According to Jay McArdle, the owner of Cape Leisure in Mashpee Commons, a popular trend among homeowners today is making their outdoor spaces as comfortable as those inside the home. “When it comes to seating options,” McArdle says, “the trend is really to repeat the same comfort you find inside the home.” At Cape Leisure customers can browse a wide variety of casual outdoor furniture including couches, lounge chairs, and tables made of wood, metal, wicker, and other materials.

Before purchasing new furniture, though, McArdle says it’s a good idea to take into account the amount of sunlight the area where the furniture will live enjoys. “You have to think about the shade,” he says. “We offer a lot of shade selections for two people, which are flexible enough to accommodate up to eight people, or more.”

Cape Leisure sells many products that help provide sun protection and coverage for those sitting by the pool and on the deck, from a variety of manufacturers including Cabana Coast and Brown Jordan. Many umbrella styles, for example, are made with high-density foam, as well as Sunbrella, a material that is partially made from recycled products and is a very breathable option.

Cape Leisure—which recently relocated to the North Market area of Mashpee Commons—also sells hammocks. For more information, call 508-428-1175, or visit capeleisure.com. – Maeve Mudie

The post Cozy outdoor furniture, and great options for shade appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Designed by Patrick Ahearn, Trelawny House is a majestic family gathering place on Martha’s Vineyard

photograph courtesy of Landvest

Imagine exploring vast grasslands nestled behind ocean dunes and coming upon the remains of a home that’s centuries old. At first the structures may appear like a mirage of lone trees, shimmering in the summer heat, but upon approach, they would take the clear form of abandoned chimneys. One might imagine an ancient farmhouse lost to the elements, or to fire, with only these monoliths remaining, worn by the sands and winds into objects of wonder and mystery, upon which travelers might pause to contemplate great human questions of time, history, and the raw powers of nature. Meditation complete, one would continue deeper into the wild lands of seafowl amid the sounds of rustling breezes and crashing Atlantic waves. Though the remains of the brick chimneys would endure, they would fade once again into invisibility in the sweeping landscape, remaining but a dream in the traveler’s mind.

This is the concept that architect Patrick Ahearn hoped to achieve with Trelawny House, built in 2009 on Herring Creek Farm, near Martha’s Vineyard’s South Beach. Along with builder Gary Conover, Ahearn worked closely with brother-and-sister owners Paula Williams Madison and Elrick Williams to create a modern home built upon a traditional structure, one that would disappear into its surroundings like a ghost into the past. Ahearn illustrates one’s arrival to Trelawny in terms that seem to defy physics. “You’re on a farm,” he says, “and as you drive closer, the house becomes transparent. It’s pretty magical, and even more magical at night.”

Madison concurs, as the galaxies of stars visible from this corner of the island, free from the light pollution of both her hometown of New York City and current residence of Los Angeles, help to complete her experience of serenity at Trelawny. “I wanted a home that blended with the flora and fauna,” she says, “rather than being a disturbance to the landscape.”

Ahearn further describes the home as a “modern twist on a Cape Cod cottage. It’s basically glass, a series of pavilions that are linked together. These suites are like free-standing pods centered around a communal gathering house, like a Wampanoag long house.” This description may lead one to believe that Trelawny is actually a collection of separate buildings, but this is not the case, for one of the home’s highlights is the tremendous sense of continuity and flow. Ahearn, the owners, and the design and construction teams involved with the project achieved this by building from the concept of freestanding chimneys. Exaggerating the chimneys for visual effect, Ahearn says he “inserted the house around the ruins.”

While the idea behind the home is meant to conjure up the deep well of time, Trelawny is, in fact, a showcase of modern design and art. Ahearn, who has designed more than 200 homes on Martha’s Vineyard, is renowned for more traditional styles, though, and says this type of modern house is much different than his usual work. For example, other homes he has designed within Herring Creek are two large gambrels and a farmhouse.

Photograph courtesy of Landvest

For Trelawny, Ahearn used traditional forms such as shingles and gables, but because of the home’s location, he was also bound by “special covenants,” including one that required the house to be no taller than 19 feet. This stipulation necessitated a mostly one-story dwelling, but it also allowed for incredibly airy cathedral ceilings. Madison says other modern touches include the absence of mullions in the windows, the use of earth tones of soft blues and grays, wood-toned flooring that matches the ceiling, and the avoidance of crown molding. Outlet fixtures, and regulators for the air-conditioning, match and blend into the wood as well. The entire home can open up, and Madison reports that “the cross breezes are fantastic. We have screen curtains that come down to keep insects out but allow us to hear the waves from across the dunes.” In total, Madison says all of these details contribute to the “overall sense of serenity” she had hoped to create at Trelawny.

