In the North Carolina mountains where I have my
design practice, there’s practically no such thing as a flat
building lot. Many sites drop 20 feet or more along the
side of the house, and it’s not uncommon to find basements
with sweeping views of distant mountains.
Those sorts of slopes are a challenge in any number of
ways, including one that I see again and again — how to
design a good-looking back or side deck in a setting where
the support posts are much more prominent than the
deck itself. For a deck that will be reached from an upper
level, that can be an issue even on