Little Jewel Box

The pint-size addition manages to do it all.

The one-story, 1985 house was U-shaped, with a scruffy patch of back yard sandwiched between the family room and the master bedroom. To get from the bedroom to the family room, the homeowners had to go outside or walk all the way to the front of the house and around. Fixing that problem was a top priority.

Project architect Steven House of House + House Architects in San Francisco did it by replacing the back-yard patch with a 12x12-foot breakfast/lounge area. The siding on the family room and bedroom remained untouched. So did the sliding glass doors on the two rooms, although they open to the room that now connects them. In fact, House says they stay open most of the time because the breakfast area has become a hub of the home.

Although the addition fills a chunk of the back yard, it makes the most of the remaining outdoor space. French doors on both sides of the spa platform open to a deck that's handy for barbecues. Flowering trumpet vines weave through trellises over the deck and dangle down. Looking out to the deck, "We get privacy but feel like we are looking at greenery and like we are in an outdoor space," the homeowner says.

The clients splurged on marble tile for the spa surround. "I love that touch of luxury," the homeowner says. The hot tub, an off-the-shelf, portable unit that House dropped into place, helped offset the tile's cost.

The homeowners "got really good value for their money," House says. The addition had a "modest budget, but it made the house feel so much bigger." House calls it "a little jewel box" -- a good name for a little room that sparkles outside and in.