Owners Madison and Williams are descended from Jamaicans of both African and Chinese heritage. Because the family celebrates its Chinese cultural roots, concepts of feng shui were important to the overall design. Abutting the entranceway, two gentle reflecting pools establish the element of water. Madison reports that her “original goal was to enter over a bridge, and to have fire, wind, air, and earth all part of the vibe of Trelawny House.” Walking directly through the great room from the front door, one can step outside to view the hot tub, then the infinity pool. Beyond that, Madison says, “We intend to build another large circular structure to contain a firepit.” To underscore the way the house flows, Ahearn states, “It’s pretty special in terms of sequence and arrival.”

The overall layout of the home is in the shape of a gigantic “H” with the “long house” in the center position, though this was extended to about the same length as the side wings. This central, communal portion of the home includes the great room—both a living space and an art gallery—as well as the dining room, the kitchen, a workout room, and a stainless steel spiral staircase that leads to a modern take on a widow’s walk.

The art in Trelawny is on scale with the home itself: grand and impressive. Two massive woodblock carvings adorn the dining room walls, each as large as a table. Williams explains that these works were created by well-known New Orleans artist John T. Scott, a cousin of Paula’s husband, Roosevelt Madison. Most of the paintings throughout Trelawny are originals by Roosevelt Madison; Williams reports that Roosevelt is “in the process of creating more pieces for each space.” Williams, himself, has contributed a number of massive photographs to further beautify the home.

Williams, who lives in Chicago part of the year, says one of his favorite things about Trelawny House is the fact that the bedrooms are actually five master suites. “We didn’t want a traditional home with just one master suite,” he says. Because of this feature, the house shares more in common with the boutique resorts of Thailand and Bali than it does with a Cape Cod residence, despite its superficial resemblance to the latter. In fact, one of the guest suites features a Thai theme, with rich silks and Williams’ photo of Thailand’s famous Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Phra Kaew) as the central piece of art.

Each of the suites includes a spacious bathroom with a soak tub; a private outdoor courtyard and garden; and a bedroom/living area with a freestanding platform bed, a flat-screen television, and furniture that matches the room’s theme. All of the courtyards boast an outdoor shower that is enclosed mostly by a massive palm trunk, and one features a soak tub carved from one piece of black granite so heavy that it took five grown men and a forklift to install.

Photograph courtesy of Lanvest

In addition to the suites, two dormitory-style rooms are designated for children. Nestled in a space above the entranceway, the boys’ room inhabits one wing and the girls’ room the other. Each has four freestanding twin beds, and the area in between mimics the adult great room; “It’s a kids wonderland,” says Madison, with chair swings, art supplies, board games, and a television with a gaming system.

Williams explains the benefits of the overall layout, stating, “We’ve had as many as 20 family members here at one time; the house can soak them all up without us feeling crowded.” His sister agrees, sharing that while at Trelawny, “You can have as much or as little social interaction as you want. I sat in my garden one day and fell asleep for two hours; when I awoke, my grandson told me that he’d been looking all over for me and couldn’t find me.”

The home’s social center is also the piece that first saw completion: the infinite-edged swimming pool, which the family modeled after one at a resort in Sandton, South Africa, where they stayed while on a safari vacation. Both pools include a very shallow area with mounts for umbrellas. This allows for shade, but also makes it so that, as Madison says, “the entire family can enjoy the water, from infants to the elderly.” The greater pool area also includes the hot tub, living spaces, a bar, and a full-sized outdoor kitchen complete with grills for entertaining larger parties; the space can easily accommodate 200 guests.

The name Trelawny pays homage to family history; Williams and Madison recently discovered an even deeper connection than they had first imagined. Trelawny Parish is next to St. Ann Parish, in Jamaica, where their African-Jamaican grandfather was born. “There was also a governor called Trelawny,” Madison says.

The Chinese side of the family had also lived in Jamaica; the owners learned more about this heritage in 2012, three years after their home had been completed. While shooting a documentary about their Chinese grandfather entitled Finding Samuel Lowe, Madison located their family in China. “Samuel Lowe” was the English name that their grandfather had taken when he established his business in St. Ann Parish, but the family descends from the Hakka people of China.

Madison and Williams are the 151st generation of this family, and they discovered that their ancestral compound has been turned into a museum. It turns out that the Hakka people were known for their architecture, specifically for creating compounds called “Hakka Tulou,” which featured a number of smaller structures enclosed within an exterior wall. “We learned that the design of Trelawny was actually quite similar to that of our ancestors,” Madison states. “It has great meaning and symbolism to our family.”

