photography: Susan Seubert The double-sided, wood-burning fireplace (a Tulikivi stove) in the living room lets off radiant heat as the soapstone warms. From the kitchen, Shari and Hal use it to cook pizza, bread, turkey, and more.

The lot—loaded with redwood trees in the small California coastal town of Fieldbrook, just 80 miles shy of the Oregon border—contained only a small shed and apple orchard. But the blank slate meant a world of possibilities for Shari and Hal, who’d dreamed of building their own home. "And I've always loved the Craftsman style," Shari says. "I knew it would work here because we needed to maintain a balance with the outdoors and nature."

Respecting and preserving the forest was a top priority for the couple and their designer/builder, Gene Callahan, who's been practicing his trade in the area for more than 30 years. "Honesty of material and honesty of application are main elements of Craftsman style," Gene says. "I always stay true to that in my work. For me, it's more of a philosophy than just building homes."

photography: Susan Seubert

The majority of the rest of the wood throughout the house either came from the property or was found through Gene’s network of fine craftspeople who live and work in the area. The interior timbers and trim work are Douglas fir, and the hardwood floors are tan oak, which a local company milled and made. "We built this house the old-fashioned way," Gene says. "I set up a little woodworking shop inside the garage and manufactured all the interior and exterior details on-site. It’s the way things were built hundreds of years ago."

His enthusiasm sparked Shari and Hal to get involved by hand-selecting stones. A $10 "rock gathering permit" from the California Department of Forestry allowed the couple to collect as many rocks and stones as they wanted from the Trinity River in nearby Willow Creek.

The couple also knew they wanted a custom stone fireplace made in Finland called a Tulikivi stove. "It’s made of soapstone, which warms to create radiant heat that fills our entire house in the winter," Shari says. "It’s energy-efficient, and it also contains a firebox on one side that we use as an oven."

"Efficient," in fact, describes the entire process of building Shari and Hal’s dream house. "I like Craftsman homes because they have a sense of permanence," Gene says. "We built this house to look like it’ll still be standing in a hundred years, and, believe me, it will."

photography: Susan Seubert