I call this place the Barn. It reminds me of the funky, upper-middle-class hippy places I used to see when I was a kid growing up in the 1970s. It could be from the early 1980s though. The roof line is reminiscent of a barn as well as the beam extending out at the top - typically on barns with a pulley for hoisting up hay or whatnot. The window is where the door usually was that items were hoisted through, but here it is some funky stained glass - so 70s! The tower is the silo - but it is topped off with copper that must have a coating on it to prevent it from corroding and turning green. The weather-beaten wood siding further adds to the natural feel of the place. Siding like this was also popular in the 1970s and you hardly see it used today. In the 1970s the idealism of the 1960s was still fairly strong in some circles, as well as the back to nature movement that embraced organic farming, making your own clothes, wine etc. Self reliance was a big deal and farming is as self-reliant as you can get today. Symbolically this house (actually two houses - to the left of this unit is another door with a different number and a garage door. The other unit seems to have a flat roof and nothing can be seen beyond the fence) conjures up the wholesome, back-to-nature, yet educated and financially well-off status of the hippies who grew up and made some money.

Here is some additional information that was emailed to me after building the site:

"This house was designed by Ace Architects, Oakland.  www.aceland.com   It indeed was built in memory of a barn that used to exist on the site, by owners who had grown up on the property.  The property is not 2 houses, but 3, with the original rustic house lower on hillside and not visible from the street."