A unique dwelling that blends East and West with island cultures and urban sophistication, Trelawny is a masterpiece of—and a gallery for—modern art and functional design. From the widow’s walk that allows viewers to take in four separate fireworks displays on the Fourth of July, to its all-season readiness that permits solitary weekends of winter seclusion, the home meets a wide range of needs and provides tranquility amid a quiet piece of Martha’s Vineyard’s wilder reaches. Williams offers a conclusion in far simpler terms: “We’re thrilled with the way the house turned out for our entire family.”

Chris White is freelance writer who teaches English at Tabor Academy in Marion.

The post An Oasis in the Dunes appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Architect and designer add just the right touches to a coastal Sandwich cottage

Photograph by Charlie Utz

Crossing either the Sagamore or Bourne bridges from the mainland to Cape Cod induces instant decompression: shoulders drop, one’s breath deepens, and life’s pace adjusts to the rhythm of tides and sea breezes. Not content to leave the beach and boating world outside, many want it represented inside their homes. For some, this means dressing the house in shells, starfish, anchors, and ships’ wheels; for others it means establishing a palette of navy blues and crisp whites.

When Michele Chagnon-Holbrook moved to the Cape, she, too, wanted her home to reflect the seascape, but she preferred to go beyond a literal homage to her surroundings and instead have her spaces reflect its colors and evoke its textures. Not finding what she was looking for, this “business girl by training,” who had worked as a corporate executive in Boston, opened her own shop, Casabella Interiors, in 2011. Located on Route 6A in Sandwich, Casabella sells the kind of things Chagnon-Holbrook had wanted to find: fabrics and furnishings that contribute to what she calls a “sophisticated East Coast aesthetic,” a design approach based on a soft palette of greens, grays, blues, and creams and on coastal textures inspired by weathered docks, marsh grass, and ribbed shells. “The East Coast aesthetic,” she says, “is really about setting a mood. It’s about being light and breezy.”

It quickly became clear that Chagnon-Holbrook was not alone in searching for these things. Not only do customers come to Casabella to buy, they also stop in for her design help. One couple that paid her a visit had just replaced their beach shack in Sandwich with a shingle-style cottage designed by architect Joseph W. Dick of Yarmouthport, and they asked Chagnon-Holbrook to come take a look. Soon, she was helping them choose colors and outfit their home with window treatments, rugs, furniture, lighting, and accents.

Though her East Coast aesthetic means staying within a consistent palette and working with natural fabrics and textures, her “rule of thumb,” she says, “is never to use something twice. The colors may be the same, but the fabrics and artwork are not. What keeps me up at night is figuring out how to keep it fresh and new. You might see a beige sofa, but the pillows, rugs, and side table will be different.” Chagnon-Holbrook’s hunt for variations on this theme is intense, and she reveals that she will spend two weeks at a design show and leave with only a piece or two that has made the cut for her shop, where she sells everything under her private label.

Photograph by Charlie Utz

Just as Chagnon-Holbrook never repeats the same interior design, neither does Dick design the same house twice. Dick, who owns Joseph W. Dick Architecture Inc. with his wife, Michele A. Maykel, customizes home plans based on the environment and site restrictions, the light and views, and, of course, his clients’ desires and lifestyle. “All of that is data for putting a house together,” he says. “I want to see how clients do live, and I ask them, ‘How do you want to live?’”

In the case of this cottage, the original shack had first rested on a dune, but after a particularly fierce storm, it was lifted onto pilings. The new house was built on its footprint and grafted onto the original pilings, but it had to be lifted even higher. Though the owners wanted to take in all they could of the salt marsh views across the road and of the views of Cape Cod Bay on the ocean side, “They did not want to overwhelm the site,” Dick says, “or impose on neighbors.” The neighbors included wildlife. The couple, originally from Malta where trees and birds are scarce, was adamant about protecting an existing swallow’s nest on the property.

Human neighbors were also taken into account. Anticipating that his clients’ neighbors would at some point also replace their shack with a larger house, Dick designed the home so that it recedes to the side lot line, a plan which places the entry porch and staircase on the side of the nearest neighbor and so protects privacy while allowing the rest of the interior to expand toward the panoramic views.

One impulse in designing homes along the shore is to have walls of glass that offer immediate and comprehensive access to the views, but the impulse Dick followed with this shingle-style design was to frame the views and create a variety of discrete living spaces within an open floor plan. To maximize light, he borrowed it from unexpected places—drawing it down from the staircase shaft, bringing it in through a transom over kitchen cabinets, and taking it in through upper triangular windows in the master bedroom and through a pair of windows over the fireplace.

