New Homes Portfolio

• Cornerstone Award: 2006 Silver Award for Specialty Outbuildings
• Cornerstone Award: 2006 Silver Award for New Construction — Kitchen

Besides the large cupola and the timber frame details, this classic three-bay barn has traditional sliding doors in the center bay and the flanking overhead doors have the look of old-fashioned sliding doors.

The exterior of the foundation is faced with cut New Hampshire granite for a classic appearance. Inside, the eastern white pine timber frame utilizes traditional joinery and showcases the pine board roof and wall sheathing. There are two large, open bays and one enclosed, heated workshop bay with a storage loft above.

The guest house wing is designed with the farmhouse look. It features many traditional details such as wide plank pine floors finished with tung oil, handcrafted beaded paneling and wainscoting, crown ceiling moldings, custom cabinets and built-ins, and granite and marble countertops.

Since these clients are not going to retire for several years, they decided to build a classic three-bay barn with an attached guest house on their new property first. The wife is a dedicated master gardener and asked us to design a small detached "garden house" for her. The result is a 288 square foot timber framed studio located on a knoll about five hundred feet from the guest house.

The exterior of the foundation is faced with cut New Hampshire granite for a classic appearance. The interior is flooded with natural light from the many windows. The eastern white pine timber frame utilizes traditional joinery and showcases the pine board roof and wall sheathing. Although the studio is not heated, there is water available in the summer to supply the hand-crafted granite sink and the exterior hydrant. Eventually, we expect to return and see lush gardens surrounding the "garden house".

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Bronze Award for New Construction — Single Family

The owners were able to procure a large piece of land with a fantastic view of the valley in front and Mount Kearsarge beyond. The best site for the house was about in the middle of the property, which is great for privacy, but made for a very long driveway and a lot of blasting for the underground utilities.

The owners had a definite vision for the house. Actually not a house, but a "lodge" with rustic finishes and rough timbers throughout. Although the 6,060 square foot house has a rustic feeling, the amenities are anything but rustic. The kitchen is fully equipped with Sub-Zero and Wolf appliances, limestone counters and distressed painted cabinets. The whole house entertainment system includes a mammoth wide-screen TV and surround sound in the media room. The high, timbered ceiling and huge stone fireplace create a special ambience in the great room. The hot tub and special spaces such as the office, sewing room and study all combine to make this an enjoyable home to live in.

A special touch that the owners love are the pebbles that they gathered at their other home on the shore of Martha's Vineyard. They artfully incorporated the pebbles into the tile work of the master bath floor, backsplashes and shower walls.

• Cornerstone Award: 2005 Best Of Show!
• Cornerstone Award: 2005 Gold Award: New Construction — Single Family

When this couple purchased a small cottage located on a very steep lakeside slope of Lake Sunapee, they selected our company to help solve the multitude of issues inherent with such difficult sites. The desire was to increase living and parking space on a steep 0.13 acre lot with poor drainage and that was almost completely zoning non-compliant.

The existing cottage had about 900 square feet of living space inside. We had to design and build a new home in the "grandfathered" footprint that would have more living space and solve the problems of access, drainage and include a new septic system and well. The finished home offers almost 3,600 square feet of living, a one bay garage, two outside decks and a patio while expanding the actual footprint by only 437 square feet.

A magnificent Lake Sunapee view draws one into an efficiently laid out kitchen, dining and living area. The lakeside features full-length decks on two levels that have timber-framed undercarriages. The use of different sidings, decks and a large pent roof overhang break up the visual height of the lake side elevation.

The result is a beautiful new home on a site that is more environmentally sound than ever with improved access, more living space and only a minimal expansion to the footprint.

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Silver Award for New Construction — Single Family
• Featured in the Winter 2004 issue of Luxury Log Home and Timber Frame magazine.

The Faccone Carriage House is an interesting project mainly because it was designed to be a carriage house that not only housed four antique cars, but also a very small, very modern homemade helicopter. The second floor houses a nicely detailed guest suite, complete with full kitchen facilities. The guest suite is approximately 1410 sq. ft. of living space and features a sheltered balcony with exceptional views of the village below, and mountains and valleys beyond. The architectural style of the carriage house reflects a similar style already presented by the main house.

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Bronze Award for New Construction — Single Family

The owners were able to buy one of the last lots with water frontage on Eastman Pond. Want to guess why it was still available? It was "unbuildable"!! At least that was my assessment as I gazed down the precipice that started mere feet off of the road right-of-way. There was no space to put a house, much less a driveway and turn-around area, and there were huge ledge outcroppings and a drainage swale on one side with running water that I was afraid would be classified as a stream! Despite the misgivings that I did share (diplomatically) with the owner, they were delirious with joy about the new house that they envisioned and urged me on.

