Kim Case Joseph St. Pierre

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Relaxed at home, Randy Price and Mark Steffen (seated) with one of their many cocker spaniels which the couple breed to show quality in their on-site kennel. The living area of the house is just off the dining room, allowing for easy relaxing after a meal. Green glass tiles on the hearth offer a cool contast next to the warmth of the wood panels that surround. Architect Paul Gosselin of Salmon Falls Architects answered the couple’s request for a separate formal dining area by installing custom sliding doors. Rippled glass hides the kitchen work space while allowing light to pass through. A signature watercolor painting by local artist Wendy Turner hangs above the kitchen counter. The master suite was expanded when the couple remodeled their kitchen, allowing for an additional seating area, enlarged bath, and walk-in closet.

Standing inside their newly renovated kitchen, Randy Price and Mark Steffen sip coffee and look out at a wide expanse of green and gold saltwater marshes sweeping toward the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

Stunning ocean views aside, this quiet stretch of land along a peaceful nature preserve is not where one would immediately expect to find the full-time home of a celebrity news anchor and his partner, an insurance consultant. But the updated three-story contemporary in southern Maine is not only home to this busy couple, but also a place of retreat and reflection, a notion made real in the lush and carefully tended gardens, understated and very personal décor, and thoughtful recent renovations to this shingled contemporary.

“Our home is not only our oasis, but is the absolute center of our lives and everything we enjoy together,” says Price, who is nightly anchor for Boston’s WHDH-TV (Channel 7). Considering that Price had just come off of an intense week at the station of post Red Sox and pre-Patriots activity, while hosting charity events for the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and acting as grand marshal for a South Shore parade, the serenity of the couple’s home is a sharp contrast. “We're homebodies, and we've always taken great pride in where we live and what we try to do with our property.”

Despite the property’s remoteness from their Boston workplaces, Randy notes that the southern Maine community is an important part of their lives. “Even though I am a very public person in my work, I am not obsessed with escaping from everything in the off hours. And we both enjoy the social aspects and the kind of people who are drawn here. To have friends and even strangers coming by the house or kayaking though the property is something we tend to enjoy—especially if they start talking gardening or dogs.”

Particularly cocker spaniels. On top of their busy professional lives and an all-consuming recent kitchen renovation, the couple still finds time to raise and breed champion-line puppies in their private kennel. Holding one of these cuddly and well-behaved dogs is an experience in adoration, and a testament to the couple’s care and attention.

Though not new to living in Maine, Randy and Mark knew they found the perfect spot when they stumbled upon their Kittery Point neighborhood years ago while driving around the area. “We both remember that day distinctly, the sensation of discovering a place so beautiful,” recalls Randy. “It has been equally wonderful in terms of the neighbors and the social fabric of this neck of the woods.”

Many of Randy’s New England viewers know that he commutes to Boston from Maine, and he’s frequently asked how he can make the long drive on a daily basis. Randy is modest about the effort, reflecting that despite the hard work both his career and commute demand, he feels that the home they created and the natural beauty of the surroundings make it all worthwhile.

Art That Makes a Home
Recently, the couple traveled to Thailand, a nostalgic return trip for Randy who was once stationed there while serving in the Air Force.  “And as is typical,” says Randy, “Mark struck up a relationship with this wonderful woman who owns a gallery in Chiang Mai, and before you know it, we were shipping back crates of antique Buddhas. Strangers coming here must think we are Buddhist!”

The Buddhas joined an extensive art collection that has been years in the making and includes such diverse pieces as African sculptures, grand landscape paintings, and framed note cards of local scenes.

“Like most people, our home is a reflection of our lives,” says Mark. “It is filled with some of our evolving taste in furniture and art. Our very first pieces of art from thirty years ago are hanging alongside things that we have harvested from our years of travels.”

When they could afford it, the couple began acquiring Chinese art, including screens, bronze sculptures and vases. “We think they complement any house but enjoy it especially in ours, which has become an evolving Mission, Arts and Crafts, and Asian experience,” says Mark.
“With a little bit of Louisiana influence!” Randy adds—his home state.

But the art is not limited to distant climes. “We also have the works of quite a few local artisans who we think really make our home special to us,” explains Mark. Local artist Wendy Turner, who grew up within walking distance of the house, painted the large watercolor  hanging in the new kitchen.

Mark talks fondly of the simple framed tiny note cards that circle the foyer. “They have significance to us because one of the panels was created by our dear next-door neighbor, Mary Raynes Kimball, who passed away at the beginning of the year. She was the one who sold us part of the property on which she grew up.”

The fondness for their late neighbor goes beyond neighborly regard to deep appreciation as Mary and her father, Will Raynes, donated more than 100 acres to the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge so it would be forever preserved. “Mary’s family is the very reason that most of the land around us is protected for the public to enjoy,” says Mark. “We cherished her friendship and miss her stories about life growing up.”    