While Dick was ensuring that the home was bathed in light, to temper the strong summer sun and the glare from the sand, Chagnon-Holbrook dressed the windows in “soft floaty sheers and natural glass cloth shades.” These modifying elements give the cottage a “finished look,” the designer says, while seeming simultaneously to disappear. Calling a bit more attention to themselves are the interior light fixtures, which Chagnon-Holbrook describes as both “functional and art.” One fixture is shaped like a star, another a porthole. The frosted mercury glass fixture over the sand and rose granite island and those in the master bedroom recall the color of the sea on a dark, stormy day. Though in general the designer guides clients away from the ostentatious use of shells, preferring that they set one or two favorites on a coffee table as ornaments, the light fixture hanging in the enclosed porch is an amalgam of shells and sand; Chagnon-Holbrook says it’s a tasteful touch that bridges the sitting area and the beach just steps outside.

Photograph by Charlie Utz

An open floor plan like this comes with challenges for both architect and designer. The architect needs to delineate spaces, and one way Dick did so was by varying the ceilings. The entry porch has a hexagonal bead board ceiling, for instance, while the dining area is defined by a lattice bead board ceiling with recessed lighting. Flooring and rugs serve the same purpose, with the entry’s reclaimed heart pine flooring laid in a herring bone pattern to distinguish it from the floors of the living areas, and different area rugs are used to corral living and dining spaces.

Chagnon-Holbrook also focused on eye-level sightlines: “Open floor plans are the most difficult to design,” she says. “You have to blend pieces so they all flow, but they have to be a bit different. The way the house is designed, from anywhere on the first floor there is a view.” To ease the eye’s way around and through spaces, Chagnon-Holbrook kept the palette consistent, with textural and visual variation. Armchairs in stripes, striations, and geometric patterns complement sofas in solids. Twin sea grass ottomans serve as a coffee table on the enclosed porch, while the living room coffee table is finished in driftwood, as are the bamboo chairs in the entry. “When you are in the front porch area, you can see everything on the first floor,” she says, “so everything must work together;” that includes the artwork and the accent pillows. “The devil is in the details,” she adds. As proof, she points to the living room armchairs, which swivel to take in both marsh and ocean views, but because they can be seen from different angles, they each feature a decorative buckle on the back. “You have to watch the lines and ask, ‘Is this pretty from all sides?’”

While an open floor plan poses a certain challenge, working within a tight footprint poses another: the need to make efficient use of space. To that end, Dick tucked a powder room with an outdoor-type shower off the entry and designed built-ins, including bookshelves in the living room and twin closets that disappear into the wall in the master bedroom. “This house is like a ship,” says Dick, a longtime sailing enthusiast. “You have to take advantage of every nook and cranny.” Chagnon-Holbrook added storage in other thoughtful ways, such as placing a chest of drawers in the entry, which does not have a closet, and setting an armoire on the second floor landing. These pieces, along with a pair of marble-topped dressers in the master bedroom, like the light fixtures, serve both function and aesthetics.

Though interior space may be tight, there is no shortage of sitting areas from which to enjoy the views, inside and out. The front porch and entry provide views of the marsh as well as leeside protection from the wind, as does the terrace and window seat belonging to the second floor guest bedroom. First and second floor decks bring viewers closer to the seascape, as does a viewing area that interrupts the long path of stairs leading to the beach. When left open, an upstairs interior sitting area between the master and guest bedroom offers a bird’s eye view of the water across the deck, but when enclosed by a clever wraparound curtain, it becomes a private sanctuary.

And in the end, that is what this house is all about, offering sanctuary to its owners, who leave their busy lives in a Boston suburb behind to come to the Cape and immerse themselves in nature. The good news for those who do not own a home right on the shore is that Chagnon-Holbrook’s Eastern seaboard aesthetic translates well in many settings: “The coastal style doesn’t just lend itself to the Cape,” she says. “It could be a Mediterranean villa, tropical cottage, even a city apartment. It’s about being light and breezy with a palette drawn from sand and shells. The Cape palette is timeless.”

A resident of Barnstable village, Laurel Kornhiser is a former Cape Cod HOME editor and a frequent contributor. She is also an English professor at Quincy College.

The post Light & Breezy appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Viola Associates discusses the installation of an infinity pool in Barnstable

Photograph by Paige Biviano

Mike Tsotsis’s stunning property overlooking Sandy Neck Beach and Barnstable Harbor in Barnstable Village is a lovely spot to watch the sun lazily vanishing into the deep blue ocean. Complementing the natural beauty visible from the yard is an equally magnificent infinity-edge saltwater pool that appears to simply fade into that same horizon where the sun’s last rays disappear.

