Nest — Spring 2019

home design real estate

SPRING 2019

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Old North End home rebuilt from ground up

Vermonters conserve lands for the future

Teri Maher Interiors designs with light

Champlain College students dig downtown living

Marie Kondo inspires a joyful purging

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Meantime, we’re scaling back excess stuff, per the joy-seeking guidelines of tidying diva Marie Kondo. In this issue, we also find inspiration in an interior designer who loves light, a DIY-er who took an old Burlington home down to studs and back to glory, and generous Vermonters who’ve conserved their lands for future generations. Oh, and we check out the new downtown digs of Champlain College students and feel a twinge of envy. Happy spring!

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Old Meets New ......................... 6

A DIY couple transforms a Burlington house into their dream home

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14 Teri Maher Interiors designs with light

18 Champlain College students dig downtown living

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Old

Meets

New

A DIY couple transforms a Burlington house into their dream home B Y E LIZ A BET H M. SEYLE R

Locals who’ve frequented Burlington’s Champlain Club in recent years have witnessed dramatic changes in the house across the street. For many months, 19 Crowley Street in the city’s Old North End sat empty, dark and quiet. Then, in early 2013, someone bought the two-story, 820-squarefoot house, gutted it and began to renovate it from the ground up.

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PHOTOS: OLIVER PARINI

At first, the structure was reduced to framing that hovered over a newly dug foundation.

Then a basement wall materialized; a shingle roof was installed; new windows went in. Over four years, visitors and residents on the street watched the century-old structure slowly morph into a contemporary, energy-efficient home.

In November 2017, children’s toys began to appear on the front porch, interior lights went on every night, and vehicles came and went from the driveway. Clearly, the owners had finally moved in.

Intrigued by the building’s evolution, a reporter left a note in the mailbox, hoping for a glimpse inside. Soon thereafter, Graham and Cayenne MacHarg welcomed Nest; ensconced in their dream home, the thirtysomethings were pleased and proud to show it and share their story.

“We had a vision of what we wanted in a house,” said Cayenne. “Everything would be new and small and manageable, not high maintenance.”

Above: The renovated kitchen at the home of Graham and Cayenne MacHarg Opposite page: The open-concept first floor

HO ME T O UR

After the MacHargs purchased the structure, it appeared they had done things “a little bit backwards,” she noted, “because we took on an enormous and very time-consuming project.” But, Cayenne added, “This was what we wanted. This was what we were trying to get to.”

Gorgeous Vermont maple flooring extends the length of the open first level, from the living room through the dining room and into the kitchen.

Sun streams in from all sides, washing the light-colored walls and comfortable furniture in a welcoming glow.

A handcrafted iron chandelier and wall sconces add touches of rich, dark color.

On a bitterly cold February day, the homeowners were clad in T-shirts inside their snug, warm home. That comfort was hard-won.

“Graham did most of the work himself on weekends,” said Cayenne. “I picked

out furniture and fixtures and helped with insulation.”

Born in California but raised primarily in Charlotte, Cayenne is a part-time bookkeeper at Reconciled in Burlington and a full-time mom to the couple’s boys, ages 7, 4 and 1.

Graham, born and raised in Hinesburg, “grew up building with my dad,” he said, and then worked as a carpenter for Classic Home. He credited owner Justin Wygmans with teaching

him “how to build a house from start to finish — energy-efficient houses that people can actually afford.”

Now a project manager at Church Hill Landscapes in Charlotte, Graham loves the freedom his finished house provides.

“On the weekends, we can do fun things as a family rather than spend all day Saturday fixing something,” he said.

The couple was house-sitting in Charlotte in 2011 when they decided to invest in the Queen City. Faced with high real estate prices and a limited budget, they purchased 19 Crowley for $135,000, calculating that, even with the cost of renovations, it would be a good investment. One of 12 houses on a small, residential cul-de-sac, it’s close to schools and downtown. And should the couple want to take up swing or tango, the Champlain Club hosts events open to the public on a regular basis.

Their house, which had been home to a family of seven for approximately 50 years, was clean and well maintained when they discovered it. “As far as old houses go, it was in completely livable condition, but it needed that big overhaul of the century,” said Cayenne.

With savings in the bank and lowinterest loans from family members (which, they emphasize, they’ve since paid back in full), the MacHargs dug into the first phase: demolition. Graham took off the exterior porch and mudroom, then removed heavy, artificial-stone siding, as well as the original wooden clapboards beneath. He tore out walls — made of Sheetrock layered over lathe and plaster — that had made rooms small.

“The amount of stuff we took out was dump trailer after dump trailer,” Graham said.

OLD MEETS NEW

» P.8

PHASES OF 19 CROWLEY RENOVATION

MARCH 2013 When purchased, the circa-1913 house had concrete siding and an enclosed porch. A chain-link fence ran the border of its property.

