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nticipation may be one of life’s sweetest sensations, especially when what you look forward to is a well-earned vacation. Not a quick, hit-the-beach respite but an entire summer in a beloved place. California-based professional photographer Elizabeth Needham and her husband, real estate developer Peter Mark, have good reason to count the days. Having vacationed with friends for years in mid-coast Maine, the couple—much to the delight of their thirteen-year-old twins, Ethan and Kathryn—recently decided the time was ripe to buy a retreat of their own in the glorious area. A broker friend alerted them to an unusual listing, a circa 1970s house owned by one of the world’s most famous shipwreck divers. Filled with scores of fascinating sea-related treasures and antiquities, it was highly personal and, well, a bit crowded. “The house wasn’t our style, but it was all about the views,” Needham recalls. Confident they could tailor the place to suit their family, they signed the papers. Three months later, they unpacked their flip-flops in their transformed summer abode. The incredibly speedy turnaround was the result of some very talented people working together, including Mark, who tackled the construction along with local craftsmen. Interior designer Linda Banks, owner of the wellregarded Simply Home studio and retail shop in Falmouth, Maine, and her colleague James Light spearheaded the interior design. “It was a true collaboration,” says Banks. “Clients with such impeccable tastes only come along once in awhile. We were very grateful they turned to local Maine sources for assistance.” According to Banks, who focused primarily on the architectural planning required to make the house more livable, leaving Light to take the lead on the decor, the house had strong bones. “It reminded me of an ark. It was one room deep but very wide,” she says.
94 New England Home March–April 2013
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