Infinity pools—also called vanishing-, negative-, zero-, or disappearing-edge pools–turn the whole pool into a mirror for the scenery beyond. The pools are a specialty of Hyannis-based Viola Associates, which designed and installed Tsotsis’s pool.

Since starting out as a small irrigation business in 1984, Viola Associates has blossomed into a well-known company that serves customers Cape-wide as well as on the Islands and the South Shore. Viola builds 40 to 50 pools a year, and owner John Viola estimates that high-end infinity pools represent about 80 percent of the company’s business.

In an infinity pool, the edge that mysteriously blends into the horizon is created by water spilling over that edge into a trough, where it is collected and recycled back into the main pool. It’s crucial that the stone veneers, which are on this negative edge of the pool where the water spills over, are installed properly. “You have to make sure the veneers are level so the water spills evenly,” Viola says. “One of the biggest issues with infinity pools is the water can seep in through the border on the stone veneers, so proper waterproofing is essential.”

Another key to successful infinity pool installations, Viola adds, is having the right ratio of cement to sand; otherwise the pool tends to degrade more quickly. If water penetrates that cement-sand mix, Viola says it will freeze and the pool edge may start to fall apart.

Photograph by Paige Biviano

The design of this pool was about a three-week process involving Tsotsis, Viola, and another member of the Viola team. “I worked pretty extensively with John and his team in order to draft a pool that would capture the views of the ocean and the landscaping that we were doing in the backyard area,” Tsotsis says. “They were fabulous to work with. They never rushed us, they were cooperative, and they came up with some great ideas.”

When it came to the installation, the foundation of the pool presented a challenge. “The ground itself wasn’t very suitable for us to build a pool on,” Viola says. “We had to get the area compacted properly because the site was a lot of clay, and it was difficult to get the support we needed. We had to have a structural engineer come in and do a soil sample before we could build a big retaining wall to support the pool shell.”

Viola says a strong focus on quality is especially important when it comes to installing luxurious infinity pools, which have been popping up more frequently in backyards across the Cape. “Everything we do is quality first,” he says. “We try and make sure our numbers come in fairly close so that we’re still competitive with other companies, but the focus is on building quality pools.”

Quality and attention to detail were paramount elements starting with the design of the home, by Nicholaeff Architecture & Design of Osterville.

The entire backyard project at Tsotsis’s home took about a year, while the pool installation itself took about eight weeks to complete. The rectangular pool is equipped with a saltwater generator, which still uses chlorine but tends to distribute the chemical more evenly than an all-chlorine pool, Viola says.

Completed in June 2013, the pool measures 18 feet by 36 feet and is surrounded by a beautiful, multi-level Venetian granite patio in a blonde color with subtle hints of pink. With a wealth of seating options, the patio is a popular gathering spot for Tsotsis’s family in summer. “It’s very soothing and comfortable for us,” he says. “In the summertime it’s a focal social area for our kids when they come to visit. We love the area and the pool.”

A detail-oriented customer, Tsotsis says he had a clear vision of how he wanted the pool to look, and Viola masterfully brought that vision to life. “The final project is beautiful,” Tsotsis says. “We couldn’t be happier.”

Viola also provides pool maintenance, including openings and closings, weekly servicing, equipment repairs, and rehabilitation of existing pools, as well as irrigation system repairs and maintenance and landscape lighting maintenance.

Tsotsis gives Viola’s service department high marks as well. “They’ve always been there when they’re supposed to be there and gotten the job done,” he says. “We’ve recommended them to many of our neighbors and friends.”

Learn more about the company at violaassociates.com.

Lillian Lowe is a freelance writer and a former editorial intern for Cape Cod Life Publications.

The post An edge on the competition appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

A preview of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival July 7-17

Imagine being able to peek behind fences and stroll though private gardens that are normally closed to the public. Envision flowerbeds in full bloom, vegetable gardens overflowing with organic produce, and mature landscapes that retain the best of “old Cape Cod.” Or, picture touring through creative combinations of plants, garden ornaments, and restful outdoor living spaces.

Cape Cod residents and visitors can enjoy these experiences and more during the second annual Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival in July. The festivities commence with a kickoff party on Thursday, July 7, and run though the final garden tours on Sunday, July 17. Organized under the umbrella of the Cape’s signature plant, the blue Hydrangea, the annual festival celebrates flowers and Cape gardens while benefiting local businesses and non-profits. This year more than 90 gardens will be open for public viewing across Cape Cod along with related exhibits and educational events.

