Hillside Sanctuary in Vermont

Homeowners David Hart and Demaris Wehr wanted to make a sanctuary overlooking scenic views of a valley and farm in Vermont. Getting that prized view meant working with a north-facing slope. They requested Milford Cushman of this Cushman Design Group to operate around the challenging landscape and make a small home incorporating the natural space around it.

“David, a psychologist, spent his life researching fairy tales, and that played a key role in the design of the house,” Cushman says. “It is a particular place, and even with the site’s challenges, it’s hard not to feel the spiritual and sociological aspects of the house. David and Demaris were quite thoughtful about all of the things they desired in their property.”

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 intriguing: all of the natural timber surfaces interior are custom constructed with locally harvested Eastern white pine.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Three narrow amounts are stacked on a fundamental 16-foot by 38-foot footprint to create use of the sloping site and to join all of habitable rooms into the views and natural daylight in each direction. Simple roof forms with broad overhangs provide summer shading and long-term protection of this timber siding whilst serving to floor the construction as a broad cap.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Wehr and Hart’s goals were to make a rich and peaceful residence where guests could be exposed. The religious connection to the property was significant. The designer stuffed the house with light and environmentally friendly finishes, thoughtfully designing each detail.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

All the natural wood surfaces are treated using polymerized tung oil (PTO) and without any oil-based urethanes, making it an exceptionally sustainable living space. PTO is more environmentally secure than other penetrating oils.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

The built-ins, thoughtful stuff and massive windows that allow plenty of light into the open-room space were all lifestyle choices to the homeowners. They desired to feel like being in meditation.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

The ceiling is shiplap design using local white pine. The European-style freestanding wood stove by Scan 60 is energy efficient, with direct air link to the exterior.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

All the natural wood surfaces — such as floors, windows, door casings, running trim and stair treads — are custom constructed with locally harvested Eastern white pine. The countertops are made of heart pine in standing dead trees.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

The natural-form theme runs throughout the home. Wehr and Hart desired the substances in the house to be attached to something living at one time, especially local timber, a renewable source. The dining room table is one of Wehr’s preferred places to write.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Wehr enjoys the intimate connection of this central place of the kitchen into the dining space and the living room. All the windows fill the kitchen with direct and indirect lighting. She also appreciates that along with the white pine cabinets and the center pine counters, all of the wood surfaces in the kitchen are finished with various sheens of tung oil rather than polyurethane, varnish or lacquer.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Thoughtful details are located throughout the house, to allow spaces to leak into one another. The easy kitchen cabinetry layout has glass doors and local artisan components.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

All the built-in cabinetry from the bedroom, including the dresser, shelves and bath vanity, is made from locally harvestedEastern white pine.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Wehr and Hart revealed Cushman an image of a fairy home in Wales for design inspiration. They also showed an image of a natural home tucked into a hillside in gnarls and corners of roots. In every season, this house feels just like a fairy tale.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

A screened-in porch off the dining area and a deck off the living room extend the house’s connection to the website.

Susan Teare, Professional Photographer

Wehr and Hart shared time here together as a couple and with friends, and it was really a sanctuary for them. Hart passed away at the house in November 2011.

The hillside house now serves as a personal grounding for Wehr’s sojourns from her house on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts. As a fitting tribute, Wehr has commissioned a different small fairy home using a meadow and a grove of trees that match off the west end of the home. The fairy home will be about 36 inches tall, 18 inches wide and 22 inches long. Wehr has committed the small structure for a party of Hart’s life study of the significance of fairy tales in storytelling and in Jungian psychology.

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