After a long and arduous process, we were able to overcome the design obstacles presented by the topography. The frostwall under the walk-out level ended up being sixteen feet high to make up for the drop-off. The zoning issues, conservation commission, association board and their own conservation commission, and the state Wetlands Board were all other obstacles that needed to be overcome. And they were.

Through it all, the owners were wonderful. This great home is as much due to their unflagging optimism as it is to our patient project manager, our talented trade partners and an interior designer that really pulled all of the elements together at the end. The interior features include "tray" ceilings, a wonderful curved staircase, a stained and glazed concrete family room floor, and the wine cellar — of course!

• Cornerstone Award: 2007 Silver Award for New Construction — Single Family

This couple's impending retirement compelled them to sell their Massachusetts house and build a full time home in place of a one level "camp" on Lake Sunapee that had been in the family since the 1950s. The existing camp sat close to the lake on a small very oddly shaped lot. Neighboring homes are situated very close to the property lines; however mature vegetation creates a natural buffer that provides a sense of privacy.

The new house needed to be much larger. Space and storage was required to consolidate furniture and possessions from two homes. They required several bedrooms for visiting family and a two car garage with workshop space. It is designed with an angle to allow expansion within the setbacks while utilizing the entire grandfathered footprint. It also features a floor plan oriented to offer lake views from most of the living space. The lakeside elevation has an octagon screen porch, a patio and open deck with a hot tub. A large family room takes advantage of the space over the garage.

The project succeeded in converting a 650 sq ft camp into a 4,200 sq ft home with minimal impact to its surroundings and the owner's are pleased with the results!

• Cornerstone Awards: 2004 Best Of Show!
• Cornerstone Awards: 2004 Gold Award for New Construction — Single Family
• Cornerstone Awards: 2004 Gold Award for New Construction — Kitchen
• CWP 2004 Design Excellence Award
• Featured in the premier (September 2003) edition of Canadian Log Home & Timber Frame Living magazine.
• Kitchen was featured in the Timber Frame Homes 2004 Annual Buyer's Guide.
• Featured in the Timber Frame Homes 2005 Annual Buyer's Guide.

The view is spectacular, extending all the way to Mount Ascutney in Vermont. But the owners named their house in Sunapee "Harbor Haven" because it is located on a hillside overlooking Sunapee Harbor, but removed enough from the hustle and bustle to afford total privacy.

This Shingle style home pays homage to the great, old lake houses that used to line the shore of Lake Sunapee. The exterior shingle siding is meant to mimic the color of tree bark and allow the house to recede into the hillside rather than stand out. There are numerous interior details that evoke earlier times such as the custom oak entrance door, the "bead board" paneling in several bathrooms and the mudroom, the painted brick fireplace in the "sitting nook" and the beaded window and door casing with bulls eye corner blocks. The four-panel knotty pine doors and bronze hardware continues the theme.

The 3,900 square foot home is a pine timber frame enclosed with structural insulated panels and ventilated with an air-to-air heat exchanger. The owners have remarked that even with fifty-five mile an hour winds buffeting the house, it is incredibly tight. In addition to being very energy efficient, this home features a whole house entertainment system with speakers and volume controls even on the deck and patio. It is also wired for the "future" with Cat 5 and coaxial cable run from each room to a hub in the utility room.

• Cornerstone Award: 2004 Bronze Award for New Construction — Single Family
• Featured in the October 2004 issue of Timber Home Illustrated.

When the owners approached us they were considering a remodel job to an existing garage to create a guest cottage that would compliment their recently constructed main house. They had a very specific vision for the exterior look and wanted to maximize space on the interior. They also wanted the interior to have slight rustic look featuring exposed wood beams.

The solution we proposed was to demolish the old building and build a timber frame and SIP (structural insulated panels) structure on top of the existing foundation. The result is a 1,700 square foot cottage that, despite its small footprint, serves nicely as a three bedroom, two-bathroom home. The upper floor has two voluminous bedrooms; a sitting area and shared bathroom thanks to the timber frame structures cathedral ceilings.

The main floor provides another bed and bath, laundry area living, dining and small kitchen. The lowest level, which is not directly connected to the living space, serves the owners' needs for storage with three full garage bays.

