A Home Fit for the Wilderness

Thirteen years ago, Deborah Ashin, her husband Daniel Sadler and their twins were looking for a quiet spot to settle into on Mercer Island.

What they found was a truly unique home, nestled into a terraced Japanese garden with a wooded area and a flowing stream in the back yard.

"We were looking for a place with character and privacy that was well built and had room for our children," said Ashin. "We created a pathway to the creek outside and it was like living in Tom Sawyer for them, they could explore the wilderness, play pirates down there and make crafts from the clay on the bank; it was incredible—they loved it."

The house at 6021 West Mercer Way is hidden from the noise of the street by a bank of Japanese trees and foliage, as well as bamboo fencing. The huge slanted roof was built in layers that muffle sound when the front door is closed, and the window-filled bright interior keeps the feeling of a private tree house without sacrificing the view or the light.

The 3,670 square foot custom home was designed by a Mercer Island architect and built in the 1970s, when it was purchased by Island artist Ritchie Benson, whose widow sold the home to Ashin.

"He'd paint these huge canvases which are now hanging in the Frye Museum," said Ashin. "When we were looking at the house there were these canvases up on the walls of the Pike Place Market, and I liked them so much I went out and bought posters made of the paintings in his studio, and I hung them around the house. Coincidently, his color palate for those paintings is the same color palate we used for the house when we remodeled it."

With 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, that remodeling project wasn't easy.

"The day we moved in we knew we had to get rid of the hideous 70s shag carpeting and ugly, faux-Mondrian stained glass windows," said Ashin. "There was also a wrought-iron circular staircase that looked like it would fit in Hugh Hefner's bachelor pad, so we moved it outside where it connects the upstairs deck to the back yard."

Ashin also added a window to the master bathroom and windows to the library loft that sits over the dining room, so when she sat in the cozy built-in reading nook, she could see out through the clear A-frame windows right into the Japanese gardens. The artists studio with walls full of driftwood and shuttered windows became a charming studio apartment with its own kitchen/wet bar, fireplace and patio.

"We rented that apartment to my children's 5th grade teacher, Mr. Keith Allerton, because he was having a difficult time finding an affordable place to live," she said.

"My kids thought it was strange because they had a hard time thinking of their teacher as a person. But he loved it because he had no commute."

Though she traveled all over the world writing restaurant reviews and books, and said she was always happy to come home to this quiet oasis, Ashin and her husband have decided to sell their home and move into smaller digs in downtown Seattle.

"My kids are in college, so we don't need this much space anymore, and we don't want to worry when we travel," she said. "But we'll always love Mercer Island and this house---it was a magical place to raise children."