Who wouldn’t want a house in the California wine country, especially one designed specifically for you? Mark Horton, principal of San Francisco-based Mark Horton Architecture, made that dream come true—twice—for his own mother, Yvonne. “The first home I designed for my parents was much bigger, on a vineyard, and fit their lifestyle at the time,” he says. See that house at www.mh-a.com/architecture/residential/healdsburg_I/. While Horton’s parents loved the house, things have changed, and with his 80-year-old mother now on her own, she needed to be closer to amenities, and live on one level.

Located on the far end of Healdsburg, on a hill overlooking the town, the 1,800-square foot three-bedroom, two-bathroom house is both simple and practical. “My mother wanted a ‘no maintenance’ home,” says Horton, “and while some maintenance is always required, I wanted to give her as easy a home to take care of as possible. The structure and materials of this house adhere to that idea.”