AUGUST 2014 The house is stripped back to the frame and jacked up to allow work on the basement foundation.

JULY 2015 The house is completely reframed and has new windows and doors. Exterior insulation is done. Trim is going on, and the house is nearly ready for siding.

SEPTEMBER 2017 The house is complete but for some carpentry projects.

PHOTOS COURTESY OF GRAHAM MACHARG

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But as he uncovered the house’s history, his appreciation for the previous owners grew. “They had made very practical decisions,” Graham noted. “The concrete fake stone siding would’ve lasted forever. It didn’t need any painting. It’s a very old-time Vermont thing.

You might sacrifice a little aesthetic, but it’s practical and functional and not too expensive.”

The most unexpected project and expense was the basement. Previous owners had dug out areas of the 3-foothigh crawl space to create 6-foot-high areas for walking and washing machine installation. A brick buttress system had been constructed in dug areas to shore up the original stone foundation — but it wasn’t foolproof.

“I was working to get the house more level and shimming it up, and one day a whole section of the original basement wall caved in,” said Graham. Supported by a jack and a metal I-beam, the house didn’t topple, but he decided to demo the whole front basement wall and rebuild it.

IT NEEDED THAT

BIG OVERHAUL OF THE CENTURY.

C AYE NNE M A C H A R G

Once the basement was complete, Graham removed and rebuilt all of the floors and walls.

The wide stair treads to the second floor add grace and whimsy to the home. They’re made of ambrosia maple, which is striped naturally with gray streaks created by the fungus of a burrowing beetle. Walking up the stairs evokes hiking over tree roots or crossing pebbled streams.

Indeed, the couple’s children have turned the stairs into a playground.

“They love the fact that the stair railings aren’t in yet, so they can jump off the fourth step into the living room,” said Graham.

The second floor was redesigned to make the bathroom more functional and the two bedrooms slightly larger.

Cathedral ceilings make the upstairs feel even more spacious, drawing one’s eye up to collar ties made of

the house’s old floor joists. Originally designed for storage, a loft above the bathroom has become a sleepover spot for the boys, who access it from the top of their bunk bed.

The couple went to great lengths to properly insulate and seal the house.

Graham extended the original 2-by-3inch exterior wall studs to full two-byfours to create more room for insulation, and he attached and taped 2.5-inch foam insulation on the exterior before installing clapboard siding. Inside, the couple filled the Sheetrock walls with cellulose; they insulated roof rafters in a similar manner.

“You want 20 in the basement, 40 in the walls, 60 in the ceiling,” said Graham of ideal insulation R-values, or thermal resistance values. “I don’t think I quite got to 60, and the walls are really only 25 to 30, and there’s not much in the basement yet. But I counted on really good air sealing.”

To ensure proper airflow in the living space, Graham installed a good bathroom fan, “the poor man’s way of doing it,” he said. To deter moisture buildup in the roof, he built a 3/4-inch soffit-vented space between the rafter foam and the roof deck.

The payoff for all that work is a home heated and cooled comfortably with electric heat pumps: one downstairs and one in each bedroom.

“Most Vermont houses with a heat pump also have another, less-efficient source of heat,” said Cayenne. “The layout of our house, combined with our insulation, made heat pumps doable.”

Whether it’s 5 degrees below zero or 95 and humid, she added, “It stays just a constant, perfect 67 degrees inside.”

The couple’s electric bill is $200 to $250 per month in the winter and about $100 in the summer. They expect the winter bill to decrease when the basement is fully insulated and an electric space heater is no longer needed. Their gas bill — for hot water and cooking — is about $25 a month.

The MacHargs estimated that the renovation cost $100,000, not including labor. Cayenne noted that the exact number was hard to determine because they invested in some equipment. “But we know how much we borrowed from our families,” Graham piped in with a laugh.

Family contributed far more than loans, which came primarily from Cayenne’s uncle. Graham’s father helped rough in the plumbing and electrical work and install the kitchen.

OLIVER PARINI

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Cayenne’s father landscaped the backyard with evergreens, lilac and forsythia. And from 2015 through most of 2017, the couple and their children lived in a house owned by Cayenne’s father on Dodds Court in Burlington.

They had thought the Crowley project would take two years, but “We weren’t even close by the time we had to move out of Charlotte,” said Graham.

“Graham did all this work, but we couldn’t have done it if we weren’t given the opportunity by our families,” Cayenne added.

Neighbors and friends helped, too. Some loaned equipment, offered encouragement or turned a blind eye

to the half-finished house. “Can you imagine living next to this for four years?” exclaimed Graham. Others in the trade installed tile and did masonry work. The couple got leads on everything from a free sink to alternative uses for construction debris.