Although blue Hydrangeas have given this festival their name and logo image, the private gardens on the tour contain an assortment of plants and garden styles. For example, strolling through George & Marcia Chapman’s garden in East Falmouth, visitors will see what two horticultural professionals have created with hundreds of different shrubs, perennials, and trees.

“Visitors who come to our gardens will discover a variety of densely planted areas that are linked by paths and archways,” Marcia Chapman says. “They  will see secluded garden spaces, vistas, and focal point plants.”

Several gardens on the tour will showcase ideas for working with specific situations. Marjorie Harvey’s garden in Mashpee is a wonderful example of how a small lot and a new landscape can be transformed quickly through the lush use of plants.

While Harvey established her charming gardens around a new house, Tilda Bystrom’s property in Chatham was planted years ago by the home’s previous owners, who worked at Heritage Museums and Gardens. Visitors to the Bystrom garden can see original Rhododendrons in restored and expanded beds, and learn how older, established plantings can be enhanced and refurbished.

Flowering perennials are the focus of another garden, which is designed and maintained by Jennifer Floyd of Crocker Nurseries in Brewster. “The Levis family’s Yarmouth Port garden is a woodland setting with a sweet cottage garden,” says Floyd. “It’s a fairly low-maintenance landscape with no lawn.”

Floyd describes this property as having a magical quality. “The cottage garden is a colorful array of tall garden Phlox, and perennials that flower summer to fall,” she says. “While working there I always feel that if fairies are real, they would live in this garden! Perhaps this is aided by the whimsical touches the owner has added. It’s truly a wooded oasis.”

Visitors to Bob King’s garden in Sandwich will have the opportunity to see a wide variety of flowers, vegetable plants, and more. “There’s a lot going on,” says King. “I have a garden that is much like an English cottage garden. It’s very crowded, eclectic, and colorful with many perennials, dahlias, and a great many annuals mixed in to provide summer-long color. There is a fairy garden, asparagus patch, raspberries, and a salad garden.”

John Sullivan’s garden in Dennisport also has full, exuberant flowerbeds; his are planted around beautiful ponds. “My gardens started by accident,” Sullivan recalls. “Our property was covered by large shade trees, but Hurricane Bob in 1991 changed all that. By the time the downed trees were cleared and stumps pulled, the yard looked like the dark side of the moon.”

A retired animation and drama teacher at Barnstable High School, Sullivan has an artist’s eye for color and years of experience designing impressive stage sets. So it’s not surprising that he didn’t skimp when creating a landscape at his home. “I started replanting around a newly placed tree,” he says, “but then I expanded the gardens to included five waterfalls, three koi ponds, and a triple-layered garden.”   

Jim Pelletier and Joel Hass’s garden in Barnstable will be of special interest to anyone who has a yard that has grown a bit too wild. Strolling through the garden, visitors can get ideas about what can be accomplished with a thorough cleanup. “We once had an area of our property that was unusable due to the poison ivy, heavy overgrowth, and 29 downed cedar trees,” Pelletier says. “But it is now another tremendous space that we can really enjoy. The special features I hope people experience are the raised vegetable and herb garden, and the islands of cedar trees.”

In contrast to the Pelletier/Hass garden where the land has been developed fairly recently, Steve and Susan Dewey are opening a garden that has been affectionately cared for by four generations. “People always enjoy the fact that our property has been in my husband’s family for almost 100 years,” says Susan, a landscape designer who recently retired from a long career as an editor at Cape Cod Life Publications. “Visitors will see specimens that were planted by Steve’s great grandmother.”

“Our house in Centerville was built in 1736,” Susan adds, “and it’s surrounded by old farmland and surprisingly fertile soil. People will also enjoy the vegetables in our hoop house. We will be on hand to share information about how to grow fresh produce all year round in a structure heated by solar power.”

Those interested in both gardens and art will have multiple opportunities on the tour to savor the mix of sculpture and plants. From the ornate, white birdhouses in Helen McVeigh and Bobby Hallstein’s Yarmouth Port gardens, to the giant dragonfly perched on a tree house in Willow Shire and Jaime daLomba’s Eastham property, creativity abounds.

Entry to each garden costs $5, and the funds will go directly to a wide variety of Cape Cod non-profits. While some of the gardens on the tour have been planted and maintained by professional landscapers, others have been completed solely by the homeowners.

“I’m proud to say that my garden represents the years of work done by a man and his shovel,” Bob King says. “What I love most about my garden is that in spite of the fact that we’re in the middle of the densely populated Sandwich Village, my garden is very private, and something of a hidden oasis.”

