Delany Haw River Retreat

Location: Chatham County, NC

Completed: 2007

Square footage: 1,000 (heated), 1,200 (exterior)

The Delany family loves to spend vacations in North Carolina, seeing friends and visiting their land overlooking the Haw River. They decided to build a river getaway home that will later serve as a guesthouse when they retire in North Carolina and build their permanent home here.

Local zoning regulations limit a guest house to 1,000 square feet, so we designed a large screened porch with a fireplace, kitchenette, and sleeping loft. We attached two small bedrooms and a living area to one side of the screened porch, and we wrapped a deck all around it. The transition between inside and outside is blurred: is this a house or a porch?

During the master-planning process, we worked with the Delanys to help them select the spot on their river lot where their main house will be built when they retire. Not the usual sequence of additions, but in this case, a wise one.