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Open
House
A Post And Beam Home
On Great Island
By Laurel Kornhiser
Cape Cod Home - 1997
Post & Beam package
by Timberpeg East, Inc. • Photography by Richard
Frutchey Architecture by Peter Haig of Architectural
Design Inc.
Interior Decoration by Susan Tuttle of Surroundings,
Orleans • Stylized by Joseph Espinoza
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Bill Coldrick has an aversion to close quarters. When the computer
executive decided to build his dream home, he gave architect
Peter Haig clear instructions: “I told Peter that if he
signed onto the project, he would have to personally justify
each and every wall and each and every door.” In his own
earliest designs scribbled on napkins, Coldrick envisioned a
spacious interior. “The goal was to stand in any part of
the house and see the entire inside, not totally practical,
but it was a good beginning point.”
Soaring Spaces
When Coldrick bought his lot on the Great Island peninsula in
West Yarmouth four years ago, the opportunity for openness increased.
He felt that not only should the home provide soaring interior
spaces, but also allow unlimited access to the exterior views
of Uncle Robert’s Cove and Nantucket Sound. Today, helping
to usher in the view are 109 windows, including seven double
sliders facing south overlooking Coldrick’s 1000 feet of
beach front, seven French double doors in the dining room, and
a wall of windows in the living area, topped by a massive arched
window.
 In
addition to desiring interior openness and expansive exterior
views, Coldrick and his wife Denise knew they wanted a Post
& Beam house. Bill explains, “We lived in California
for 10 years, where I had the opportunity to visit ski lodges
in Tahoe and other areas where timber frame construction was
prevalent. I became awed by its substantial yet warm feeling.
I became convinced that my dream house would employ Post &
Beam construction.”
So Bill approached Peter Haig of Architectural Design Inc. in
Orleans with his concept. Together with Haig, general contractor
Peter Burton, and the Cape’s local Timberpeg representative,
Jeff Harris, they visited Timberpeg’s headquarters in New
Hampshire. From that point on, the project became a true collaboration.
The Coldricks point out that, with the exception of David Ward
of Colorado and Jim Driesch, chief designer of Timberpeg, the
entire project was designed and built by Cape Cod craftsmen.
They give special recognition to general contractor Peter Burton;
mason Michael Mountain of Brewster; master electrician Peter
Rodin of Harwich; carpenter Rick Hark of Harwich; frame erector
Jeff Harris of Harwich; carpenter John Farrell of Harwich; painter
Hugh Curran of Harwich; and all of the excellent professionals
who treated the project with such care and expertise.
A Sense of Warmth
 Jim
Driesch of Timberpeg says his role in the project “was
to marry Peter Haig’s design to our particular framing
details.” Although compromises were made throughout the
project, integrity was maintained in uniting Haig’s unusual
design elements with the modular nature of Post & Beam construction.
Haig explains, “A challenge in building with timber frames
is looking for warmth and coziness and yet having that blend
with extra high spaces. You have to keep checking the scale
so it will feel like a home.”
Much of the home’s warmth derives from the extensive use
of wood. All of the floors are cherry, chosen Coldrick says,
not only because of its hardness, but for its “warm magnificent
array of color.” The timber frame is exclusively first
growth fir, rescued from Mount Saint Helens’ slopes in
Washington State after being knocked down by the volcano’s
famous eruption in 1980. First growth fir is preferable, Coldrick
says, because it is “cleaner, has fewer knots, and it is
less likely to move or check [develop small cracks].” To
insure even less checking, he says, “We had the entire
frame sit outside for a year to acclimate to the Cape’s
climate before we began to erect the frame.”
The idea of blending in with its surroundings on Great Island
was an important consideration. “Despite being a very large
house, we wanted it to nestle back into the landscape,”
Haig says. The fact that the house bends, with the lighthouse
acting as hinge, works well with the landscape. They also wanted
to leave as much of the natural vegetation intact as possible;
a good portion of the island’s 570 acres is under conservation
restrictions and also serves as home to a variety of wildlife—pheasant,
quail, deer, even endangered piping plovers. Except for one
retired caretaker and two current caretakers, the Coldricks
are this island community’s only year round residents.
Coldrick has found his space in more ways than one.
Photos courtesy of Timberpeg
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