• Cornerstone Award: 2006 Bronze Award for New Construction — Single Family

These clients were able to find a vacant piece of land on Lake Sunapee — No small feat these days! The house that we designed incorporates traditional details that pay homage to the great, old lake houses that used to line the shore of Lake Sunapee. The main floor great room area has hickory floors and a large fieldstone fireplace. The mission-inspired staircase complements the wet bar area and well as the kitchen cabinets. There is a study and guest bedroom suite on the main floor as well. Moldings, wainscoting and other details are found throughout the home.

The second floor has four bedrooms and a sitting area in addition to the master suite. Notice that all of the living areas and most of the bedrooms have great lake views and the master bedroom and the sitting area have balconies on the lake side. Taking advantage of the slope of the lot, we were able to include a generous walk-out level with a large family room and room for a pool table.

The collective experiences of extensive international travel and many years of living in South America were the guiding influences in designing and building of this client's gracious home.

The home site sits approximately 200 vertical feet above the Lake Sunapee and looks out over the lake and surrounding mountains. The very first thing we all agreed on was that on the view side of the house there would be a spacious stone/brick patio that would totally capitalize on this view and allow our clients to immerse themselves in the panorama.

The patio idea was easy, however designing the home proved to be quite different. The challenge was not only to design a home with an international style but also a home that would gracefully accommodate a cherished collection of eclectic furniture and art. After examining the options, we finally agreed on an architectural style that seemed most appropriate. The style of choice was to be "Victorian Country Revival", and with that theme in mind we proceeded to explore the realization of their visions.

These folks were the quintessential "hands on" clients. Both of them took a very active role in each and every decision. No matter how small or seemingly insignificant, every selection was thoroughly examined and patiently considered. This process required time, a lot of time, almost two years of it. However, in the end, their patience and diligence was justly rewarded. The clients are extremely pleased with their efforts, their home and our design/build approach.

• Cornerstone Award: 2007 Silver Award for New Construction — Single Family

The challenge of this project was to find a way to create new living space within very tight setbacks on a small, steep lot. The property was already home to a boathouse with a living room and two bedrooms, but shoreline restrictions prevented any thoughts of expanding that space. Instead we were granted a zoning exception allowing reduction of the street setback. That provided a small area directly in back of the boathouse to build a 2½ story timber frame home.

The steepness of the site was embraced by the design of the structure, creating high ceilings in the lower level family room. Doing so also provided a safe transition from the street level entry to the walkway leading to the boat house. The height of the structure allowed for views of the lake over the top of the boathouse. The exterior features several decorative elements designed to break up the imposing wall heights.

As the new building approached completion it began to outshine the existing boathouse, so the homeowner asked us to design improvements to be added to existing boathouse so that it would relate to the new building. The landscape was finished with hand-laid walls to hide concrete retaining walls.

The interior features the warmth and character inherent with timber frame construction. An open floor plan and generous fenestration make the home feel much larger than it actually is. The final result is a new home and old boathouse that look like they were built together and blend in with the eclectic traditional architecture of Lake Sunapee.

The owners purchased this lakefront lot for two reasons. First, it is located near a very nice private golf course. More importantly, it included a very large boathouse, perhaps the largest on Lake Sunapee. The old boathouse had been clad in T1-11 plywood at some point and painted white. Located on the broad part of the lake, the large white "box" actually functioned as a navigational landmark — You just couldn't miss it!

Replacing the boathouse presented the owner with a huge opportunity. The structure had to be rebuilt in exactly the same footprint and height, but we could totally change the way it looked. We were able to obtain a photograph of the old boathouse from the early 50's and were shocked to see that it had once been completely open on the upper level with great Adirondack detailing. We resolved to restore that wonderful look in the new boathouse. As you can see, the boathouse is no longer the "navigational aid" that is once was, but owner is overjoyed with his new boathouse.

• Cornerstone Award: 2005 Gold Award for New Construction — Single Family
• Featured in the July 2005 issue of Timber Home Living.
• Featured in the January 2006 issue of New Hampshire Magazine.

Rare is the opportunity when one is given complete freedom to design whatever he or she wished. Such was the case with this lake house. Consumed by the building of a new home in Arizona, our clients placed their complete trust in Northcape Design/Build to design and build their new home on Lake Sunapee, in New Hampshire.

This hidden treasure sits quietly on the west shore of Lake Sunapee. It offers quiet summer privacy with easy access to the lake and protected views of the surrounding mountains. The spacious timber frame interior encompasses three bedrooms, a large master bedroom suite, full kitchen with walk in pantry, formal dining room, and great room complete with wet bar and massive stone fireplace. The lower floor offers a guest bedroom suite, an exercise room, and a large family room augmented by a wet bar and home theater.