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Warm colors bring accent points to a family room where the ocean in the background dominates the interior. Traditional cabinetry distinguishes a state-of-the-art kitchen. The master bath invites lounging in the tub. When they're not watching the sea, the Reeds watch their granddaughter and friends play in the pool.

In an area of impressive waterfront homes, Bob Reed’s shingle-style house is special. Although it may not be the largest in its Cape Neddick, Maine, neighborhood, the house is distinguished by a comfortable yet attractive design and a strong bond with the nearby Atlantic Ocean whose presence is both seen and felt throughout the home. 

Nestled into a hillside, Bob’s home overlooks a seasonal pond and a pebble beach that leads to the ocean beyond. Charmingly akimbo to the street but perfectly aligned with the water, the 4,500-square-foot building is picturesque with gables, porches, stone chimneys, Palladian windows and tapered columns. A broad arch creates a welcoming entry in a rambling façade where ground-level stone gives way to cedar shingles above. From deep porches, views take in wildlife at the fresh water’s edge just below while the Boon Island Lighthouse pierces the horizon.

Finding the Reed residence is easy, but the house and its surrounding yard, including the landscaped swimming pool, are hidden away for surprising privacy and quiet.
“Even though the street is nearby and houses are all around, you feel alone and connected to the ocean,” Bob says.

If everything about the house looks and feels perfect, there’s a good reason: Bob is a professional who has been designing and building houses for twenty-five years. His experience, education and a lifelong passion for residential design and construction, led him to found Robert Reed Associates, a design and build firm, in York Harbor thirteen years ago. He has created handsome renovations, additions and new houses all over Southern Maine and Seacoast New Hampshire.

“I design and build many Shingle-style houses,” he explains from a comfortable porch seat while sunlight glints and glances off the water fewer than 100 yards away. “It’s a nice family house design: livable, informal and full of interesting architectural details.”

Bob explained that Shingle-style houses were hugely successful as New England summer houses at the turn of the twentieth century. Now they are popular again, though today’s homeowners want Shingle-style homes built for year-round use with comfortable, convenient interiors. “That’s what I build. The challenge was doing it for myself.”

An unexpected challenge, at that. “We were happy in our previous home and had no plans to move,” he grins. “In fact, my wife, Maura, really didn’t want to.”
But when a pair of rare adjoining waterfront parcels became available, he built two houses, one of them for himself. In October of 2004 the Reeds moved into their new home.

“It was a rare opportunity to not only live on the water, but to design the right house for the site,” Bob explains. “We knew we wanted a livable, informal house that complimented this unique site.

For inspiration he focused on connecting the home to its location, especially the ocean. “Most important, for me, was to tie the house into the site and to make it look as though it had always been there.” he says.

Clearly, he was up to the challenge. Entering via the quarter-sawn oak front door is to walk into a jaw-dropping ocean view that dominates much of the interior. Spacious and comfortable but not grandiose, rooms boast hardwood floors, fireplaces, windows with small-paned upper sashes, cheerful colors and inviting furnishings.

“A hutch in the dining room was given to me by one of my clients–that’s the only piece of antique furniture in the house,” Bob says. “We’re not antiques collectors; for us, it’s more about daily life, our proximity to the water, the ease of the design.”

Rosy living room walls speak of warmth and a light heart, saffron yellow introduces energy to upstairs rooms and halls. The most fanciful color scheme lives in the Reeds’ granddaughter’s room, where teal and dark blue bubbles rise upward on lime green walls. In this house, the spectacular exterior does not relegate the interior design to second-fiddle status.

“I designed the exterior and the floor plan, but Maura is the interior person; with the help of interior designer, Sarah Duquette, she chose the colors and the furniture, some of which came from our old house,” says Bob.

While the Reeds’ home is oriented ocean ward, it’s not always via enormous windows. From the state-of-the art black and white kitchen, for instance, a door leads out to an enclosed deck, where an umbrella-shaded table and a few chairs make for inspired alfresco dining. In the master bath, however, the deep soaking tub is placed under a broad window for long, meditative soaks. Bob placed the dining area at the living room’s far end, where breaking waves just outside the windows provide dinner music.

There are subtle, quirky touches, including a window opening in one of the fieldstone chimneys. Small nine-light windows flanking larger Palladian windows provide unexpected views of the surrounding landscape. Small balcony decks are private retreats on the upper level.

“For me, the most important thing is the scale and the proportions,” Bob says. “What I love most about the house, now that it’s finished, is how comfortable it is and how connected you feel to the ocean. It felt like home to us the first day we moved in.”

While he lives in his ultimate waterfront home, Bob continues to do what he does best: designing and building for his many clients. A recent happy addition to his staff is his son, Josh, who, like his father, has felt drawn to the business of building houses his whole life. For Bob Reed, life doesn’t get much better.

“Every day I walk to the top of the hill to get the paper, and when I walk back down, I feel grateful all over again,” he says. “Those flashes of gratitude also come when I hear the wind whistling through the screens, or the voices of our granddaughter and her friends playing in the pool.”

For the Reeds, this is life the way it should be.