Outdoor Rooms
The surrounding grounds that shelter the house from the road drop steeply behind the house to sweep broadly down to the marsh below. The gardens that hug the house are spectacular in both sheer variety of plants and pastoral beauty. A selection of winding pathways, a tranquil fountain pond, and creeping wisteria gracing the columns along a deck, all combine to give an impression of carefree existence, but the clean lines and inviting expanses tell the tale of hard work and consistent gardening passion.

Randy flashes his signature smile when asked about who the gardener in the family is.

“Well, I'm always graciously accepting compliments over the gardens,” he laughs, “and then I casually throw in that Mark did help too!” Randy goes on to say that the truth is that Mark is the serious gardener and has been since childhood. “I'm just the able-bodied assistant and lawn-mowing specialist.”

Mark’s green thumb began early. His family still tells stories about finding Mark rummaging through the discarded plants at local nurseries and then going on to use the cast-offs to completely landscape the family’s property.

The couple emphasize that the garden is the culmination of years of work. “We've brought some trees from two or three previous homes,” says Randy, “and I have to say that among the many things I admire about him (Mark) is that in addition to being so successful professionally, he has always managed to be evolving and maintaining the garden extravaganza. The gardens alone are a full-time job, and I’m very proud of what we've created under his leadership!”

Mark says in designing the gardens they were able to start from scratch because the property was formerly a farm field. They brought in enriched soil to make digging easier, and together they planted thousands of trees, shrubs, and perennials.

Each year they make major improvements. “It’s always a work in progress,” says Mark. “Some things work, some don’t. You work and improve the better ideas and don't get too bogged down on the ones that are just so-so.”

Once the couple had the gardens well established, they began the process of creating other garden elements to enhance the space and tie it to the landscape beyond. “We discovered this wonderful stone artist,” shares Mark, describing Steven Carpenter, the Maine craftsman who designed and personally constructed the intricate stone walls, steps and terraces that wind through the garden. More than the standard straight stone walls, Carpenter’s work is special because it fits so effortlessly into the landscape, as though the earth just had been brushed aside to reveal a set of steps that had been there all along—an illusion that took the artist nearly a year to create throughout the property.

“The garden is extensive, but is really set up as a number of outdoor rooms. We think they work well with the house and the natural setting [creating] a variety of unique experiences throughout the year that are appropriately secondary to the natural beauty,” says Mark.

A Kitchen Worth its View
Three walls of windows bring the dramatic scenery of nature and gardens outdoors into the home’s most recent addition, a new kitchen and bumped out seating area designed by Paul Gosselin of Salmon Falls Architects in Biddeford, Maine.

When asked about the new layout, Paul explains, “We provided the initial idea but Mark and Randy are very hands on, most of the details were all Mark and Randy.”
Mark says that with the new kitchen he feels they’ve achieved the perfect balance of social and work space. “As the social center of the house, we felt our old kitchen lacked many of the elements that were successful in a prior home. The new one ‘breathes’ the beauty of the setting even better than we imagined when we started collaborating with Paul.”

They’ve also used materials that complement the surrounding views, including cabinets of bird’s eye maple, organic countertops of green Brazilian soapstone and floors of large, earth-tone tiles. Low profile accent lighting delivers a bright and dramatic work space without creating a lot of reflection in the walls of windows.
“We kept the old kitchen which adjoins and remade it into the full service pantry and beverage area that we always dreamed of having,” says Mark. “It has the commercial gas stove and a full compliment of appliances so that you can do any dirty cooking in there, and it has allowed us to be more modern and streamlined in the main kitchen.”

Both say they love the improvements and feel the renovation is the absolute best thing they have ever done in a house. But despite talented help, Randy knows where the credit should go. “It always starts with Mark, who brings to our lives a lot of what he accomplished as an insurance executive. He is a fluid person, oriented to change and improvement and doesn’t get bogged down on obstacles. He sees a house a lot like a garden—a work in progress, changing with the seasons,” he says, adding, “I'm just the opposite, more set in my ways, but really into the execution … which makes for a good partnership.”

Chase Construction  A contractor worth keeping
Randy Price and Mark Steffen testify to the benefits of finding a good contractor and sticking with him over the years. Their contractor, Barry Chase, has been working with the couple on several houses and renovations for nearly twenty years! In a time when stories of unhappy experiences abound, a solid relationship spanning several decades is refreshing to hear of.

“Barry is just one of those rare people who makes it fun, with an outcome beyond your expectations,” says Randy, who calls Barry a great problem-solver who brings wonderful ideas and skillful artistry to any project  “He is just a straightforward Mainer of the utmost integrity. Combine that with his construction knowledge (he grew up in the business), and the ability of his company and associated sub contractors to produce some of the highest quality out there, and you easily understand why he has had such a recurring role in our lives.”

Mark agrees, adding that after all these years, it seemed like they are almost family with Barry and his wife, Heidi. “Barry was working on a house for us years ago when he had to drop everything to rush off as his first child was being born,” recalls Mark. “This past summer, when we were doing the kitchen project, that son was working on the job with his dad before heading off to college.”