As the MacHargs contemplate someday enlarging the house with an addition, they’re pretty sure they’ll hire someone else to build it. Working on their home with a team of supporters “was a really awesome experience,” said Cayenne, “but we don’t need to do it again.” m

Contact: elizabeth@sevendaysvt.com Untitled-53 1

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GLENN RUSSELL

To Conserve and

Protect Vermont Land Trust takes on new significance in the age of global warming B Y K E N PI CA RD

Above: Meg Handler and David Kaminsky in their Hinesburg home

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When Meg Handler and her husband, David Kaminsky, purchased 121 acres of woodlands in Underhill two years ago, they would have been hard-pressed to find a more scenic and untrammeled piece of real estate of its size in Chittenden County. The land, which abuts a state forest on the western slope of Mount Mansfield, features large stands of beech trees as well as a brook with natural pools and small waterfalls.

But Handler, a Realtor with Coldwell Banker Hickok & Boardman Realty in Burlington, said they didn’t buy the property to log it, farm it, subdivide it or live on it themselves. Instead, the Hinesburg couple made an investment in the land’s intrinsic ecological value: as a piece of a larger block of undeveloped forestland that is critical wildlife habitat and vital to clean water downstream.

“I am very concerned about water quality in Vermont,” Handler explained in a recent interview. “The more construction that happens at the top of the stream, the more it degrades the water quality as it moves downhill.”

Handler and Kaminsky gladly gave up their right to develop the land in the future by donating a conservation easement to the Vermont Land Trust, one of the country’s oldest and largest land conservation groups. Now in its 43rd year, the VLT has helped protect nearly 700,000 acres of land in the Green Mountain State, the majority of which is privately owned. Its goal is simple: to conserve land for future generations.

Much of that land remains accessible to the public as town forests, public trails, community swimming holes or other recreational areas. Even if Vermonters are unfamiliar with the VLT, there’s a good chance they’ve visited open spaces it has helped to protect, such as Shelburne Farms, Centennial Woods in Burlington and South Burlington, Snake Mountain Trail in Addison, the Bolton Valley Backcountry &

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EN VIRON MEN T Nordic trail system, the East Montpelier them from subdividing the land or using trails, and the Kingdom Trails it for farming or commercial recreation.

Association network in Lyndonville.

That said, the couple can still log its Nick Richardson is the VLT’s woods sustainably, set up a maple sugarpresident. As he explained, the ing operation and build noncommercial Montpelier-based nonprofit isn’t oprecreational trails. And landowners can posed to development per se, provided meet with land trust staff and decide it’s well planned and done sustainably. how best to protect the property withHe pointed out that much of the out giving up those things that make it development in Vermont in recent years special to the owner. As Handler put it, has occurred in and around Burlington, “It’s not an all-or-nothing proposition.”

Stowe, Middlebury, the Upper Valley People often assume that the land and other economically thriving areas. trust only works with very wealthy While development can be good for landowners who own hundreds of acres. the economy, the resulting “parcelizaBut Richardson pointed out that his tion” of open spaces often leads to organization has protected sites as small more road building, as a single acre — though which can disrupt more commonly it the connectedness of works on parcels in the forests and farmlands.

50- to 100-acre range.

This in turn alters “Many of the folks wildlife habitats, who make the choice disturbs plant species to conserve land are and degrades water not wealthy,” he said. quality. Disruptions “They’re regular to rivers, streams Vermonters who care and vernal pools are about their land and especially important want to see it managed now, Richardson said, in a certain way and are as Vermont adjusts to really committed to land the impacts of global conservation.” warming.

Another common NICK RICHARDSON “Mount Mansfield misconception is that is getting 20 percent land trust property must more rain than it did 20 years ago, prob- be kept pristine and out of production. ably because of the changing climate,” But, as Richardson noted, many such Richardson said. It’s one reason that properties continue to function as workHandler and Kaminsky’s gift was so ing farms and dairies. And that land can important. still be sold or bequeathed to others.

