Discovery Bay Exterior

A relatively new house on a high bluff above Discovery Bay had exceptional views and almost no way to reach them. The challenge was engineering usable outdoor space on a site the county had classified as a geotechnical hazard.

PROJECT STORY

Building toward the water on a bluff that pushed back

The house sits high above Discovery Bay on the Olympic Peninsula, facing east across the water. The views are exceptional and almost entirely out of reach from the house. The back of the property dropped away on sloped gravel, informal rock walls, and unfinished grade. The client wanted real deck space on two levels, materials that wouldn't need constant attention, and a clear platform for a telescope aimed at the bay.

The complication was the bluff itself. Kitsap County classified the slope as a geotechnical hazard, and working with the geotechnical engineer established a hard limit: no footings within six feet of the house. That constraint would have produced decks too small to use. The answer was a cantilevered structure that reaches beyond the footing zone and nearly doubles the available deck area — getting the decks out toward the view without putting structure where the county wouldn't allow it.

The lower deck is poured concrete plank — durable, maintenance-free, built to anchor the new hot tub and spa and hold its own against the slope. The upper deck was refinished in thermally modified wood, which handles the wet Olympic Peninsula climate without rot or splitting. Both decks face east. On a clear morning they work exactly as intended: perches above the bluff, with Discovery Bay laid out below and the sunrise coming straight at you.

The surrounding yard was redesigned in coordination with landscape architect Jeff Bouma of the Fischer Bouma Partnership, replacing the haphazard rock work with native plantings that will fill in over time and tie the site together.