Houzz Tours
My Houzz: Hillside Sanctuary in Vermont
A couple designs a peaceful retreat with thoughtful, sustainable materials and spiritual spaces in which to meditate
Homeowners David Hart and Demaris Wehr wanted to create a sanctuary overlooking panoramic views of a farm and valley in Vermont. Getting that prized view meant working with a north-facing slope. They asked Milford Cushman of the Cushman Design Group to work around the challenging landscape and create a small home incorporating the natural space around it.
"David, a psychologist, spent his life studying fairy tales, and that played a key role in the design of the home," Cushman says. "It is a special place, and even with the site's challenges, it is hard not to feel the spiritual and meditative aspects of the home. David and Demaris were very thoughtful about all the things they wanted in their home."
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Demaris Wehr and David Hart
Location: Calais, Vermont
Size: 1,850 square feet; 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
That's interesting: All the natural wood surfaces inside are custom built with locally harvested Eastern white pine.
"David, a psychologist, spent his life studying fairy tales, and that played a key role in the design of the home," Cushman says. "It is a special place, and even with the site's challenges, it is hard not to feel the spiritual and meditative aspects of the home. David and Demaris were very thoughtful about all the things they wanted in their home."
Houzz at a Glance
Who lives here: Demaris Wehr and David Hart
Location: Calais, Vermont
Size: 1,850 square feet; 3 bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
That's interesting: All the natural wood surfaces inside are custom built with locally harvested Eastern white pine.
Three narrow levels are stacked on a basic 16-foot by 38-foot footprint to make efficient use of the sloping site and to connect all habitable rooms to the views and natural daylight in each direction. Simple roof forms with wide overhangs provide summer shading and long-term protection of the wood siding while serving to ground the building as a wide cap.
Wehr and Hart's goals were to create a spiritually rich and peaceful home where guests can be vulnerable. The spiritual connection to the land was important. The designer filled the home with light and environmentally friendly finishes, thoughtfully designing each detail.
All the natural wood surfaces are treated with polymerized tung oil (PTO) and without any oil-based urethanes, making it a highly sustainable living space. PTO is more environmentally safe than other penetrating oils.
The built-ins, thoughtful materials and large windows that allow an abundance of light into the open-room space were all lifestyle choices for the homeowners. They wanted to feel akin to being in meditation.
The ceiling is shiplap design using local white pine. The European-style freestanding wood stove by Scan 60 is energy efficient, with direct air connection to the exterior.
All the natural wood surfaces — including floors, windows, door casings, running trim and stair treads — are custom built with locally harvested Eastern white pine. The countertops are made of heart pine from standing dead trees.
The natural-form theme runs through the house. Wehr and Hart wanted the materials in the home to be connected to something living at one time, especially local wood, a renewable resource. The dining room table is one of Wehr's favorite places to write.
Wehr loves the intimate connection of the central location of the kitchen to the dining space and the living room. All the windows fill the kitchen with direct and indirect light. She also appreciates that in addition to the white pine cabinets and the heart pine counters, all the wood surfaces in the kitchen are finished with various sheens of tung oil and not polyurethane, varnish or lacquer.
Thoughtful details are found throughout the home, to allow spaces to flow into one another. The simple kitchen cabinetry design has glass doors and local artisan hardware.
All the built-in cabinetry in the bedroom, including the dresser, shelves and bathroom vanity, is made of locally harvested Eastern white pine.
Wehr and Hart showed Cushman an image of a fairy house in Wales for design inspiration. They also showed him an image of an organic home tucked into a hillside in gnarls and corners of roots. In every season, this home feels like a fairy tale.
A screened-in porch off the dining area and a deck off the living room extend the home’s connection to the site.
Wehr and Hart shared time here together as a couple and with friends, and it was truly a sanctuary for them. Hart passed away in the home in November 2011.
The hillside home now serves as a personal grounding for Wehr's sojourns from her home on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. As a fitting tribute, Wehr has commissioned a separate small fairy house with a meadow and a grove of trees that meet off the west end of the house. The fairy house will be about 36 inches tall, 18 inches wide and 22 inches long. Wehr has dedicated the small structure as a celebration of Hart's life study of the relevance of fairy tales in storytelling and in Jungian psychology.
The hillside home now serves as a personal grounding for Wehr's sojourns from her home on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. As a fitting tribute, Wehr has commissioned a separate small fairy house with a meadow and a grove of trees that meet off the west end of the house. The fairy house will be about 36 inches tall, 18 inches wide and 22 inches long. Wehr has dedicated the small structure as a celebration of Hart's life study of the relevance of fairy tales in storytelling and in Jungian psychology.