One could argue that all of the 90-plus gardens on the hydrangea festival tour are hidden treasures. During the 10-day festival, these normally concealed havens are available for all to experience.

Hydrangea festival—some upcoming events

July 7
KICKOFF PARTY

The Cape Cod Hydrangea Festival kickoff party will be held Thursday, July 7, at Cape Cod Beer’s headquarters, 1336 Phinneys Lane, Hyannis. The event runs from 6-8 p.m. Attendees can view garden-to-vase arrangements, visit the cash bar, and purchase garden tour tickets directly from various non-profits.

July 8
HYDRANGEA UNIVERSITY

On Friday, July 8, the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society hosts a morning of talks about Cape Cod’s signature plants. The event features a morning coffee and continental breakfast, three speakers, and informative handouts. The event is held at Barnstable High School’s Knight Auditorium, from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. Tickets should be purchased in advance at capecodhydrangeasociety.org.

July 8–July 17
GARDEN TOURS

Tour more than 90 gardens across the Cape Cod peninsula, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Addresses and descriptions for open gardens will be posted the week before the festival at capecodhydrangeafest.com.

July 8–July 17
HERITAGE MUSEUMS & GARDENS WALKING TOURS

Heritage Museums and Gardens in Sandwich hosts daily 30-minute walking tours of its hydrangea gardens, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., during the festival. The tours are free with museum admission.

July 12
COLONIAL GARDEN TEA AT APTUCXET MUSEUM

The Bourne Historical Society hosts a Colonial Garden Tea Tuesday, July 12, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Aptucxet Trading Post Museum, 24 Aptucxet Road, Bourne. Attendees can tour the gardens on site and learn about gardens of the Colonial era. Admission is $5.

July 16
HYDRANGEATALK & BOOK–SIGNING

Joan Harrison, the founding president of the Cape Cod Hydrangea Society, will give a talk on her book The Colorful World of Hydrangeas on Saturday, July 16, at 10 a.m., at Soares Flower Garden Nursery, 1021 Sandwich Road, East Falmouth. The author has traveled to England, Wales, France and Ireland to view and photograph these beautiful flowers. A book-signing session follows the free talk.

July 16
FLOWER BOOK TALK

Writer C.L. Fornari—the author of this Cape Cod HOME article—will give a talk about her latest book, The Cocktail Hour Garden, Saturday, July 16, from 5-6:30 p.m., at Hyannis Country Garden, 380 West Main Street, Hyannis. The event features a wine tasting and book-signing reception in the store’s Hydrangea Evening garden display.

More events can be found at capecodhydrangeafest.com.

The post This is going to be a colorful celebration appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.

Hutker Architects discusses the design inspirations behind this Falmouth boathouse.

Photograph by Dan Cutrona

If a house can be a playground—a vacation retreat where family comes together and never wants to leave—then that’s the perfect term to describe this boathouse in Falmouth.

For the husband and wife who own the home, and their three adult daughters and five grandchildren, the boathouse is the perfect spot to enjoy some quality family time. “It’s the house where everybody goes to relax,” the homeowner says, “and to relax together.” The property also provides the family direct access to their dock and boat.

The waterfront home—a staggered 3,000-square-foot, dogtrot gabled cottage—is unique in its structural design, which features two distinct sides.

Charles Orr, who served as the principal on the project for Hutker Architects Inc., describes the unique layout—and the reasons behind the design. “The strategy of the house is directly related to having these two functions,” Orr says, which include a pool house for the family to congregate and an apartment space where the caretaker lives. “We had to take advantage of the fact that the site is long and narrow, so that sets up these two long gables that relate directly to the space we had to use.”

Orr collaborated on the project with Mark Hutker, founder of Hutker Architects Inc., on the design of the project, along with their colleagues Kevin Dauphinais and Erin Levin. Gary Souza of Rogers & Marney Inc. of Osterville served as builder on the project, and Elaine Peretz of New York City was the interior designer. The project took a total of 14 months to complete.

At the start of the project, Orr and his team first needed to address the build-site conditions, including the home’s proximity to the water and the property’s location within a floodplain. “This entire building had to be lifted up five feet off the ground, so there were particular challenges with the mechanical systems and the structural systems,” Orr explains. The home had to be elevated above the flood plain so that structurally, mechanically, and electrically it was in tact above that line. “We had to be very careful and conscious of the shrubs,” he adds, “and sensitive of the water being at that proximity.”

In the end, the higher elevation worked to the homeowners’ benefit, as it provides them with a perch overlooking the serene waterfront surrounding. “We framed this wonderful view out to the water,” Orr says, “so when you first come up to the property, you look right through the house.” The breezeway, complete with an attractive pergola, makes this possible.

