This Cliff-top “Glass House” Is Practically One with the Pacific

A house with a great ocean view is easy enough to imagine, as is a house on top of a cliff. This house, though, with its perch just feet above the roiling Pacific Ocean, must be seen to be believed.

Built in 1964, this amazing property—aptly named the Glass House, for its walls of floor-to-ceiling windows—is on California’s storied Highway 1 on the North Coast, in the tiny hamlet of Timber Cove. Its exterior of native sandstone and Old Growth California redwood blends in with the rock surrounding it, but the interior, too, was built with the intent to preserve the unspoiled landscape, with a layout that follows the lines of the rock it was built on. The whole house has been remodeled and updated since its construction, but its original floor plan remains the same.

Reachable by a narrow walkway that winds along the cliff, the Glass House is set apart from the mainland, a location that gives it panoramic views of the Pacific. It’s small—just one bedroom and one bath with 1,200 square feet of interior space—but its expansive views and proximity to nature give it a refreshed, wide-open feel.

In this home, the view can be taken in from the main living area, the bedroom, a wide cliff-top patio, or a hot tub nestled in the rock, practically in the water. An exterior staircase leads down to the rocky shoreline for a closer look, and hiking trails around the 3-acre property make the outdoors as important as the indoors. Scroll on to see more:

The Glass House at Timber Cove is listed by Kathleen Ball and Jim Clopton of Sotheby’s International Realty’s Wine Country – First Street Brokerage for $3.9 million. Click here to see the full listing, with more images and information.

All images and video by Bill Oxford, courtesy of Sotheby’s International Realty