The stunning view of a gorgeous Southern Maine lake, along with the charm of the house itself and its rustic boathouse—complete with inscriptions in the beams from past owners—brought Jonathan Floe and Jim Craft to this charming property. Little did they know then, however, that what was at first just a seasonal getaway would soon become their favorite winter destination.
Featured Homes
Wintering in Maine
A home that revels in winter’s beauty
BY
Jennifer Saunders
PHOTOGRAPHY
Kim Case

The home’s fully renovated and expanded kitchen, featuring natural wood floors and paneling, plenty of cupboard space and modern appliances to replace what Jim and Jonathan describe as features last updated in the 1960s, is the perfect space for cooking favorite meals on a cold winter’s day.
Enjoying candlelight dinners with the many friends who visit Jonathan and Jim at their Maine home is a favorite winter activity. Jonathan designed the raised firebox to be visible from the dining room and kitchen. The fireplace, which was built with local stone from the town of China, Maine, bathes both rooms in warmth and light.
The home’s original fireplace remains a focal point of the living room, but with the addition of a cherry mantel. Natural wood elements like the cherry mantel as well as the hardwood floors and pine paneling seen above, are used throughout the house, creating a warm, inviting interior.
The home’s many windows providing expansive views of the lake and, along with such features as the screen porch, create sheltered spaces to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors whether the day’s weather is cloudy, rainy or fair. These are just some of the elements that make Jim and Jonathan’s lakefront home their favorite winter getaway—and that of so many of their friends.

For Jonathan Floe and Jim Craft, a charming 19th century cottage situated on a lake in southern Maine seemed the perfect getaway from their busy lives in Boston as they had been looking for a home that would be less formal than their Boston townhouse and a location that would provide an escape from the crowds of the city.

Jonathan explains that a photo in a real estate listing for the property showed the panoramic view of the lake from the porch—an image that “stopped us in our tracks.”

“The description of the property, including the boathouse, got us here,” James agrees. “The proximity to the water and the privacy were just what we had hoped for. There’s a very strong sense of permanence in the stone walls and mature trees and inscriptions on the beams of the boathouse, where someone kept track of gas and oil expenditures during the Second World War.”
The plan was to enjoy the seasonal house on weekends and vacations before the cold weather set in, Jonathan and Jim recall, until they found themselves spending more and more of their free time at the lake in spite of Maine’s cold winter temperatures. They could not help but be drawn in by the austere beauty of snow-covered landscapes, the alluring quiet of frozen mornings and the sapphire shimmer of December’s blue skies.

It was on just such a day, during the winter of 2004, when the two were shivering in the lake house—unable to get the house’s thermostat to register above 55 °F—that they decided the time had come to transform the charming lakefront cottage into a year-round home-away-from-home.

“We loved the original house, but it barely had any insulation and the kitchen was tiny,” Jonathan explains.

And, James adds, “The appliances were straight from 1968—at the latest—and there was one bathroom.”

In renovating their home, however, they didn’t want to lose the charm of the original house. There were some limits to what would be permitted with a new design of the house, based in part on its location within 100 feet of the water, which required the new design to remain within the existing footprint of the house with an addition of no more than 30 percent in size.

Enter Stephen Blatt and David Matero of Stephen Blatt Architects in Portland.

“We had admired a house at the top of the lake and then stumbled upon it in a coffee table book on cottages,” James recalls. “It turned out to be a house Blatt had done—among others on the lake—and we sought him out.”

“Both we and the architect wanted to preserve the Maine camp/cottage-like feel of the place. As a result, there is very little sheetrock in it,” Jonathan recalls. “Stephen Blatt did a great job in terms of opening up the interior of the house as much as possible.”

In the original house, he explains, the master bedroom was above the living room, but Blatt’s design removed it from that location, creating an open interior space with a high ceiling that also included the addition of many windows, maximizing the stunning views of the lake. In fact, the house boasts so many new windows that it required the addition of structural steel in several places.

“Because of the limitation on how much we could enlarge the house, we tried to make the best use of every bit of space. The office is actually under the stairs. To avoid having it seem like working in a closet, we put a little door in the back wall, which you can open to get a view of the lake,” Jonathan explains, adding, “Since I'm told I'm the messy type, it is also great to be able to close off the space when company is around.”

James and Jonathan worked with the architects for about a year and it was Stephen Blatt, who, as James puts it, “introduced us to our very wonderful contractors, brothers Steven and Kevin Rideout from Rideout and Turner of Gray.”