This design style allowed Orr and his team to play with the idea of a traditional entryway and layout of a home, while offering a unique way to experience the boathouse and accentuate the division between its two gables. “Our idea here was instead of coming up to a front door, we would lead you through the property,” Orr explains. “You can’t help but be compelled to walk between these gabled structures, to the light that is coming from the back side—and to that view.”

Doors leading to the caretaker’s quarters and the family’s living space are located off of the breezeway, which ultimately leads to a terrace overlooking the rear of the property. Just off the terrace, a semi-recessed infinity pool and spa add to the comfort of the home and also look out over the water. Orr describes a unique detail. “The pool, although it looks like it is submerged, is in fact five feet out of the ground and a couple feet into the ground,” he says.

The terrace, which also features a pergola to help with shade, runs along the entire rear of the home. Down a few stairs, the terrace continues and features a firepit and some cozy furniture. Because this section is at a slightly lower elevation, the view from the living room is not obstructed. “The focus was to get the living room out onto the edge of the terrace and wrap it in glass so that when you’re sitting in that living room, you are exposed on three sides to the view,” Orr says.

Photograph by Dan Cutrona

Inside the family’s side of the home, there is an open-concept living room, a dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor. The homeowner says the interior was designed to reflect the home’s Cape Cod surroundings. “We wanted to bring the outdoors in and have the interior feel beach-y, Cape-y, and casual,” she says. White bead board accents and soft cream paint tones help achieve this look, as does the light which streams in from the room’s many windows.

“These long gables afford us light exposure on many sides,” Orr says. “We try, in all of our living spaces, to have multiple exposures to the sunlight. We’re focused on the path of the sun and how that light penetrates, because we can take advantage of how the path of the sun can change your experience in each of your rooms, depending on what time of day it is.”

There are bedrooms on the second floor of both sides of the home, with a bedroom suite on the family’s side, complete with its own bathroom and roof deck that boasts a commanding view of the water. The room is mainly used as an office space for the homeowners’ adult children and their spouses. A Murphy bed is built into the wall facing the view and can be pulled out when the room is used as a guest suite.

The caretaker’s quarters on the second floor, which are accessed by a separate staircase leading from the breezeway, include a kitchenette, a bedroom and bathroom, and a small living room that looks out over the pool. The kitchenette is located directly above the breezeway. Below the caretaker’s living space is a well-stocked gym, which opens out to the terrace and pool, and a single-car garage.

Just as the boathouse’s entryway is untraditional, so too is the driveway. “What we have there is Grasscrete, or a structural lawn, that’s basically a driveway that is hidden so that you’re not looking at paving in the front of this house,” Orr says. “The cars can drive right on the lawn and into the garage.” Grasscrete, produced by British company, Grass Concrete Ltd., is cast-on-site concrete that, in this case, is covered with grass.

“It functions as a driveway, but it’s actually a very large play area,” the homeowner says. “I can remember when my grandson first got down to the house, and he looked over at the yard and said, ‘Can I go play in the playground now?’ That’s really the look that we had wanted. It’s flat, it’s big, and it’s an area where the kids could do just about anything they wanted to do.”

For the homeowner, watching her grandchildren play for hours at the boathouse and seeing her family come together has made the family’s time on Cape Cod all the more enjoyable. “Having this boathouse really finished off that corner of our property to give us all of the things that we could possibly need in that location,” she says, “which we all love. It has just made a world of difference.”

Looking back on the work that went into the project, the homeowner gave the architects top marks across the board. “Mark Hutker and Charles Orr were just so easy to work with,” she says. “They have good ideas, and they’re able to listen to your ideas to accommodate what you want.” Orr adds that the owners of the property were smart, open-minded, and a joy to work with. And there’s another little detail about this home that Orr says stands out: the beautiful waterfront setting. “It’s a spectacular spot.”

The following businesses were involved in building the home featured in this article.

Hutker Architects Inc.
533 Palmer Avenue, Falmouth
508-540-0048 • hutkerarchitects.com

Rogers & Marney Inc.
445 Osterville West Barnstable Road, Osterville
508-428-6106 • rogersandmarneybuilders.com

EILEEN PERETZ INTERIORS, INC.
800 Fifth Avenue, New York
212-486-0878 • epidesign.com

HORIUCHI & SOLIEN LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS
200 Main Street #202, Falmouth
508-540-5320

Haley Cote is the staff writer for Cape Cod Life Publications.

The post Form, Function & a Whole Lot of Fun appeared first on Cape Cod LIFE.