the house that took a village
Bainbridge family home marries design, function & budget
Words by Sarah Lane
What strikes you first about the Bainbridge Island home of designers Leo and Lishu Rodriguez is its harmonious blend of modern industrial design and warm, natural materials like cedar and bamboo. The house’s exterior is clad in tight knot cedar on the bottom and commercial-grade metal siding on top. Inside, an open plan and large windows flood the three-bedroom, three-story family home with light.
The journey to building their dream island home started when Leo, who is from Venezuela, and Lishu, who is from Nepal, met as students at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. It was there the couple befriended fellow design student Brandon Herrickwolf, who invited them home to visit his family on Bainbridge. The couple instantly fell in love with the island and its access to nature, arts and education, as well as its proximity to Seattle.
After graduation, they moved to Nepal for four years where they started a sustainable bamboo furniture business and then to Poulsbo, their first child in tow, to remodel a house owned by Lishu’s sister. While there, they began hatching a plan to build their own house on Bainbridge. It would take the family 13 years, many helping hands and some creative cost management to see the project through.
They began by writing letters to property owners who had undeveloped property, asking if they might buy a portion. No one responded, but through a connection they found someone willing to sell them half an acre near Agate Passage. When Lishu was left with a small inheritance, the couple purchased the property. Leo was working for Smallwood Design and Construction, and the couple hired the company for the build with Leo as project manager. The family moved into a small cabin next door to the property and broke ground in 2019.
To control costs, the Rodriguezes found many of their building materials, including the metal siding and bamboo, on Craigslist and the Facebook group Bainbridge Island Online Yard Sale. As one might expect, much of the home’s finished carpentry—the floors, kitchen cabinets and island, dining room buffet and guardrails—is made of high quality, yet highly discounted bamboo. The modest 1,120 square-foot footprint of the house kept roofing and foundation costs down. The couple also qualified for a low-cost home loan from the USDA’s Rural Development program, yet another opportunity to save money, but the property was ultimately disqualified for being too steep.
Designers Lishu and Leo Rodriguez built a dream home on Bainbridge Island by tapping their own skills, network and cost management know-how.
The floor plan makes efficient use of space. The living room, dining room, kitchen and den flow from one to the next, giving the home an open, airy feeling. To accommodate overnight visitors, the den features a Murphy bed, and the powder room includes a shower. The ground floor is half garage and half workshop where the couple can build furniture. The mudroom on that level features a six-foot-high shoe rack and artificial turf carpeting, ideal for muddy shoes.
The couple made the home as energy efficient as they could afford. They pursued the Puget Sound Energy rebate by increasing the home’s air tightness, carefully sealing all leaks, cracks and gaps and exceeding the requirement by 30 percent. A heat recovery ventilator captures 90 percent of heat from indoor stale air as it’s leaving the house to preheat fresh air on its way in. The family even insulated the garage since the entire house was built on it.
To keep the project on track, the Rodriguezes say in unison that they “called in every single favor” from friends and family, seeing the experience like a barn raising. Lishu said that their friends were “so tired of hearing them talk about their never-ending house building project” that they were probably delighted to help finish it, once and for all. Even when the project skidded to a halt in 2020 because of COVID, they continued working on their own, doing the flooring, siding, concrete form work and window trim. They enlisted their boys (then 13 and 16) to work on the project and moved in that June.
By working together, using their skills and connections, and relying on their support network, the Rodriguez family was able to build their dream house on an island known for its expensive real estate. It took a lot longer than expected and required a great deal of savvy and effort. But, they say, “People need to know that it is indeed possible.”
Photos: Michael Wells