Indeed, the VLT now prioritizes Some landowners are still reluctant the lands it conserves differently than to put their land in conservation, it did decades ago. Thanks in part fearing that it will reduce its future to better climate science, as well as market value. Handler, a Realtor herself, environmental research and preservaacknowledged that her property would tion done by partner organizations such have yielded the greatest financial as the Nature Conservancy and the return if it were subdivided and sold University of Vermont’s Gund Institute for development. But she pointed out for Environment, “We know exactly that the tax benefits for conserving land where we need to focus our conservawere significant. The federal governtion efforts,” Richardson said. ment allows landowners a tax deduction Vermont is fortunate, he noted, in equal to the value of the easement itself. that much of the state’s most ecologiThat deduction can be claimed all at cally sensitive land has already been once or spread over several years. set aside for protection. And though Richardson said that most people Vermont is one of the smallest states, it who purchase or set aside land for has one of the nation’s highest rates of conservation are excited to learn more land conservation, with one in 10 acres about it. And the VLT’s staff of foresters of all privately held land protected for and ecologists is happy to walk those future generations. properties with landowners and educate The VLT uses several tools to them about the plant and animal species accomplish that goal, including buying that live there. As he put it, “It’s an and accepting donations of the most incredible way to get to know the land sensitive lands. However, as Richardson you own and the land you love.” m explained, the most common tool for Contact: ken@sevendaysvt.com protecting open spaces is a conservation easement, which places restrictions on how the land can be used. In the case of Handler and Kaminsky’s Underhill INFO property, their easement precludes Learn more at vlt.org.

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New Windows Transform the Lodge at Cochran’s Ski Area

BY STEPHEN MEASE FOR 7D BRAND STUDIO

W

more independent this year, so I can spend a little time in here reading my book while they’re skiing or in lessons,” said the Williston mom. Because of the lodge’s new windows, “I can still spot them on the slopes from here.”

John Beeman of Richmond agrees the windows have been a gamechanger. His 10-year-old daughter skis at Cochran’s twice a week, once with her Richmond school gym and again on Friday afternoons when Beeman usually joins her for a few runs,

So far the windows have had the biggest impact on parents like Childs who bring their kids to ski at Cochran’s. Her daughters, in first and third grades, participate in the Williston schools’ ski program. “They’re

followed by dinner at the lodge. “It is so different in the lodge now, being able to look out the windows and see the action up on the mountain.”

They can thank the folks at Windows & Doors By Brownell for the

STEPHEN MEASE

hen Michelle Childs walked into the Cochran’s Ski Area lodge in Richmond for the first time this winter, she knew something was very different. At first, she thought maybe the interior had been painted, but then she realized it was the windows. She could actually see out of them.

That was new. In previous years, the 12 windows facing the busy ski hill had always fogged up, obscuring the view.

Childs quickly realized the windows hadn’t just been cleaned — they’d been replaced entirely.

With the new windows, said Childs, the whole room felt different: brighter, friendlier, a more inviting place to hang out. In fact, the large, energy-efficient windows have transformed the space in a variety of ways, making it usable year-round for everything from conferences to wedding receptions.

The ski-racing family that runs the ski area is thrilled with the outcome.

Barbara Ann Cochran, winner of the gold medal in slalom in the 1972 Winter Olympic in Sapporo, Japan, teaches Cochran’s popular Ski Tots program and pitches in most days at the lodge snack bar. The new windows are “incredible,” she said. “It makes such a difference.”

The lodge, built in 1984, is a cozy winter home away from home. Jimmy calls it “the heart and soul of the ski area.” Reminders of skiing legends line the walls. Race bibs hang from the ceiling. It’s full of a palpable energy from young skiers and boarders and their families, fueled by hot chocolate and grilled cheese sandwiches from the Cochran’s snack bar.

By 2018, its original windows were in rough shape. Most suffered from what the window world calls “seal failure,” which creates a hazy fog between the two panes of glass. The fog, coupled with the heat and humidity inside that would then turn to ice, meant that the mountain outside often wasn’t visible.

Last March, Jimmy came upon a fellow outside the lodge measuring the old windows. “I went up to him and asked if I could help him,” he said. It was Les Brownell, founder and owner of Windows & Doors By Brownell. He had been tipped off about the need for new windows by Chris Chivers, Brownell’s service manager.

Chivers, who lives in Jericho, comes from an active skiing family and has long been involved with view. The renovation project is a great the community at Cochran’s. His example of how friends, neighbors and a family-owned business can work children, who both have skied with the University of Vermont ski team together to support a beloved local and club, learned to ski and race at the institution.

Richmond hill.

BUILDING A In fact, Chivers has been SLOPESIDE on the Cochran’s board of COMMUNITY directors since 2004. “I Countless young knew for years that the skiers have windows needed to progressed from be replaced,” he said, “making pizzas” “but there was just and riding the never any money for it, Mighty Mite to racing as other upgrades like through gates for snowmaking and lights high school teams since took precedence.”

