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t’s a paradox: one of the most outstanding things about this house on Martha’s Vineyard is the way it doesn’t stand out. And that’s just how the couple who summer here with their two young children wanted it. “A lot of homes around here seem to call out for your attention,” says Mark Hutker, of Hutker Architects in Falmouth, Massachusetts, who renovated the 5,600-square-foot house. “But our clients wanted to be in the landscape, and not stand out from it. The main thing for them was the connection with the land and to the views.” Those views—of Farm Neck Golf Club, Sengekontacket Pond and the Atlantic Ocean—were easy to miss from much of the property before the renovation. “There were lots of windows in
many different places,” says the wife, “but not where you could enjoy the view.” When she and her husband decided to build a pool and a guest house five years after they bought the place, they realized that it was a perfect opportunity to overhaul the main house and landscaping as well, and to better integrate the home into its surroundings. Hutker and project designer Greg Ehrman began by re-jiggering the floor plan for more space and better flow and simplifying the roofline for a more graceful profile. “One of the first decisions we made,” says Ehrman, “was to leave the trim around the upper-story windows unpainted. The cedar is turning silver over time, almost matching the color of the surrounding trees. So
74 New England Home July–August 2013
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