchor the columns because they feared they might hit water. (Remember the alpine stream.) As a result, they used extra rebar to stabilize the structure.
Year house built: 1988-1996 Time to complete: Eight years Budget: Total cost was $180,000
Resources: Dana Pitchon served as her own building designer and contractor as well as interior designer.