Marian Berg misplaced practically every thing within the Atlas fireplace of 2017 — not simply the Napa, Calif., home she had constructed along with her husband, who died in 2014, however all of its contents.
“I used to be downstairs studying a e-book, and I had a buddy who known as and stated, ‘Your hill is on fireplace,’” stated Ms. Berg, 69, an accountant. “I grabbed my canine and ripped the cables out of the again of my pc, threw that within the automobile, after which ran again for my passport. Then I used to be out of there.”
She had been by a hearth scare earlier than, so she didn’t instantly assume the worst. “I really thought I used to be going to return again,” she stated.
However a number of days later, she heard from a buddy that the home had burned down. There was nothing to return to.
Fortuitously, it was effectively insured, so she rented a spot close by whereas determining what to do subsequent. She contemplated transferring to Florida, however after a 12 months of mulling it over determined to remain put as a result of a lot of her associates and shoppers — and the horses she loved using — had been in and round Napa.
Ultimately, Ms. Berg determined to make use of the insurance coverage cash to rebuild on the identical sloped lot. However she had no intention of reconstructing what she had constructed along with her husband within the Nineteen Nineties. This was a possibility to begin over, to construct one thing fully completely different that mirrored her present stage of life.
After canvassing associates for names of architects, she paid three corporations to develop proposals for her. One got here again with a design harking back to her previous two-story home. “It hit me like a kick within the chest,” she stated.
One other offered a design she didn’t very similar to. However Fischer Structure, a Berkeley agency, proposed a modernist compound that she instantly liked: a single-story construction dug into the hillside, with a personal courtyard close to the road and a residing house with glass sliders that might provide an expansive view.
“After we first went to go to, the positioning was a wasteland,” stated Andrew Fischer, who runs the agency along with his spouse, Kerstin Fischer. “Half of it seemed like a moonscape.”
“Our considering,” Ms. Fischer stated, “was to make the most of that downslope of the lot to press the home into the hillside, comply with the topography and create an oasis for her that might be shielded from the rebuilding that was occurring, and that’s nonetheless occurring.”
The design had different benefits, as effectively. It created privateness, supplied extra usable out of doors house than Ms. Berg had earlier than, and enabled single-story residing to assist her age in place.
She appreciated all of these concepts. And though she describes herself as “a numbers individual, not an artwork individual,” she bought swept up within the considered constructing one thing that might be fully new for the neighborhood. “It was so completely different,” she stated. “And I like completely different.”
Aiming to make the 4,660-square-foot construction as fireplace resistant as attainable, the architects used concrete block, a utilitarian materials extra generally related to warehouses and industrial buildings. However fairly than use typical blocks, they discovered longer ones made with an mixture resembling terrazzo and stacked them with staggered joints, spacing some out in entrance of home windows to create screens. Lastly, they utilized a thick limewash paint to the outside surfaces, so “it doesn’t appear like your conventional Costco warehouse,” Mr. Fischer stated.
Topped by a standing-seam metallic roof, the home is provided with a sprinkler system that makes use of captured rainwater saved in tanks beneath the pool deck.
Inside, they added oak flooring, door and window frames for a heat, pure contact, specifying charcoal-colored Fenix laminate for kitchen cupboards and wall paneling. As for furnishings and equipment, Ms. Berg didn’t want a lot.
“The attention-grabbing factor is that when every thing burns, you don’t need something,” she stated. “You notice that every one that junk you had, as lovely because it may need been, you didn’t really want it. It was simply one thing that wanted to be dusted or taken care of.”
With steerage from John Stewart, an inside designer buddy, she purchased the minimal variety of items wanted to stay comfortably. “There are not any valances, no sconces, no fancy stuff hanging off partitions, no material puddling on the bottoms of home windows — none of that stuff,” she stated.
It took about two years for the builder, Olson Bros., to finish the home, and Ms. Berg moved in virtually precisely 4 years after the fireplace, in October 2021. The full price was about $6.4 million, roughly 90 % of which was coated by her insurance coverage firm. (She paid the remaining to cowl options she didn’t have in her previous home, together with flooring with radiant warmth, automated window coverings and the pool.)
“You’ve simply bought to be glad about what you’ve bought,” she stated. “And in case you’re actually fortunate like me, you find yourself with a very lovely home to stay in.”
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