Westward View

For a couple from Massachusetts, this home began as a vision of what retirement could look like: a retreat near the skiing and biking they loved, close enough to family that their adult children and grandchildren could keep visiting for years to come. What started as a vacation residence is designed with an eye toward the future, when the couple plans to live here full time. On a clear day, Mount Washington and the White Mountains rise in the distance, a view the design was built around from the very first sketch. Inside, natural wood grounds the interiors in warmth and coziness, while the layout deliberately limits the size of sleeping spaces, drawing the couple back toward the living room as the heart of the home. The result is a house that reads, from the outside, like a lantern in the forest — simple rooflines shedding snow, a quiet glow among the trees.

When the clients came to KBA, they arrived with a clear list of needs: the right square footage, a bunk room to sleep kids and grandkids, a bike room on the lower level for easy access after a ride, and mountain views maximized wherever possible on the first floor. What they found in KBA's proposal was a style direction that resonated immediately — so much so that the clients still have their first sketches of the home framed hanging on their wall today, a reminder of where the design began.

The site itself was the project's greatest test. Perched on a steep mountain drop-off, it demanded a careful balancing act: maximizing the view and natural light while minimizing what passing cars on the road could see of the house. Figuring out the angle and connection between the garage and the house took real problem-solving, given the terrain, and achieving a functional walk-out basement on such a slope added another layer of complexity. Once the initial sketches were complete, the team went on site with a surveyor to stake out the house and garage in real space, fine-tuning angles and sightlines until the view and the buildings' orientation worked together. Sitting on the peak of a mountain brought clear advantages — light, views, drama — but it demanded equally clear-eyed solutions to make the site buildable.

This home reflects KBA's mission in the way it balances performance, place, and people. Air sealing and insulation were tuned to strike a careful balance between high performance and budget, pushed as far as the numbers would allow. Efficient air-to-air heat pumps handle heating and cooling, paired with an energy recovery ventilator, insulation beyond code minimums, and a strong focus on air tightness. The home's southern and western exposures were designed to capture solar energy — a consideration that even shaped the angle of the garage — and European tilt-turn, triple-glazed windows mean that even on the coldest days, the couple can sit by the glass and feel warmed by the fire. Solar offsets the home's electric systems, tying the performance strategy together. Architecturally, a mix of exterior materials breaks up the home's forms, and walking through the front door reveals wall-to-wall glass and mountain views, with a stair that seems to float in front of the glazing. A double-height living room with floor-to-ceiling windows anchors the design — timeless in style, true to its mountain vernacular, and built specifically for this site, these clients, and the light they wanted to live in. The site's challenges were compounded by the search for a builder experienced in high-performance construction in a remote part of Maine — but the result is a home as finely tuned to its place as it is to the people who will one day call it home full time.

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