1961, when Mickey Last year, Chivers Gold medal winner and Ginny Cochran approached his employer Barbara Ann Cochran at the began operating their of 23 years with the idea 1972 Winter Olympics in backyard rope-tow. of replacing the lodge Sapporo, Japan Now managed by windows as a commutheir grandson, Jimmy Cochran, a U.S. nity service project. Like Cochran’s, Olympic Ski Team veteran of the 2006 Windows & Doors By Brownell, and 2010 Olympic Winter Games, established in 1991, has a long history Cochran’s Ski Area remains one of in the local community. the last places downhill enthusiasts ‘WE NEVER COULD can truly experience the feel of a HAVE DONE IT’ traditional, community-based family ski area. Cochran’s hosts weekly The vision for this window project races and training for eight local high was seemingly simple, Chivers said: schools, shares the hill with 800 kids provide the Cochran’s lodge with a from elementary school programs, Marvin Windows and Doors solution facilitates races and training for the that would maximize the hill-viewing next generation of Olympic hopefuls in area, allow for air flow and last for the Cochran Ski Club, and provides an many years to come. But it takes a unintimidating place for youngsters — village of window experts to pull off a and oldsters — to learn to ski. project like this.

P R O D U C E D B Y 7 D B R A N D S T U D I O — PA I D F O R B Y W I N D O W S & D O O R S B Y B R O W N E L L

A DRAMATIC RENOVATION This article was commissioned and paid for by Windows & Doors By Brownell.

BEFORE

AFTER

STEPHEN MEASE

2. REFRAME

3. INSTALL

opened up new opportunities to use the space year-round. It’s now available for mountain-biking gatherings, special-occasion rentals for parties and, through a new partnership with the Round Church in Richmond, wedding receptions.

As Bolin pointed out, “Whether big or small, a replacement project can be an opportunity to bring new life to your home or building.”

In addition to working with contractors, architects and commercial clients, Windows & Doors By Brownell also does window and door installations for homeowners. Its staff of more than 60 spread across three showrooms — in Williston, West Lebanon, N.H., and Plattsburgh, N.Y. — run an in-house service and parts department, a shipping and delivery department, and an in-house paint shop.

STEPHEN MEASE

1. DEMO

Chivers enlisted his friend John Beeman, business development manager at AW Hastings and distributor of Marvin windows, to help. And Chivers recruited his Windows & Doors By Brownell colleagues: sales and marketing manager April Bolin, who found funding for the project; designer (and past Cochran’s Ski Club member) Sue Ray, who reimagined the layout of the windows; and Windows & Doors By Brownell’s in-house window designer Alexandra Honkala, who created a digital mock-up of what the new windows would look like to present to the Cochran’s board of directors for approval.

The final design includes Marvin’s all-fiberglass window units, with a combination of fixed and operational awnings for ventilation. “We never could have done it,” said Jimmy Cochran. “The cost would have been too much for us.”

When the windows arrived at Cochran’s, community volunteers and club members banded together to install them throughout multiple weekends in the spring. As with all projects at the mountain, there were always several Cochran family members on-site assisting — and grilling burgers for the volunteers.

It was a team effort. Said Jimmy: “It’s that kind of support that allows us to keep offering $5 tickets on Friday nights and keep the midweek ticket prices at $15 and $25 on the weekend.”

4. FINISH

STEPHEN MEASE

A JOB WELL DONE!

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Replanted interior designer Teri Maher finds her Vermont way

BY PAMEL A P O L S T O N

COURTESY OF LINDSAY RAYMONDJACK

If such a thing as a “typical flatlander” exists, interior designer Teri Maher is not it. She grew up in St. Louis, in a neighborhood filled with finely crafted century-old homes, and spent time in New Orleans with her grandparents, absorbing that city’s unique architectural character. After studying hospitality at the University of Missouri, Maher lived in Telluride, Colo., for four years, then headed to Santa Cruz, Calif., for the next decade. There she earned a degree in interior design and proceeded to work with high-end designers in the Bay Area.

Top photo: Interior designer Teri Maher at her studio in Waterbury Above: Family room at a ski condo in Stowe designed by Maher Opposite page: Interior designs by Maher at a Sugarbush ski condo

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How did these sunnier locales and diverse traditions influence Maher’s design practice after she moved, in 2007, to Waterbury, Vt.?

In short, she goes for the light. “I do like West Coast style,” she says.

“Light and bright, and lots of color.”

Maher, now 48, didn’t set up her own practice right away, though. She and her husband — a New Jersey native who now works at Red Hen Baking — arrived in Vermont with a small child. Maher initially worked with Cushman Design Group in Stowe, but after a year her job became a casualty of the recession.

She did “odd jobs” for a couple of years, she says, and had a second child.

Then, in August 2011, came Tropical Storm Irene. Many homes and businesses in Waterbury were hit hard by flooding.

Maher began helping friends with their home renovations “and then started slowly getting back into it,” she recounts. “It felt so good to be back, and to give back.” She launched Teri Maher Interiors shortly thereafter.

Her business is located in a pleasant second-floor space just off South Main Street, though she is moving to larger, ground-floor quarters in the fall. She appreciates the small-town convenience of Waterbury. Her family’s townhouse is nearby (“We live small, which is challenging but good,” she says), and her kids, now 9 and 13, can walk to school and activities.

