Glam, Mid-Century & Modern: CDG’s own dream home

The Kaufmann Desert House photo by Slim Aarons is Courtenay’s inspiration for the design of her new home. — The *Kaufmann Desert House* photo by Slim Aarons is Courtenay’s inspiration for the design of her new home.

People say that the hardest project for an architect is designing their own home. And Courtenay is always up for a challenge, so it's fitting that her most ambitious project to date is her own home in Kent Woodlands, an enclave of Kentfield, CA.

Courtenay and her husband John met in the early 2000s, got married and had two kids -- Jack and Hank -- while living in San Francisco. They have been nestled in a two-bedroom Hayes Valley apartment while they searched for their forever property. Courtenay and John both grew up north of the Golden Gate and they knew that they would eventually make the move to Marin to be closer to family, friends and most importantly Mt. Tam and nature.

In 2017 the stars aligned and Courtenay and John purchased a fixer in Kentfield. After escaping the city during Covid and living in the new house for a year, Courtenay designed an extensive remodel, secured permits, and put together a team. The project officially kicked off in Spring 2021.

I caught up with Courtenay to learn how she found the dream property, her process for reimagining it, how she conquered the Marin County permitting process, how construction is going and what it's like to be the architect of your own home.

Courtenay Dill Glander - at home in Kent Woodlands

JC: Tell me about how you decided where you wanted to live and how you found the property.

CDG: I was born and raised in West Marin (Stinson Beach and Bolinas) and John grew up in Kentfield; two streets over from our current property. We decided on Kentfield because of the amazing weather, good schools, proximity to the city and of course, being on Mt. Tamalpais. When we got serious about purchasing a property I narrowed my search to John’s old neighborhood in the Kent Woodlands. I saw this particular listing and I just knew it was the one. So, after a hike with my best friend Vanessa we checked it out. As soon as we walked up the driveway towards the charming mid-century house and onto the deck with its expansive 360 degree views including a dead on view of Mt. Tam, we both had a feeling that this was the home for my family. Then I just had to convince my husband to see it and purchase it. In typical Marin fashion we almost lost in a bidding war; but in the end we prevailed.

JC: What made you and John fall in love with this particular property?

CDG: We have always been “view people.” We would much rather have a house perched on a hill with views than a flat lot. We have a shared family property in Big Sur on a ridge above the fog line and there was something about this property that reminded us of that expansive Big Sur view filled with natural beauty. Instead of the Pacific Ocean, we have views of the San Francisco Bay, city skyline, Mt. Tam and all of Southern Marin.

We also loved the fact that we would be the second owners of this home. We purchased the property from the first owners who built it in 1953. We liked the overall footprint of the house, how it is perfectly placed on the site and how the layout and orientation take advantage of the views of Mt. Tam and the Bay. All the things you can’t change, aka the site and orientation work well. The house was another story! When I saw that wall to wall white shag carpeting I knew it had to be mine.

The Glanders - John, Courtenay, Jack and Hank - the 2nd owners of the property

In regards to the design, we appreciated the beauty and simplicity of the mid-century modern design that included a wall of glass doors opening to a deck along the southwest facing side of the home, glass corners, exposed beams, redwood paneling and white shag carpet that was in surprisingly good condition.

From a design perspective as an architect, I was just really inspired by both the setting and the structure and I couldn't wait to begin reimagining the house 70 years later as the second owner.

Buckeye house nestled on the hillside with dead on view of Mt Tamalpais

JC: Since it was built in 1953, I imagine that there were a lot of things that needed updating. What were the parts of the existing home that you knew you wanted to change?

CDG: Well, first of all the plate heights inside the house were only 8 feet, so the top of Mt. Tam was totally clipped unless you walked outside. As typical of the mid 19th century design, the living spaces were very small. The kitchen, bathrooms and bedrooms were particularly tiny. The large glass windows were all single pane and zero insulation of any kind - typical of 1950’s construction.

Original living room with low ceilings and single pane glass and of course white shag!

