Truly a ‘dream’ house Architect’s vision and owners’ ideas merge perfectly in Mazama home By Don Nelson
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OST of us might be skeptical when someone says that an idea came to them in a vision. But Methow Valley architect Brice Butler says that’s exactly what happened when he came up with a house design for Mark and Kim Dales. Not only did the design materialize just that quickly, but it also matched perfectly with the Dales’ own vision for their new house in a meadow near
Mazama. Before he began designing the Mazama house, Butler visited the Dales’ home in Seattle — a historically significant house designed by renowned Northwest architect Gene Zema. Butler said he saw a “simplistic interior with lots of space,” and factored that into his thinking. “A few days later, I had a vision
of it [the Mazama house],” Butler said. He made the first sketch in the middle of the night, then took it to the Daleses — who signed off immediately. “I envisioned a low-profile house with a delta-wing roof,” Butler said. In the design now under construction, two shed roofs meet at the center of the building, where they are joined with a flat roof that carries through the house. “We really wanted a shed roof but not one that looked like everyone else’s shed roof,” Kim Dales said.
Feels like home
Architect Brice Butler likes to use big bolts and wing nuts for both structural and decorative purposes. Photos by Don Nelson
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Methow Home
The Daleses first became aware of the Methow about 10 years ago when Mark — a surgeon at Seattle Children’s Hospital, within walking distance of the Dales’ Laurelhurst home — attended a professional retreat at the Freestone Inn. It didn’t take long for them to fall under the Methow’s spell, Kim said, in part because the valley reminds them of where they both grew up in Nevada, near Lake Tahoe. “The mountain wall and the
“It already feels sentimental and we haven’t even lived in it” Kim Dales light — it felt like home,” said Kim, who is a real estate broker with Windermere in Seattle. Not only did the valley remind them of home, but they also were charmed by “the friendliness of the community and all its interesting people,” Kim said. “The place is magical,” she said. “It’s so calming.” A physician colleague who has a home in the Methow, Ted Wagner, made his house available for valley visits. The Daleses eventually decided to search for a home site, but a property they liked in the Chechaquo Ranch area near Mazama wasn’t available. Then on a trip in fall 2011, they learned the site was on the market. “We looked at each other and said, ‘let’s do it,’” Kim said. “It was