Maher is also centrally located between the ski areas of Stowe and Waitsfield/Warren, where many of her clients have condos or second homes. One of her customers, for both personal and commercial projects, is Sugarbush Real Estate broker Kyle Neyer.

“Teri did some space layout plans for a bathroom renovation [at my home],” he says in a phone conversation, “and also converted a bedroom into a TV room.”

Maher sourced furniture for the latter room, working with a vendor to re-cover a family-heirloom chair. “She did a nice job,” Neyer says. “Teri really listens to you and comes back with a well-executed plan. She’s not afraid to think outside the box.”

Neyer adds that Maher has also worked, “from concept board to finished product,” with various Gadd Brook townhomes in Sugarbush Village.

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Interior design by Teri Maher at a ski condo in Stowe

Loving Local « P.15 website indicate, Maher isn’t trying to re-create a laid-back Sausalito vibe or Silicon Valley opulence for her clients, despite her West Coast proclivities.

On the contrary, she has enthusiastically embraced the energy-efficiency concerns of a colder climate, as well as Vermont’s emphasis on local materials and its revered tradition of craftsmanship. All those qualities are reflected in her choice of details, such as a Hubbardton Forge lamp, an interior barn door, and forged metal handles and a stained-glass window by Vermont artisans.

If the connection between local makers and a lower carbon footprint is not obvious, one need only think of the real environmental cost of shipping home goods thousands of miles around the globe.

When Maher says she loves working with Vermont craftsmen, though, it’s not just the environment or the local economy she has in mind. She also respects the quality of lovingly handmade items. “I often just can’t find the right thing in a table, for example,” she says. So she picks out a wood and finishes and lets a craftsman take it from there. “A lot of them are artists, and it’s really fun working with them,” Maher says.

“And sometimes I try to slip in something a little funky, a little eclectic [with a client],” she adds. She’s found Vermonters receptive to such touches, while staid New England second-home buyers may be less so.

For homeowners who can’t afford a

total renovation, or renters who can’t make significant changes to their space, Maher suggests freshening the décor with artwork, plants and accessories.

The last might include one of her own creations.

Most interior designers are big fans of decorative pillows, and Maher hit on an appealingly simple design when “I found myself with some scraps and had a brainstorm,” she says. The plump, oversize pillows are covered in linen — with a subdued palette from oatmeal to gray-blue — and feature the shape of Vermont in cowhide in the center. “I give them to clients,” Maher says.

Constructed by local seamstresses, the pillows are also sold at a few retail outlets, as well as in her studio and on her website. But they’re in limited supply. “I couldn’t keep up if we had a lot of orders,” Maher admits. She has created pillows featuring the shapes of other states, too, among them New York, New Jersey, Arizona and Washington, she says.

What’s next for Maher? She’d like to expand beyond ski-resort condos and has worked with “a few individual homes,” she says. She’s also eager to work with a “from-scratch house” and commercial spaces. Whatever the job, she’s clearly a team player in the local creative economy. Says Maher: “I try to sell local art into projects whenever I can.” m

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Duncan Persons’ apartment at 194 St. Paul Street in Burlington

Downtown Digs 194 St. Paul Street scores big with Champlain College students

BY MO L LY WA L S H

It may not be evident to the public that the occupants of 194 St. Paul Street in Burlington are Champlain College students. After all, passersby can’t witness the occasional slimemaking contests in the common areas. From outside, the six-story building primarily presents a handsome contemporary design with large windows and brick-and-metal siding. At night, a programmable linear LED system on the exterior accentuates different parts of the building with light — sometimes colored, sometimes not.

Historical black-and-white photos from Burlington were enlarged to mural-size proportions.

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HOU SIN G The interior boasts urban-loft décor: exposed metal beams, natural wood and sleek furnishings in charcoal and cherry. Murals made from black-andwhite historical photos of Burlington cover the walls, and a glass case displays artifacts unearthed during construction: dusty medicine bottles, a skinny old baseball bat. Wood from trees that were felled for the project has become a lobby bench, and wooden pallets from the construction were made into a wall accent.

The building in no way resembles the tatty off-campus student apartments scattered around the Queen City. The mix of textures, the rich sense of history and the modern design elements add up to a space that would appeal to empty nesters ditching the ’burbs for downtown.

Resident staff and student community advisers help maintain order and organize occasional group activities — such as those sanctioned slime-making events. Does the building feel like a dorm? “No,” Persons deadpanned. “In a good way.”

On a recent tour, Persons showed Nest his living room, strung with small, sparkly blue lights. He can see them like a welcoming beacon when he’s downtown at night. The walls were decorated with a modernist Sean Scully print, an Ariana Grande poster, a Champlain College pennant and an Irish flag — a souvenir of his semester in Dublin. A Razor scooter leaned against the wall, awaiting the clear sidewalks of spring.