Buttercup Bathroom - original fixtures and signature white shag carpet

JC: So, how are you reimagining this 70-year old home to better suit your family and lifestyle?

CDG: The key design goal of the project is to unveil the top of Mt Tam from inside the house. My inspiration for the redesign is the Kaufmann Desert House featured in the famous photograph by Slim Aarons because of the orientation of that house, its clean design and striking setting with a mountainous backdrop.

My new design respects the existing site, footprint and layout and the key original design features that worked such as glass corners, expansive glass windows and doors, redwood paneling, and the mid-century modern sensibility.

I plan to bring the home up to the 20th century and beyond by designing a net zero home with energy efficiency, passive heating and cooling, solar power, green building materials, etc. And my design expands the living spaces to be more functional for a family of four with my two energetic boys.

During 2020 pandemic Courtenay and her family lived in the original home, celebrated its history and she perfected the final re-design. — During 2020 pandemic Courtenay and her family lived in the original home, celebrated its history and she perfected the final design.

JC: Tell me more about the new design and layout. I want details!

CDG: During my design process I worked to craft a house with flexible space and I also wanted to maximize the usable square footage. We have loved living in our two-bedroom city apartment and have valued the closeness of a small scale space. So I wanted to maintain the cozy feeling within an expanded footprint. We also plan to be in the home for many years so we want a home that will flex and work over time with growing kids and as John and I age. Flexibility in the floor plan was a main priority. I didn’t want empty bedrooms for the sake of having bedrooms, so the house is a “Transformer” 3-bedroom with 2 flexible spaces. The lowest level has two bedroom suites and playroom for the kids. Open living and entertaining plus master suite on the main level and then the penthouse is the most flexible space featuring an office and bonus room and can transform into a guest suite when we have visitors. If needed this flexible penthouse space could transform into a second master suite if that suits our family better in the future.

And of course the main level features an expansive and open great room including a dining, living, kitchen, media/pool room which flow seamlessly together and open up onto the pool deck and entertaining areas.

Updated design will do away with the narrow hallways and blocked views.

JC: I know the permitting process in Marin can be challenging to say the least. How did you navigate that?

CDG: (laughing) To be honest we went through an arduous and extensive permitting process with Marin County which included going through the design review process twice! I tell people that if they weren’t the architect designing their own house they may have given up. But I persisted. I admittedly suffer from perfectionism which resulted in multiple iterations of building permit sets. Finally in early 2020 we got the approved building permit. Huge shout out to my GC team: Jake Glavis at Pacific Ridge Construction and Stephen & John Lowry at Lowry Construction. It takes a village and honored to have these talented guys on my team. They have been more than patient and endured a long pre-construction process.

John, Jake & Stephen - Lowry Construction & Pacific Ridge GC Team

JC: And then how did the pandemic impact your plans?

CDG: Well, actually a blessing in disguise was just as we were about to break ground in March 2020, the whole world shut down. We ended up moving out of our city apartment and into the home full time for a year during Covid which was an incredible blessing. We got to live in the house, celebrate its history and perfect the final design after truly experiencing living there day in and day out. This experience cemented some of our design choices regarding flow and livability and it was fun to live in the place while we selected finishes.

JC: Where are you in the construction process now?

CDG: Construction kicked off in Spring 2021. Demo is now complete and the GC and site construction team has been busy all summer with site work, drilling piers and pouring concrete. Framing is scheduled to start this winter and we are targeting winter 2022 for completion.

Kicking off construction with Lowry Brothers our GC - Lowry Construction

JC: So exciting! How can we follow along on the journey with you?

CDG: I’m documenting the project on my Instagram @architectcdg so follow me there and I’m sure we will do a few more blog posts. So stay tuned! Take a look at our progress thus far, demo, site work, drilled piers and concrete that completed this summer. Thanks to our GC team Lowry Construction, Pacific Ridge and our demo / concrete sub contractors - Marr B Olsen and Excel Site Services we got massive amount of site work completed this summer - thankfully before the early rains.

Next we are on to the house!