Jenny Donelan Joseph St. Pierre

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The great room was designed around the Company C rug. Slipcovers and coffee and end tables are from the Boston Design Center. With views of Mount Washington, the dining area opens to both the kitchen and great room. The enclosed porch is in the background. Rug by Company C and dining table from Crate & Barrel. Pat cooking in her kitchen. The master bedroom with antique pine sleigh bed overlooks trails of Black Mountain.

Snow and plenty of it is what you see from Dennis and Pat Hiller’s mountaintop home in Jackson, N.H.––sometimes even in the warmer months. Their house looks over to Mount Washington, the highest peak in the northeast United States, which, it has been said, receives at least some snow every month of the year. The Hillers also have a great view of the slopes of Black Mountain, the oldest ski resort in New Hampshire. According to the Hillers, it’s a constant reminder of how much fun it is to live in the White Mountains in winter.

For example, the Hillers can snowshoe right from their back door onto trails through the surrounding woods. Downhill skiing and snowboarding are right there at Black Mountain, of course, but also at Wildcat Ski Area, and at numerous other alpine areas near Jackson. The village of Jackson itself is renowned for its Nordic skiing “culture,” and offers miles of cross-country trails to explore. For do-it-yourself winter fun of the “extreme” sort, Dennis and a neighbor have been known to sled down their long, steep, unplowed driveway in vintage Flexible Flyers.

Visitors to the Hiller home are naturally drawn to the panoramic mountain view from the window at the end of the living room. But the sights up close are equally appealing. A clearing around the house slopes down to the edge of the forest, and it is not unusual for the Hillers to see bear, moose, fox, and deer––sometimes on one of the patios. In warmer months, perennials and shrubs such as hydrangeas, daisies, and ferns dot the landscape. The landscaping is casual, says Pat. “We didn’t want it to look too manicured.” A stone patio leads out from the ground-level basement, and another, higher up, is perfect for catching the sun or breezes in summer.

With its spectacular, somewhat remote location, the Hiller home might seem like the perfect weekend getaway. But it is, in fact, a year-round home for Pat and Dennis, a local orthodontist. Their four grown children (the youngest daughter is in college) consider it a getaway, though. “This is the holiday house,” says Pat. “Everyone comes here for Thanksgiving.” With this in mind, the house is designed for casual, comfortable entertaining. The basement has a bar, pool table, various games, and exercise equipment. Upstairs, the open-concept living area incorporates two discrete seating areas, one looking out toward Mount Washington, and the other facing a stone fireplace. It’s an arrangement that allows for plenty of conversations which, Pat explains, can get quite animated with four grown children.

The Hillers’ bedroom on the first floor also looks onto the mountains. Three additional bedrooms and four bathrooms ensure plenty of space for visiting children and their friends.

Moving on up
The Hillers built their mountaintop home about seven years ago. They were no strangers to the area, having already lived in Conway for twenty-five years. Part of the reason they moved there was for the skiing, an activity Pat is passionate about. The couple was aware of the Jackson site for some time, but it was “landlocked,” as Pat puts it—there was no access to it from a public road. One day, however, when Dennis was hiking, he noticed that the property next to the Jackson site, which would allow access to it, was for sale. Buying that property made it feasible for the Hillers to obtain the mountaintop land and construct their new home.

Once in their home, the Hillers found that living high in the mountains has its challenges. Their driveway is long and steep—not so much a problem in winter, when it can be plowed, as in mud season. And they are a long way from anything. This is not as difficult now as when the kids were younger, says Pat, but she still spends a fair amount of time behind the wheel.

Something the Hilliers did not expect when they moved in was the power of the wind. Before they planted grass the first year, the house was continually “sand blasted” with bare earth, says Pat. She says she is still trying to find the right combination of plants that will both withstand the elements and offer protection from them.

Making a Great Room Truly Great
Another challenge was getting the interior of the house to complement the rugged and magnificent surroundings. Pat, who describes herself as conservative, shocked everyone by having the walls painted a muted shade of green when they first moved in. Though hardly radical, it was a huge departure from her usual white. “Everyone was surprised because I’m afraid of color,” says Pat.

After a few years in the house, she sought out interior designer Edwina Drummond Boose of Edwina Drummond Interiors of Waltham, Mass., and Freedom, N.H., to help her add more color and comfort to the space. “Pat had done a beautiful job on her own, but it wasn’t quite what a mountaintop house should be,” says Edwina. The decor was a bit formal for the outdoor setting, she notes, and for the Hillers’ laid-back, family-friendly lifestyle. Some funkiness was called for.

“We started out with the carpets so we could bring some color into the room,” says Edwina. She and Pat had great luck at Company C in Concord, N.H., where they purchased a blue and green rug for the dining area, and a multicolored circular rug for the living area. New furniture, slipcovers, and a few pieces of fine art and craftwork helped add excitement to the house. Pat and Edwina did their shopping not only at Company C but also at the Boston Design Center and local stores, and even from catalogs. Pat’s bedroom drapes came from the Restoration Hardware catalog, for example.

The huge living area created a challenge that Edwina dealt with by creating two separate seating areas. Now people can sit and talk without shouting across the room, and different groups can talk without drowning each other out. Edwina also added some sheer curtains and natural wood blinds, which not only invited the outdoors to come in but also enabled the occupants to keep out light when necessary. Pat loves the end result, and so do her children. She credits them, as well as Edwina, for encouraging her to go through with the redesign.

Now that the children are mostly grown, Pat looks forward to taking up downhill skiing again. Her own love of skiing took a back seat during the years the kids were growing up and had to be driven to their various activities. Recently, she spent the day skiing at Black Mountain and “had a blast.”

Pat says she is also eager to welcome new, young visitors to her home. At the time of this interview, she and Dennis were looking forward to the arrival of their first grandchild, and the chance to introduce a whole new generation to the wonders of the White Mountains.