Open Air Patio

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Anatomy of an Open-Air House: Bike riding from the kitchen to the courtyard. Eating dinner under the stars. One Northern California family shows how the patio can function like any other room in the house.; By Allison Areiff

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: Throughout the day, the Green kids—Hannah, 12, and Jack, 6—and their soccer balls, bikes, and Tonka trucks race between the house and the yard, further blurring the lines between inside and out. Their parents, Renee and David (she's an interior designer; he's a winery manager), had the contemporary ranch house constructed from scratch five years ago.

THINK ABOUT HARD FLOORING
The Greens installed polished concrete floors, which can withstand anything their two kids throw at it—or ride on it. "We put the concrete in specifically so they could ride their bikes inside," says Renee. "We didn't want to say no to that."

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