little boxes on a hillside

A bremerton couple's home takes recycling to new heights

Words by Richard Rosenthal Photos by Gretchen Ritter & Logan Westom Photography

ANYONE WHO HAS TAKEN THE FERRY TO SEATTLE IS FAMILIAR WITH THE SIGHT OF SHIPPING CONTAINERS.

Whether stacked on ships, piled high in cargo terminals or placed on rail cars or trucks, they’re everywhere, like giant, colorful Lego blocks. Where one doesn’t expect to see them is deep in the woods in Bremerton, where a new home constructed of these steel boxes stands.

Driving up the steep, one-lane dirt road to The Ritter Retreat, an ultra-modern black and gray building emerges from the trees. While the sleek 2,900 square foot, three-bedroom home stands in contrast with its more traditional neighbors, there are otherwise no external hints to its industrial origins. However, upon walking through the front door, you enter a majestic cathedral of steel and glass. The architectural term “great room” has been overused, but this truly is a Great Room.

The Ritters are Jason, an architect, Gretchen, a graphic designer, young son David and their dog, Sequoia.

Jason explains the history of their project. “It’s about seven years in the making, from the initial design to today.” Wanting to do something creative and innovative with their dream home, he says, “We kept thinking that a traditional stick-built house wouldn’t make us happy. We’d see containers everywhere in the harbor, and wondered ‘what can we do with them?’ We started playing around with paper models and sketching plans.”

When the Ritters decided to make those plans a reality, they purchased seven containers from a company in Tacoma. Getting them to the building site, a steep, wooded 16-acre lot near Enetai Beach, was a challenge.

“That was a fun day,” Jason laughs. “We had one driver who made it up the road by himself. But the second driver got stuck at the bottom of the hill.” So they towed the 18-wheeler the rest of the way behind a large front-end loader. “The first driver made all the runs from then on.” They used a crane to lift the containers off the trucks and set them in place.

An overhead trolley attached to an I-beam allows Jason Ritter to adjust the chandelier. (Photo: Gretchen Ritter)

One unusual feature of the house is an overhead trolley that runs along an I-beam in the ceiling of the great room. Jason installed the trolley and safety harness as a means of adjusting the position of the chandelier, which is mounted using a C clamp. “The variable positioning of the chandelier gives us a lot of flexibility in the room. For example, over the holidays I was able to move the chandelier to place a large Christmas tree in the center of the dining area.”

On their website, ritterretreat.com, where the couple documented the process in intimate detail, Jason is described as “Architect, Man of all Trades.” Asked if there is anything he can’t do, he replies, “We’re still trying to figure that out. I learned how to weld and built all the railings. I hired an electrical contractor to lay out the outlets and pull the cables to the circuit breaker. But I installed all the outlets and switches myself. We had a plumber run the vent pipes and stub everything out of the wall. Then I installed all the fixtures, faucets and shower systems. We did all the tile prep work ourselves. For a year and a half, I was both an architect and builder.”

Gretchen runs her own graphic design business, so a home office was an intended feature of the house. Jason worked in an office building, but when COVID hit, he carved out space for a home office, too. Being together was helpful in that they could collaborate on the build-out. Although Gretchen admits, “There was definitely some drama and stress, a couple of screaming matches here and there.”

The Ritters’ home is the largest and, to their knowl- edge, the first container house built in Kitsap County, so they are frequently asked for advice. “While we were designing it, we thought about what could go wrong, from minor to catastrophic,” says Jason. “We managed to avoid most of it, so we’re glad to pass that knowledge along.” Asked if they have any regrets, Jason and Gretchen answer without hesitation: “None at all. We absolutely love it.”