The Story
A 50-foot skylight runs along the central spine of the house, facing north-east, and the living room and primary suite are set to take the sunrise. The walls are poured-in-place concrete with the formwork marks left showing, framed in exposed timber and glass under a metal roof.
The listing names Ruth Hasell as the architect and owner, and dates the house to 2007. It says the design draws on Richard Neutra and Tadao Ando, and that the house won an AIA Orange County award and was featured by the Los Angeles Times. The plan sets the house into a hillside, with timber posts and beams carrying the roofs over the terraces and a metal roof pitched in several planes.
Inside
Three bedrooms and three baths fill about 3,400 square feet. The skylight lights a long room of timber columns and open shelves, with books on every bay, and a kitchen at the far end under a concrete wall. The primary bedroom has a wood-paneled wall behind the bed, a long clerestory above the wardrobes and a skylight strip beside a board-marked concrete wall.
There are two kitchens. The second opens directly onto the pool and spa deck, and the listing says nearly every major space connects to an outdoor deck.
The grounds
The lot is about 30,500 square feet, 0.7 acres, on a hillside at the end of a no-through-traffic street, hidden from the road. A permanent Tustin Ranch greenbelt borders the southern property line, and the raised setting looks toward Saddleback Mountain.
A long pool and a raised spa sit below the terraces, with a wall of bamboo behind them. Stepping-stone paths cross the slope below the house, and the listing adds access to a private tennis court. The roof is metal, the hillsides are irrigated and an automatic fire sprinkler system is installed.
