Remote Maine Retreat

“Being in Maine, I discovered quickly, you only spend so much time inside,” says architect Michael Imber. “The goal is to expand outside.” This large wraparound covered porch with a fireplace does just that—while simultaneously capturing picturesque views of Squaw Mountain and “off-the-charts sunsets,” says Imber.

The rustic stone fireplace in the great room reflects the spirit of the site’s erratic glacier-age boulders; the architects and masons collaborated to lay out each stone for size, character, and pattern.

Lots of windows and wood (butternut) dominate the great room, lending the space a handsomely updated camp vibe.

Scale was critical when designing the low-slung house. “This is one of the most unique places in the world,” says Imber. “We wanted to integrate the architecture into the surroundings and make it a part of the spirit of the landscape.”

The kitchen skews more modern but still blends nicely, thanks to the reclaimed white-oak timbers and butternut walls, with the lodge feel of the adjacent great room.

For her office area in the primary bedroom, homeowner Jodi Maley scored a Louis XVI-style mahogany demilune writing desk with leather top via auction from Zsa Zsa Gabor’s estate sale. The two circa-1910 chairs are oak and black-stained wicker.

In the lower-level guest room, Jodi combined camp plaids and Pendleton blankets with midcentury modern furniture and lamps.

The floors on the lower level, including the mudroom, are fabricated from sliced boulders excavated from the property; the fixture above is a Doo-Wop pendant from Louis Poulsen.

The art in the lower-level bath is in the Woodlands style, a genre that originated in Ontario, Canada, says Jodi; “Pat grew up there, and his family has quite a bit of art of this kind.”

An online search led Pat and Jodi Maley to architect Michael Imber, but Google couldn’t have predicted how much they’d have in common. Home base for all three is Texas (Austin for the Maleys, San Antonio for Imber). And they all view Maine as a special retreat (Imber has a place in Vinalhaven, and the Maleys were looking to build a vacation spot in Greenville).

When Imber visited the property, 150 acres on Moosehead Lake with 8,000 feet of shore frontage, the magic of the remote location was quickly revealed. “Pat took me salmon fishing, then we went back to an old camp on the site and discussed their vision over a bottle of Caymus,” remembers Imber. “I spent the night there with the windows open, the
sound of the waves lapping at the shore, and had the most peaceful sleep I’ve
ever had.”

Pat sums up the couple’s vision succinctly: “We wanted a lake lodge that blended into its surroundings and complemented the property.” Imber and project manager Mac White obliged with a 4,250-square-foot house inspired by old coastal camps. On approach it reads as an intimate single-story house clad in white-cedar shakes with a low-slung roof. On the lakeside, the lower-level walk-out fabricated with stone excavated from the site hunkers into the hillside. Inside, exposed reclaimed oak and ash timber framing, butternut walls, and local-stone flooring in the foyer reinforce the aesthetic.

Executing this level of craftsmanship was no easy task—note that the horizontal grooves in the interior paneling align perfectly throughout the house. Builder Nate Holyoke not only delivered on that front but also deftly handled the challenges that come with a far-flung location: navigating a four-mile dirt road to reach the property and dealing with mud season and temps that dip to minus seventeen in February. It became common to bring in crews and materials via floatplane or snowmobiles. Holyoke estimates that his crew built thirty percent of the house at his shop—“It’s like Santa’s workshop, on steroids,” he says—and then trucked it to the site.

The serene escape the Maleys now enjoy belies all of this behind-the-scenes work. With crisp Scandinavian-inspired interiors designed by Jodi, and a beautiful wraparound porch that captures stunning sunsets, there are many special places to enjoy a glass of wine—and, perhaps, a dinner of locally caught salmon.

Project Team
Architecture: Michael Imber, Mac White, Michael G. Imber Architects
Builder: Nate Holyoke, Nate Holyoke Builder