“Since we did the project on a cost-plus basis, we were a little concerned about cost overruns, so I checked out our builders very carefully before going ahead with them,” Jonathan explains. “They provided a detailed list of every project that they had worked on in the previous five years, together with contact names and numbers. Boy, did they get glowing reviews! I decided not to bother calling any more people when one person on the list said, ‘I'm throwing a party for them as we speak. Would you like to talk with them?’ How many contractors get that kind of review?”
James agrees, adding, “The quality of their work comes through in every picture.”

And so the house was renovated—literally from the foundation up, as James and Jonathan recalled coming up one weekend to watch the progress of the project, seeing the house literally lifted into the air as work on the foundation continued.

“This was done for us and for our friends. We had so much fun in the renovation process,” he says.

Because they had found themselves coming up throughout the year and having a lot more company than they had ever expected, the new design included the addition of a kitchen, bathrooms, dining room with a master bedroom above, and two new fireplaces and a gas stove.

“The living room fireplace is the original, though our builder very skillfully wrapped the existing, cracked concrete mantel in cherry so that it would look as if it had always been there,” Jonathan explains. “The dining room fireplace is actually my own design. We wanted a raised firebox so that everyone could see the fire from both the dining table and the adjoining kitchen. The stone is local. We had quite a shock when the builder told us that it came from China, before realizing that he meant China, Maine, rather than half a world away.”

When it came to the interior design, Jonathan and James did not turn to a designer.

“For better or worse, the interior design was our own collaborative effort,” James says, explaining the hope was to create a more casual feel.

“We tried to use natural materials as much as possible, and have the light fixtures be in keeping with the cottage atmosphere as well,” Jonathan notes.

One such example is an antler chandelier that the pair chose in their search for something rustic to replace the faux stained-glass lighting fixture that was in place when they purchased the home.

The interior design also features examples of Asian artwork, gathered by Jonathan’s grandfather when he served in China during World War II.

“Somehow they seem to fit well in such a natural setting,” Jonathan explains. “Likewise, the chestnut, pine and walnut paneling were inspired by my grandparents’ home in Virginia, which has been and continues to be the scene of many happy family gatherings. I wanted this home to remind me of those wonderful family occasions.”

James his hope was to create “a place where everyone is comfortable. It’s a great place to hole up and relax.”

That is just the feel this house exudes, with such details as actual tree branches used in place of a more traditional banister design. Made in Wisconsin, this tracery opens up the space with woven natural materials such as antlers and branches that, as James puts it, “lets your eye go farther and makes everything seem larger than it is.”

While the main house is now winterized for four-season living, Jonathan and James point out that the property’s boathouse apartment—with its one bedroom, a living room, kitchenette and three-quarter bath—is still a favorite among their guests. In the winter, they said, while it may be too cold to sleep there, they still gather there to socialize with friends in the boathouse, which projects out over the water, giving the feeling of actually being on a boat.

Jonathan and James have been pleasantly surprised by the number of friends who share their love for time spent by the lake—including what they describe as a contingent that has made it a tradition to join them at the lake during the winter months, and even celebrating New Year’s Eve together at the house with a hike up a nearby mountain on New Year’s Day.

“Depending on how much snow there is, there is good hiking in the area for a lot of the year,” Jonathan explains. “Otherwise we pretty much stick to snowshoeing.”

Both agree there is another favorite activity: enjoying the quiet beauty of the place and relaxing.

“A shocking amount of time is just spent reading by the fire,” Jonathan adds. “In somewhat of a surprise to us, we have found that a lot of friends really enjoy coming up in the winter. The lure of doing very little seems to be a big draw for a lot of people.”

It is the best of both worlds, James says, a place where to have space and privacy and to fill with friends.

The house and the lot are just the right size and having a home that is not huge in size is a plus, they add, with the climbing costs of home heating fuel.

Jonathan describes their home as “small but special.”

The house itself, which is about 1,800 square feet in size, now has three bedrooms, a living room, a sitting room—which includes that charming office space ensconced beneath the staircase, the kitchen and dining room. There is also one full bath and two three-quarter baths. And, there is that screen porch, a favorite feature of the house, which adds about 600 square feet of space to enjoy the beauty of the outdoors from a sheltered space.

As James puts it, “What we ended up with seems to us to be a natural evolution of the original house.”

Design Details

Contractor
Rideout and Turner

Architect
Stephen Blatt Architects