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“Homesharing helps But the kids are in this crib. Since the Champlain building — named for its address — opened last August, it’s been at nearly 100 percent occupancy, with about 315 students living in studios or one-, two-, three- or four-bedroom apartments. Monthly rent ranges from $990 to $1,382 per student.

“It’s the best way to wrap my Champlain College experience in a bow,” said senior Duncan Persons, a 21-year-old communications major from Queensbury, N.Y. He lives in a three-bedroom corner apartment whose living room windows offer views of Lake Champlain and the downtown skyline. Bedroom and living room furnishings were provided, along with sparkling kitchen appliances and a roomy bathroom with no hint of mold or flaking plaster. For Persons, the accommodations held far more appeal than the unfurnished off-campus apartments he and his friends had considered. “We saw it and wanted to snag it,” he said.

in the building, even for legal-age tenants — one of the rules that make 194 St. Paul a sort of hybrid of dorm and grown-up apartment.

The prohibition is OK by Persons; now that he’s 21, he can walk to downtown bars for a beer or cocktail. And he likes that his building is not Party Central. “Students don’t really have an excuse to be loud and noisy and running drunk down the hall,” he said.

Rent includes utilities, which means tenants don’t have to deal with setting up accounts and haggling over each roommate’s share. Persons was happy to put that off. As he explained, “I have the rest of my life to live in an apartment.”

The building has no dining hall, so Persons paid for a Champlain meal plan that allows him to eat on campus a couple of times per week. The rest of the time he cooks up sesame chicken or corn chowder, or pops over to nearby Kerry’s Kwik Stop for snacks. He takes DOWNTOWN DIGS

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the bus or walks to local grocery stores for other provisions.

His building is getting dining options of its own, though; after some vacant months, all four of the commercial spaces on 194 St. Paul’s first floor should be full by summer. The existing Perky Planet Coffee sells java and employs adults with disabilities; the newly opened Juice Amour offers organic fruit and veggie juices, tacos, and gluten-free soups. Coming soon are the deli-style Café St. Paul and the Asian-inspired Magic Chopsticks.

The college welcomed the commercial ventures as a way to appeal to students as well as residents and employees, said Sandy Yusen, the director of communications and external relations for Champlain.

Persons has no car, but his childhood bicycle, which he rode to his internship at WCAX-TV last semester, is stored in one of the building’s two bike rooms.

And that parking garage under the building? Students are not allowed to park there, and most of the 67 spots are reserved as paid public parking. That was part of a deal the city made with Champlain when the college sought approval to build on the site; the project took over a former city parking lot on Browns Court as well as the old Eagles Club, which was torn down.

A shuttle service transports the residents of 194 St. Paul to the core of Champlain’s Hill Section campus every 10 minutes. Otherwise, going to class would mean a 10-minute trudge up steep Maple Street.

Given that the $36 million Champlain building incorporates all kinds of green, energy-conserving features, it seems fair to ask: Isn’t the shuttle a not-so-green form of coddling? Aren’t college students supposed to walk everywhere?

Times — and opinions about what constitutes a reasonable walk — appear to have changed. Persons said the shuttle is a good amenity and popular with students.

So popular, in fact, that neighbors have complained about clusters of students

LUKE AWTRY

Downtown Digs « P.19

A common space overlooking a courtyard

THE BUILDING IN NO WAY RESEMBLES

THE TATTY STUDENT APARTMENTS SCATTERED AROUND THE QUEEN CITY. converging on private lawns, and even someone’s porch, while waiting for the bus. The school has put up signs designed to herd waiting students onto the public sidewalk or into the building’s lobby.

Meantime, the stretch of St. Paul Street directly in front of the building continues to be blocked by a marathon street redesign. The city’s plan to bury

power lines, improve sidewalks and line the street with trees has hit numerous delays, including the discovery of old gas tanks under the asphalt. The work is now expected to be completed later this year.

About 75 percent of Champlain students live in campus housing, including numerous historic mansions that have been carefully renovated into dorms.

Before the construction of 194 St. Paul, the college accommodated the spillover by providing shuttle service for several hundred of its students to live at the privately owned, apartment-style Spinner Place in Winooski. That service ended last year when Champlain prepared to open its own version of apartment living in downtown Burlington.

This school year, Champlain, which has about 2,200 full-time undergraduates, did not hit recruiting goals for new

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first-year students, Yusen acknowledged.

The numbers “were a little bit lower” than in years past, but Yusen said she’s confident the school will have no problem filling 194 St. Paul in the coming academic year and beyond.

