Spotlight On Luxury: Puget Sound

As you find yourself contemplating a log, timber, or hybrid luxury home, it is likely that you envision that home amidst a specific landscape, or even graced with a certain view. Because PrecisionCraft has been designing and building elegance around the world since 1990, we have learned this first “picture” is how many of our clients begin the process of planning their homes.

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While not possible to write about every astonishing view or spectacular region, this article begins our effort to shine a light on a handful of them. Not surprisingly, the areas that immediately come to clients’ minds, and result in projects on a regular basis, exist in more than one country. We begin with the United States.

There Is Something About Puget Sound…

Puget Sound refers to the Pacific Ocean’s coves, inlets, and bays that extend into the northwestern coast of Washington state. Considered part of the Salish Sea, the interconnected waterway and basin system spans approximately 100 miles (160 km). It ranges from Deception Pass in the north to the state’s capitol city of Olympia in the south. The estuary is the third largest in the country, (after Chesapeake and San Francisco Bays), though it is lesser known. For some of our clients, this relative anonymity only adds to Puget Sound’s allure.

Map of Puget Sound and its main basins by Pfly [CC BY-SA 3.0] (i)
While Puget Sound is not the largest American sound, it more than makes up for it. In addition to its astonishingly clean shorelines and picturesque views, Puget Sound is home to nearly twenty prominent islands and the “Emerald City”, Seattle. Wine aficionados take note, the region even boasts an American Viticultural Area designation. For PrecisionCraft clients, the stunning scenery inevitably leads to only one thing: stunning homes.

Why Build In Puget Sound?

Why might you consider Puget Sound for your luxury home? Start with its decidedly green, year-round landscapes and easy salt water ingress. Puget Sound teems with marine life and the four seasons of outdoor activities one might expect in a temperate climate. Sail boating, fishing, hiking, and scuba diving, combine with easy access to nearby Crystal Mountain for skiing during the winter months. Finally, add in the city of Seattle, the region’s social and cultural hub, and Puget Sound’s multitude of attractions readily becomes apparent. Puget Sound residences also offer a magnificent variety of architectural styles.

Where Should You Build In Puget Sound?

Puget Sound has a large number of inhabitable islands ranging from ones close to Seattle and its frequent ferry service, like Bainbridge Island, to more isolated isles such as the privately-owned Tanglewood Island. Due to the most extensive ferry system in the United States (and the second largest in the world), building a luxury home is rarely a logistical issue. This is because your home’s materials, be they hand-peeled logs or structural insulated panels, are delivered by boat, semi-truck, or both. (Note: Some Puget Sound islands are accessible by road though it can add considerable time to the journey.) As of this writing, the owners of a waterfront lot on one of Puget Sound’s most enchanting islands are experiencing this seamless shipping and installation process first-hand.

Puget Sound island where a Cascade-inspired PrecisionCraft residence is underway

Browse additional photographs of this home’s construction by visiting its album here.

What Should You Build In Puget Sound?

Because of its mild climate including (typically) low annual snowfall, every architectural style of home works in this region. For example, densely wooded Puget Sound islands welcome Mountain style homes as easily as Mountain Modern™ ones. With their unique rooflines and walls of glass, Mountain Modern™ homes are exploding in popularity in the Puget Sound area. We currently have three Mountain Modern™ luxury home projects underway in Washington State’s Puget Sound region, and several more are in the design stage. One example is the rendering shown below.

PrecisionCraft Cascade artistic rendering, a Mountain Modern™ architectural style

Meet The Puget Sound Client Representative

Mark Camper has been with PrecisionCraft for 25 years. With degrees in both forest products and architecture, Mark’s previous roles as PrecisionCraft Operations Manager– and later, as Design Manager– allow him an unique insight as a client representative. As a Pacific Northwest native, Mark admits a certain partiality to the region, saying, “I enjoy visiting Puget Sound because it reminds me of why people are attracted to building wood homes in the first place.” Mark typically meets with Puget Sound clients to walk their property between one and three years in advance of breaking ground, and expresses how helpful these site visits are. “By ensuring a client’s home has site orientation and view corridor considerations at the forefront of the process,” he explains, “our designers have a distinct advantage when we move into architectural style.”

Pondering Puget Sound for your custom log, timber, or hybrid home? Contact Mark here.

A Final Thought

Puget Sound provides the basis for Washington State’s apt moniker, “The Evergreen State” and the region’s appeal to luxury home owners is undeniable. With an island home’s easy proximity to the cities of Tacoma and Seattle, mild year-round temperatures, and stunning views, it is no surprise we have so many projects underway. If you reside in, or are considering, Puget Sound for your custom home, you may order our complimentary literature here.

Please return to our website in two weeks when we explore Colorado in the United States.

Works cited, photo credits, and notes

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Main image of Deception Pass, Puget Sound, Washington State by Patrick_McNally  [CC BY 3.0] via Wikimedia Commons, here.

(i) Own work by Pfly [CC BY-SA 3.0]created with ArcExplorer and Adobe Illustrator. Based on GeoBase and The National Map data. From Wikimedia Commons.

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