Coastal Maine Vacation Residence
A 4,000+ SF new house, designed for a family with 3 young girls, dogs, and many visiting cousins. This house was designed to fit a challenging, triangular property parcel with many building constraints, including waterfront setbacks, wetlands as well as building height and footprint limits. This building solution added significant value to a property parcel previously thought unbuildable.
All major first floor rooms and wrap-around porches (both open and screened) were organized to face the water and southern exposure. These main spaces were juxtaposed against a bank of closets, utility and storage rooms, which are accessed from a large service hall along the north driveway side. While keeping vehicles and service needs away from the water side, this floor plan also allows active, sometimes messy, family use with plenty “away” space to stash and organize the needs of a large family. South-facing operating transoms and French doors, opening toward the water, allow whole-house natural ventilation via the central open stairway to north-facing dormer windows along the second floor stair hall. This keeps the house so comfortable in a typically humid creekside, wooded setting, that many visitors assume the house is air-conditioned until they are reminded how open it is to the site’s natural features.
On the second floor all four large bedrooms have water views. With three bathrooms and a first floor powder room, the house can easily accommodate a range of visitors and occasional renters. At the east end a large master bedroom with integral dressing closets and bath is a private and quiet zone for parents.
Awards
Best of Houzz 2015 – Portland, Maine