The building’s units are reserved for juniors, seniors and the occasional sophomore; many are already booked, and even students at the University of Vermont have tried to lease them, Yusen said. Unfortunately for the latter, the building is open to Champlain students only.

Persons will miss the views and his living room when he graduates and moves out in May. “I think of it as my sanctuary,” he said. m

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Should It Stay or Should It Go? Decluttering with Marie Kondo’s KonMari method of tidying

BY K RI S T EN R AV I N

There may be no better example of the saying “Out of sight, out of mind” than the way I handled the mountain of clutter in my home storage closet.

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When my daughter and I moved into our Bristol abode last May, I quickly unpacked and set up the kitchen, living room, bathroom and bedrooms.

Essential items — dishes, towels, records and toys — took top priority in the main rooms. Nonessentials such as crafting supplies, memorabilia and my highly embarrassing high school journals could wait.

Those items stayed in their boxes, stowed away in the apartment’s large closet. I’ll deal with these when AFTER I have some free time, I thought.

Nine months later, the cardboard containers and their contents still sat untouched.

Meanwhile, in January, “Tidying Up With Marie Kondo” premiered on Netflix. Following the upbeat Japanese author and organizing consultant as she helps Americans declutter, the show has ignited a renewed national interest in home organizing.

Friends began posting photos of their newly tidied spaces on social media. The Kondo catchphrase “spark joy” started creeping into conversations among coworkers.

On screen and in her best-selling books, including 2014’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing, the 34-year-old touts her KonMari tidying method.

“The KonMari method is unique because I organize by category rather than location,” Kondo explains in the first episode of “Tidying Up.” Using her technique, folks should organize five categories of items in a specific order: clothing, books, paper, komono (miscellaneous items from spaces like the kitchen, bathroom and garage) and, finally, sentimental items.

“The ultimate goal of tidying is really to learn to cherish everything that you have,” Kondo explains on the show. According to her method, one should hold each individual item in their hands to assess whether it sparks a sense of joy. If it does, the item is a keeper.

If not, it’s thanked and discarded.

And what should joy feel like? “You feel it when you hold a puppy, or when you wear your favorite outfit,” Kondo says in the first episode. “It’s a warm and positive feeling.”

After watching two episodes of the series, I decided it was time to tackle my closet.

Like most things in life, the process took much longer than I expected. I spent five hours on sorting alone, and additional time breaking down boxes and packing discarded items for trash or donation. I still

LUKE EASTMAN

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STORAGE CLOSET DECLUTTERING

ORGAN IZAT ION

need to haul the refuse to Goodwill and the dump.

The results have made the effort worthwhile. Books are now displayed on a shelf instead of taking up space — and going unseen — in a box on the floor. Important papers such as student loan documents now live in a folder for easy access. Both miscellaneous and sentimental, my VHS tapes and compact discs are stacked in a clear tote. (Kondo recommends clear totes for storage so you can see what you have.)

Most importantly, the weight of the clutter is off my shoulders, and the things that remain I truly want to take into my future — as Kondo would put it.

In all, I discarded two 30-gallon bags of trash, a sack of clothing and a hodgepodge pile of household goods the height of my kitchen counter. These things no longer sparked joy for me, but getting rid of them certainly did.

I’m not the only Vermonter who has gotten caught up in the Kondo craze.

“Our Williston and South Burlington stores have seen a huge uptick in donations, thanks to Marie Kondo’s show,” Goodwill Northern New England spokesperson Heather Steeves writes in an email. “We’ve seen about 25,000 donations at those two stores alone since January 1 — a 120 percent increase in donations this year over the same time period last year.”

Steeves notes that Vermonters can help Goodwill staff by separating donations into like categories and checking its website for a list of acceptable items.

(Sorry, no flammable liquids allowed.)

For those who wish to tidy up but feel daunted by the task, a quick Google search yields information for several Vermont-based professional organizers. One of these is Deb Fleischman of Montpelier, whose company, A Clear Space, specializes in organizing, space design and life coaching.

“The best thing, I think, that could come out of this Netflix series is that it opens up the gateway for people to allow themselves to make a phone call to an organizer,” she tells me.

Fleischman offers two big pieces of advice to those looking to tidy their homes: Prepurchase garbage bags and legal boxes so you can compartmentalize items as you work and, if you’re feeling overwhelmed, “Start small. You start with the sock drawer.”

Contact: kravin@sevendaysvt.com

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A tiny, foodstained onesie that my daughter wore as a baby. Too cute to trash.

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Two Madonna concert VHS tapes. I would call these a guilty pleasure — if I felt any guilt over my love for Madge.

SCRAP Two DVDs of B movies starring Lindsay Lohan, Just My Luck and Labor Pains. If I need a LiLo fix, I’ll stream “Lindsay Lohan’s Beach Club.”

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This is Vermont, so that was a long time ago.

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