Jane wanted a full bedroom, a bath, and a kitchen sized for daily use, including a small eating area. This would be a modest addition for most houses, but it would more than double Jane’s house. Preserving scale and style were essential, as was maintaining simplicity.
Humble Roots
In the mid-19th century Methodists organized a retreat at this site. Families initially gathered under tents but as they returned annually to the same plot their tents gave way to houses. Restrained by their tiny plots, the houses are unusually petite. Jane’s house is Carpenter Gothic, a folk version of Gothic Revival. It is simply constructed of wood. Outside, vertical tongue-and-groove boards cover the stud walls accentuating the height of the house. Inside, both wall and ceiling framing are bare. The house is neither insulated nor heated.
Preserving the Jewel
The original cottage is untouched. The addition is placed behind it. Though larger, the addition is held in check by keeping the new roof low, matching the original roof slope, aligning the eaves, and using dormers to capture critical headroom. Outside, the addition uses the same materials, of the same dimension, as the original. Walls, rafter tails, rake boards, and window casings all match. Proportions were carefully followed, too. The windows are tall and the roof is steep, both Gothic trademarks. New gable dormers are sized to match the original gable roof. The addition, made from the same DNA, appears to be nudging the original house forward to center stage and serves as the setting for the original jewel.
Inside, the addition is faithful to the precedent of the historical house: unadorned, without even the most basic finishes. The wall and floor framing are unabashedly exposed. The spruce pine framing is of construction grade lumber with visible knots, reinforcing the humble character of the house. The new windows are wood, single-glazed, with razor thin muntins like the originals. The kitchen cabinets, plain and utilitarian, were salvaged from a mid-20th-century house and covered with a plastic laminate counter. Frugal and functional, this decision, too, reinforces the aesthetic of the house.
As a finishing touch, Jane washed the walls and cabinets in white, quieting their irregular faces. The ceiling and windows are left natural for a color accent, and the floor is painted in bright hues to warm the still unheated house when the sea breeze is cold. Because of Jane’s sensitivity to the former campground cottage, her summerhouse will remain an alluring retreat for years to come.
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