It's exciting when an idea grows into something you can see and touch, and for me, the Sunset Summer Retreat did just that. The concept, which grew from a conversation Senior Editor Dan Gregory and I had back in January, was to find a way to capture the best of indoor/outdoor living and also rethink what a vacation cabin could be. We wanted to share this novel concept with visitors to our annual Celebration Weekend event and build it right in our own parking lot where we have constructed homes for the past four years. (See the Glidehouse, Sunset Breezehouse, and Celebration Weekend Idea House.) I drew a quick sketch (above) of what we talked about- a “cabin” that we conceptually pulled apart and built on a 2500-square-foot deck. At the center is a modest-sized core structure containing a kitchen and bathroom. Instead of attached bedrooms, we put them in separate tent cabins (made by a company called Sweetwater Bungalows) that were placed around the edge of the deck. One tent is the Master bedroom tent, another is the Bunkhouse where kids sleep, and a third is the Locker room, where all the extra stuff you haul on vacations can be stashed. The rest of the deck divides into outdoor living spaces where you would really live during the day. We included a shaded daybed, a firepit for night-time gatherings, an retractable awning in front of the kitchen doors, an outdoor dining room, a grand barbecue center, an outdoor shower, a shaded rear deck for quiet reading, and even an outdoor movie screen. (You can take a photo tour.) When we were done, I took a picture of the whole thing from a cherry picker in about the same place as my original conceptual sketch. As you can see, dream and reality merged! — Peter Whiteley, Sunset senior writer