New Old House

Based on a homesteader’s cottage, a modern-day log house surrounds a family with warmth and good cheer.

20 hours ago

Janice Randall Rohlf, Rob Karosis, Photographer,

With its post-and-beam design and real log siding, this home in the White Mountains evokes the past.

The kitchen, dining and living area features two fireplaces, a handcrafted table of reclaimed wood and an island topped by Taj Mahal quartzite. The kitchen was designed by Stacy Nawoj of Pinnacle Kitchens in New Hampton.

One question — “How do we achieve that?” — nagged at Cris Salomon as he was designing a post-and-beam ski house in the White Mountains. His goal was a house that looked like it was built 200 years ago but would function as a modern dwelling. In the end, the rambling, pitch-roofed, log-sided house nestled among evergreens looks for all the world like it has been rooted in this spot considerably longer than it actually has.

Salomon’s clients were a family of sports enthusiasts who had for many years enjoyed a condo for skiing on weekends and for longer getaways throughout the year. When they joined the ranks of new-home clients, what set them apart from others in their position was their unwavering attention to getting the details just right. For them, authenticity and a strong regional connection shaped their ideas of how they wanted their home to look and feel.

“The homeowners had a clear vision,” says Salomon, principal architect at Samyn-D’Elia Architects. “They wanted this to feel essentially like a homesteader’s cottage that was assembled over time and had been thoughtfully added onto through the years.” Not only that, but the homeowners had a keen interest in using local materials as much as possible, and they spent time researching regional historical architecture. “It was exciting to see the homeowners get into this level of detail,” shares Salomon. “Throughout the project, we were meeting routinely on-site and discussing fine points, like how a certain stain would react to the timbers, for example.”

A kitchenette is a handy addition to the main kitchen upstairs.

Two centuries ago, a house in this region would have been built of logs, with the spaces in between them filled with chinking material like mud, clay or moss to seal out the elements. To give this new house its historical look, Timberpeg provided full structural logs fashioned from 8-inch by 12-inch eastern white pine with interlocking dovetail corner joints. “These logs really give the house an authentic look,” says Timberpeg Vice President Austin Ward.

In addition to producing the logs, Timberpeg fabricated the timber frame, and provided Alaskan yellow cedar shingles for the roof and hemlock shiplap siding.

A fully equipped home gym offers an exercise option to skiing.

Whereas Douglas fir is typically used for timber frames, for this project eastern hemlock, native to New Hampshire, was used. “The homeowners wanted to build a legacy home and were willing to go to this level of detail,” says Salomon. “You can actually see each turn of the saw blade in the nuttier, brown tones of the hemlock.”

No opportunity for authenticity and craftsmanship was overlooked. For two wood-burning fireplaces, Mas-Con in Laconia used granite slabs for the hearths. Iron-It-Out in nearby St. Johnsbury, Vermont, fashioned the fireplace doors and screens, the main stair and the removeable rails on the bunk beds. The dining room table and solid front door were crafted out of reclaimed wood by Nathan Orr of Mad River Woodworking in Thornton, New Hampshire.

All the bathrooms were designed by by Stacy Nawoj of Pinnacle Kitchens in New Hampton.

This is the type of house the family admired when they skied out West — reminiscent of a Rocky Mountain lodge, with its combination of log and timber, but with modern finishes and oversized windows. Consisting of four bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms, a bunkroom that sleeps 16 and three laundry rooms, the home comfortably accommodates guests. Here in the East, the family’s devotion to the White Mountains and skiing can’t be understated. “It was very important to them,” says Salomon, “that looking through the great room, they could see the top of the ski mountain.” Nine-foot-tall French doors with expansive glazing solved that problem.

To give this new house its historical look, Timberpeg provided full structural logs fashioned from 8-inch by 12-inch eastern white pine with interlocking dovetail corner joints.

In fact, every room in the 6,000-square-foot house boasts a vantage point of the mountain, a view so stunning that the home’s interiors, by Samyn-D’Elia, were designed to complement the view, not compete with it. The finishes incorporate materials — including salvaged timber beams — that add both tone and texture. The floors are 8-inch character grade white oak, and the ceilings are air-dried, rough-sawn hemlock. In the kitchen, cream-colored Taj Mahal quartzite used for the countertops is laced through with subtle gold and beige veining, complementing the mossy green cabinetry.

Lighting decisions were contemplated: “We asked ourselves, ‘How do we light the house to make it feel comfortable after a long day of skiing,’” says Salomon. “We wanted the house to glow and have a presence to it without using spotlights.” This is where accent lighting and lighting in the eaves came in. Many of the artisanal-design light fixtures are from Restoration Hardware and Hubbardton Forge, and all the hand-crafted hardware in the house is from Rocky Mountain Hardware.

From start to finish, the homeowners weighed in on issues large and small. Their enthusiastic participation influenced perhaps their biggest decision of all: “They loved the house so much,” says Salomon, “that once it was done, they changed their primary residence from the Seacoast to here.” NHH

PROJECT TEAM

ARCHITECTURE & DESIGN:

Samyn-D’Elia Architects

603-968-7133

sdarchitects.com

BUILDER:

Ted Hammond Construction

603-254-9833

TIMBER FRAME & LOG SIDING:

Timberpeg

800-636-2424

timberpeg.com