Northshore Magazine

important purpose: to help tolerate the harsh winter conditions of the coast. "The house faces due north and the nor'easters are very hard on any type of building," he explains. "So what we've learned from our experience building on the coast is that it's wise to use the materials that have stood the test of time. Copper and cedar can withstand Mother Nature's fury." The main house's traditional exterior gives way to a modern, open-plan interior that offers some unexpected details, such as a red volcanic stone high table in the kitchen and a cedar-clad ceiling in the dining room and study. Flavin's first order of business on the inside was gutting the chopped-up rooms and starting with a clean slate. He and his team lowered the first floor to achieve some volume and to help the house feel more connected to the land. It's one of the most dramatic moves we made on the project, Flavin says. "We kept the kitchen up, but we lowered the rest of the first floor," he explains. "The conventional New England finished floor is about 18 inches to two feet above the grade, so when we lowered the house it made it feel nestled into the site. It gives the home the feeling of continuity between the inside and the outside landscape and rock outcroppings. It's a striking difference in the house before we lowered the floor and after." It features three levels with seven bedrooms distributed between the top two floors. Its bright, open plan of the main level features a spacious living room and game room on one side and a large kitchen and dining room on the other. A corridor connects the main home to the addition. Interior finishes are straightforward and simple, consisting of quarter-sawn white oak flooring, Western red cedar paneling, and a fireplace constructed from Rockport granite. In the kitchen, the architects used quarter-sawn oak veneer cabinets with brushed stainless hardware and Azul Barracuda stone for the countertops. A red lava stone-topped worktable adds a pop of color. "The house is decorated in a minimalist fashion but with color," Huber says. "I don't like clutter so everything has a place. At the same time, the home is really used. No one is afraid of sitting down and using the spaces. It's beautiful but not over precious." Flavin replaced (and, in some cases, enlarged) every window in the house, which allows copious daylight to funnel into the rooms and permit dramatic views of the Atlantic Ocean. He used traditional double-hung windows in the main house and in the addition opted for awnings and casements, which are more appropriate for the new wing's modern vibe. Just in case the windows by themselves don't handle the gusts, wind-blown rain, and ice, the architects added an extra layer of defense. "To help the windows perform better, we came up with a storm sash that the owners put on all the ocean-side windows in the winter," Flavin states. "It takes the pressure off the windows from all the beating from the sea." Building on any coast is challenging, but the New England coast is perhaps the most demanding in the country. As any New Englander knows, winters can be brutal, sometimes resulting in four inches of solid ice covering exterior walls facing the ocean, Flavin says, which is why he and his team used high-performance spray foam insulation in the walls throughout the house. It's also why they stuck with tried-and-true materials and didn't get too funky and complicated with the design. The result for the clients is a home that respects the neighbors but displays just enough derring-do to express their personality. "We wanted to be daring to a point, but we also wanted to be comfortable in the neighborhood," the architect n says. "There was some respect for vernacular architecture throughout." ● 173 KJ NS Mar14 FEFlavin.indd 173 1/16/14 3:23 PM

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