Your vacation house can help pull you into another state of mind. There is no sense in living just as if you were in the city when the outdoors beckons. This house makes you want to play outside (and in)!

Our clients loved life along this tidal river, and decided to build a new house on their lot to take advantage of all it had to offer. They asked for good indoor – outdoor connections, places for the whole family to gather, a separate space that felt like a guest house, and a big lawn for kids and sports.

The long thin shape of the house opens all the major rooms to the river and lawn views with most rooms having windows on two sides. Smaller service spaces and circulation were kept to the street side for more privacy with separate realms for parents, kids, and guests expressed throughout the home. Roof forms and angles break down the larger scale of the building while developing a vocabulary based on the materials the owner requested.

The massing of the building includes trussed gable forms repeated in the porches, balconies, and other exterior detailing, with dark green exterior trim tying the house into the landscape. Shingles were used inside the sunroom to further blur the boundary between inside and out.

Interior finishes: Scarborough Phillips Design

Robert Brewster, Warren Jagger Photography