RICH: My father once said to me, stand still and stare,
and you will notice things.
[music playing]
It is absolutely true that if you stand still longer than you
would otherwise be comfortable doing,
you will see some very subtle things.
JULIE: I think being a designer really
does change the way you experience
everything because you're constantly looking.
Here, we get to design for us, and we get to build the space
that we really want to be in and focus on the details that
are important to us.
You do notice more when you take the time to find it.
[music playing]
[splashing]
[music playing]
I've been coming to Maine with my husband, Rich, for 26 years
or so and just fell in love with the area.
RICH: I grew up in Southern Maine.
I spent summers here in Machiasport
because my father was a teacher, and he got summers off.
So we would come up here, where we have deep roots
going back 150 years even.
He would take us lobster fishing.
It's certainly a part of the culture up here.
Most people are fishermen.
[music playing]
This area is trapped in time.
So my daughter really does get to experience the same things
I experienced when I was here.
JULIE: I also love that it's really unplugged.
If we're out on a hike, just stop and take in the view
and look at the trees and look around on the ground
and, you know, try to notice things.
[water rushing]
We live in Providence, Rhode Island.
And it's a solid eight hours.
It usually takes us 10 to 12 because we
like to meander along the way.
[music playing]
We always make it a point to take the coastal road as well.
We have our favorite stops along the way.
GIRL: Thank you.
Thank you.
JULIE: Places that Rich stopped at when he was a kid, now
our daughter loves.
The journey is definitely part of the draw.
RICH: When we bought this cottage,
we bought it just because of the view.
All the buildings face the water.
The boat is a lounge and a library,
where we listen to records, read books, and just hang out.
The main house is used for all the creature comforts,
being able to cook, being able to sleep in a large bed.
And the third space, the bunk house, is just a single room.
We had the boat well before we had the cottage.
We discovered this boat sitting on the side of the road.
It was falling apart.
It looked pretty lonely
JULIE: Well, every time we drove by it, we would stop,
and we would look at it, and we would think, what
could we do with this boat?
We need to do something with this.
You know, the designers and us, we need
to do something with this boat.
And so we looked at several properties in the area.
We came upon this place, and we knew
right away that it was perfect.
RICH: Partly because this home is so simple,
such a minimal shape, that it allowed the boat
to be sort of the centerpiece.
JULIE: We designed everything before we
put the boat in place.
You know, if you look at the dock,
the dock has a relationship with the front of the house.
The width of the dock lines up perfectly
with the front of the house so that you have
this really nice, even flow.
[water rushing]
[gulls squawking]
We rebuilt a lot of the exterior body of the boat
because it was just structurally unsound.
RICH: It has a long cabin because it
was used for scallop fishing.
It would contain things like scuba tanks
and other gear for the fishermen.
JULIE: Watch your head coming in the door.
[music playing]
RICH: This is a lounge.
You're meant to really relax, drink, read.
This boat is basically our permission to be playful.
I don't belong steering a ship, a real ship, out on the water.
So this is a good way for me to--
Pretend.
--pretend to be a captain.
[chuckles] The boat is something of an homage
to my father, who was a writer and, of course,
obsessed with the sea.
His ashes were scattered in that body of water
that the boat is pointed towards.
When we're on it, we can think of him.
In a way, we were pretty ignorant.
And in a way, I'm glad that we didn't know more
about how difficult it would be to renovate a boat,
keep a boat steady and secure.
JULIE: Fishermen take their boats out of the water
all the time, and they put them on these boat stands.
But we're also going to be living, you know, in a sense,
on this boat.
So it can't be askew.
It has to be perfectly balanced, and it has to hold our weight.
We were also concerned with the winds,
so that boat is strapped down, tied down, chained down.
RICH: Multiple supports.
JULIE: Yes.
Here it is standing.
And we've been enjoying it for years now.
JULIE: We're two creative people.
Yeah.
And when we put our heads together,
we can come up with some great things.
So it just took time to figure out what that was going to be.
[rumbling]
The cottage itself is about 15 feet wide by 40 feet long.
So it's compact.
[music playing]
So we did a lot of work to the cottage.
When we first bought the property,
it was actually covered in a light-gray vinyl siding.
RICH: It was a pretty new structure.
So using a lot of wood, it helped
kind of create a sense that it's been
here a lot longer than it has.
You know, the boat's quite old, so we wanted it to,
you know, all feel like it came from the same era.
JULIE: When you walk into the house,
there's the open living space, living
room, dining room, kitchen.
I think the first thing that you notice
is the connection to nature.
I mean, I could sit for hours on the sofa,
just staring out the window and watching the light change
and the birds fly by outside.
I love that corner.
JULIE: We are both designers.
I'm a lighting designer, so I'm always looking up.
RICH: I'm a graphic designer.
I also teach at the Rhode Island School of Design.
My memories of this area from the '70s, the few objects
we have play well with, you know, the time period
that we're trying to evoke, which is '60s, '70s Maine.
Here in this dining nook, we have a few items
that are dear to us.
One is this table.
And what's distinctive about it is that the chairs
nestle into the table.
It really does have sort of this notion of economizing,
you know, but with style.
[music playing]
The primary bedroom, another light-filled space.
JULIE: We had to go with a full-size bed in this room
because if we went with a queen, you wouldn't be
able to shut the bedroom door.
RICH: If we had a phone, it would be a dial phone
because they're analog, because you use your hands,
because you have to, you know, work with them,
you know, with these objects.
The choices we've made in this home,
there's some quirky stuff.
There's stuff that people won't have seen before.
And that's a way of slowing people down.
[water rushing]
This is our back deck, where we sit and have our lunches
and our morning coffee.
[music playing]
You have this beautiful, lush field that just meanders down
to the edge of the water and creates
this beautiful foreground for the ocean view.
RICH: The boardwalks wind around the property
to slow people down and make them more
conscious of their environment.
The bunk house is the latest addition or the last thing
that we did to balance the boat that would also give us,
actually, more space to use.
The bunk house is primarily a place to sleep
mostly for younger people.
It kind of feels like camp.
We even have walkie-talkies as a way
to communicate to people in the other structures.
JULIE: We actually bought a shed.
And on the other half, we have some storage for the rakes
and the yard stuff.
But then we finished this side off.
We put in this rectangular window, which perfectly
frames the view of the boat.
And then we put in the glass door
on this side, which gives you the view of the ocean.
[chirping]
[rumbling]
[music playing]
You want to stop and look.
I think that's the biggest difference here,
is that it does slow you down.
Your eyes are always open.
Cheers.
One.
What's really important to me is that my daughter also
fall in love with this area and start
to create those memories that I have
because I know how powerful those memories are.
[chirping]
[music playing]
JULIE: But we definitely feel very
fortunate to have this place to come to,
to have the opportunity.
[music playing]
[water rushing]