expansive closet. Well-proportioned spaces offer comfort and light through open-beam ceilings insulated and protected by stress-skin paneling above. A screened porch leads onto a second private deck with easy access to the water. This northern deck is most welcome in midsummer, when nearby trees and the house itself provide shade for relief from the heat. The center section of the house might as well have been designed by one of the great “Maine cottage” architects of the late Victorian period. Outside, the slant-roofed dormers with their 45° corners suggest a hunting lodge or fishing retreat. Inside, the wood for the timber frame—some newly milled, some recycled—suggests the Buck family’s ties to Maine. Large timbers of eastern white pine—including a principal purlin 36 feet long by 10 by 12 inches, which crosses the gap from south wing to north in a single dramatic span—were harvested from an 80-acre property along Damariscotta Lake in Nobleboro that Sandy Buck’s parents purchased many years ago from the celebrated naturalist Henry Beston, author of The Outermost House. The Bucks hired a sustainable-forestry certifier who developed a ten-year plan for the woods on the property and identified a few large trees that could be removed to promote forest health. Each was
The master bedroom, in the south wing, has a loft accessible by a ladder.
TM ThomasMifflin f u r n i t u r e s t u d i o Riverdam Millyard • Biddeford, Maine • (207) 318-7491
www.maineboats.com
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Excerpted from Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors magazine with permission of the author and photographer.