Sunset Homes: a Terry and Moore house on the shores of Lake Washington

The requirements for designing a house for a shrinking family are just as exacting as the requirements for designing a house for an expanding family.

Here is shown the house one woman built after three of her four children had grown and left home. It was designed to accommodate a teenage daughter still living at home, and a college student son who spends his weekends at home.

For this family situation, the big two-story house the children grew up in was no longer necessary. The new house could be small, and more outward turning (to the garden the owner was now free to develop and tend as a hobby).

It was now feasible to place the master bedroom in a private situation, at the opposite end of the house from the other two bedrooms. These bedrooms are close to the kitchen, family room, terrace, and utility room. They form an apartment-like unit, separate from the master bedroom and living room side of the house, for the children when they return for visits.

The house, designed by architects Terry and Moore, was carefully planned to exploit the hillside site on the shore of Lake Washington, and detailed to shift emphasis to adults' rather than children's needs.