Image of a Home

When you ask a child to draw a house, it almost always is a square or rectangle with a gabled roof, some windows, and an entrance door. The roof is often drawn with about a 45° (or 12:12) slope. The roof sheds water and protects those inside. The windows bring in light and offer a view to the world outside. The front door let’s the family and friends in and out. And the basic shape gives shelter and safety from a world that can be threatening.

Here is picture of the home at 40B as we purchased it three years ago:

When Ann and I first pulled into the driveway on our first viewing of this home for sale, I saw this and smiled. A happy feeling; a comfortable feeling, a cozy feeling. We bought this little house on the sea on the little lot that a kindergarten could have drawn.

When we decided to renovate/rebuild the non-conforming too-small lot required us to go before the Marblehead Zoning Board of Appeals. We could have torn the existing home down, but coastal zone rules would have required us to build the new home 3’ lower than the existing. That was problematic from a ceiling height standpoint and how the new home would look with its now taller immediate neighbors. If we retained two of the existing exterior walls, we were able to classify the work as renovation rather than new construction. So it came to be that the existing south wall with its peak and its 45° 12:12 roof would remain.

Ann always believed that when I finally arrived at the point in my life when we were blessed and I could design our own home; that it would be something dramatic and unique. For a seaside home, perhaps a home inspired by the image of a sail:

Vinta House by James Bao, Iligan Bay, Philippines

But my architecture has never been about flash and drama. In many ways, the kindergarten kid’s house was about right; functional, modest, efficient; saying to the world I’m a house, I’m happy to be a house, and I’m not pretending to be anything that I am not.

A nice benefit of the kindergarten’s kids image of a home is that it lubricated the approval of our request for a bigger home (a must for Ann) on our small, non-conforming lot (about 5,000 SF). Our special permit was approved unanimously, with no neighbor objections, and with no conditions attached.

South elevation of 40B as presented to the Zoning Board of Appeals

And here is the kindergarten’s kid house today, slowly moving to completion on a cold, rainy early December morning.

Simple of form. But with layers and depth of design to be discovered and explored.

Next: How accessibility, for now and the future, was an important driver of the new home’s design.