Home Design

On Martha’s Vineyard, it takes a village to build economically

An architectural designer constructs a home for his young family, distilling a New England dwelling to its most basic form in order to eke out modern flavor and cut costs, with a little help from his friends.

Chandler Cook
When Nick and Sarah Waldman discovered the lot for sale, Sarah wrote to the owner saying that she and Nick wanted to raise their family here, which held more appeal than a developer flipping the property. (Chandler Cook)

By Marni Elyse Katz - Globe Correspondent

6 minutes to read

When architectural designer Nick Waldman and his wife, Sarah, a writer and health coach, decided to build a home on Martha’s Vineyard, they knew they would rely on friends and family to make it happen. “The subs were friends I had helped with drawings of their own homes,” Nick said. “That’s how you get stuff done out here.”

The couple moved to the island from Providence — Sarah was a Vineyard summer kid whose parents now live on the island full time — and after renovating a cottage in Vineyard Haven, purchased 3 wooded acres in West Tisbury where they could raise their sons, Dylan, 13, and Gray, 9.

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Nick, a Rhode Island School of Design graduate and founder of Nick Waldman Studio, felt confident they could build economically, assuming he invested sweat equity. The methodology? “We used humble materials in an elevated way to achieve the aesthetic we wanted,” Nick said. “They also provided ease of construction and cost less.”

Nick described the aesthetic as a modernized version of New England vernacular architecture. It’s unfussy, but not in a minimalistic statement-making manner. Rather, the home feels, well, very much at home. “It’s two plain cedar boxes with gable roofs and large window openings for views,” Nick said. “Straight lines, fewer corners, and a single roof form make construction easier.”

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Nick created an overhang over the entry door and living room slider for protection from the weather. – Chandler Cook

The single-story boxes — a 68-foot-long-by-20-foot-wide wing for living and a 48-foot-long-by-18-foot-wide wing for sleeping — are set at 90 degrees to each other with a small flat-roofed connector between them. The L-shaped configuration hugs a sunny, south-facing grassy courtyard for the couple’s two very active kids, and Fisher, the family’s Australian shepherd.

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The small, square window in the den is designed specifically for the family’s Australian shepherd, Fisher. “He spots deer and squirrels all the time,” Nick says. – Chandler Cook

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A 4-by-8-foot window goes to the floor in the living room, bringing the outdoors in. “Each window frames a different part of the landscape, capturing a certain moment instead of the entire vista,” Nick says. – Chandler Cook

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A powder room between the den and kitchen services the living wing. – Chandler Cook

Once the excavator dug the hole, Nick assembled the foundation using insulated concrete forms, a system he compares to LEGO blocks. The benefits of this over a traditional poured concrete foundation is that he could do it himself. (A friend who is a high school shop teacher and two of his students helped.) That the forms double as insulation is a plus.

A crew framed the house and installed the windows, and Nick applied the trim. When it came time to shingle, Nick turned to his friend who owns Hatchet & Hammer Shingle Co. and whom he considers the best on the island. Nick shingled half the roof himself, which made it affordable to use red cedar roofing shingles instead of, say, asphalt. “A simple, orderly material palette — cedar for the exterior, plywood for the floor and ceiling, and plaster for the walls — minimized the project’s complexity and cost,” Nick explained.

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The back of both wings cantilever 2 feet over the foundation, lending a feeling of lightness. The dining nook extends another 3 feet. The sloping site allowed for a walk-out basement, where the kids play hockey, lacrosse, and Ping-Pong. – Chandler Cook

As the project progressed, Nick decided to hire a team to take care of the interior finishes so that he could focus on his architecture clients. It was perfect timing; the foreman of the framing crew had recently launched his own contracting company, Woodpecker Brothers. Nick tapped the captain of his pickup hockey team to plaster the walls and Sarah’s father to do the electrical.

Entry is on the far end of the living wing, where a dark-green mudroom is a quiet moment to move from outdoors before the home opens up with light and airy splendor. The 20-by-36-foot great room has a cathedral ceiling that reaches more than 17 feet at its peak, and exposed trusses and AC plywood with robust graining on the ceilings and upper walls add character at the top of the space.

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The slider in the connector opens onto the front porch. The seascape is by local photographer Elizabeth Cecil. – Chandler Cook

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Mudroom cabinetry provides plenty of storage for the family of four. – Chandler Cook

“We used two-by-four gang-nail trusses to support the roof because they’re inexpensive and more efficient than rafters, which have to be cut on site,” Nick said. “The crew could just bang these up.” Normally such trusses are covered up. “I tweaked the geometry and left them exposed as a nod to a typical construction method,” he added.

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The plywood floor, which is finished with Benjamin Moore floor paint and two coats of polyurethane, resembles poured concrete. “I wanted it to read like a single surface,” Nick says. “I’ve always liked painted floors, and they’re economical.” – Chandler Cook

Nine-foot-5-inch-tall walls finished in a textural, light-gray plaster wrap the entire living space, bringing the voluminous space down to a more human scale. “A datum line down the whole house marks the transition from the plaster to the plywood,” Nick said. “Creating a uniform line means that it’s all straight cuts of sheetrock, which is easier labor-wise.” The team installed it in less than two days.

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A swath of black soapstone — the kitchen backsplash — draws the eye to the end of the room, starkly contrasting the light walls. A fir shelf tops the slab, accentuating the horizontal lines and rendering the bump-out for the range vent barely perceptible. The eye glides past the Baltic birch plywood-paneled island, too. Spare cabinetry and a utilitarian eating nook maintain a serene atmosphere. “The stone and cabinetry are the focus,” Nick said.

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Thos. Moser Windsor chairs from Sarah’s childhood home punctuate the ends of the Hay dining table. – Chandler Cook

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Putting the fridge in the pantry behind the kitchen helps keep the space quiet so the stone and cabinetry remain the focus. – Chandler Cook

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Nick cobbled together the eight pendants in the living space using components purchased online for about $200 total. – Chandler Cook

A corridor that runs the full length of the living wing terminates at the connector, and a doorway opens into the bedroom wing. For a more subdued feel, Nick covered the ceilings on this side in Baltic birch plywood and painted the trim white to disappear against the plaster walls.

A corridor runs from the connector to the mudroom on the other end of the house. – Chandler Cook

Built-in wardrobes in the hall keep the boys’ 10-by-10-foot bedrooms clutter-free, and a walk-in closet slotted behind the bed does the same in the primary bedroom. Roughhousing happens in the basement.

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Built-in wardrobes in the hallway of the bedroom wing keep the boys’ bedrooms clutter free. “The circulation path is 42 inches wide, but since the closets are just 7 feet high, you feel the volume of the hall’s full 5-and-a-half-foot width,” Nick explains. – Chandler Cook

More on the Cape & Islands

In the bedroom wing, white trim and Baltic birch plywood with subtle graining helps ensure a peaceful feel. – Chandler Cook

Nick designed the Baltic birch plywood vanities with finger holes instead of hardware for minimalist appeal and ease of use. A fabricator he found on Etsy made the cast-concrete sink in the boys’ bath. – Chandler Cook

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The primary bedroom has a cathedral ceiling and a wooded view to the west and the south. – Chandler Cook

In the primary bath, an RBW sconce echoes the round mirror. – Chandler Cook

The family moved in three years after clearing the site and continue to make adjustments. “I’m not sure exactly how much it cost — plus or minus $650,000 to build, and the land was $425,000,“ Nick said. “Definitely isn’t a ‘look how cheap they built it for’ angle, because it ended up being more than we thought. Still, for MV, that price-per-square-foot cost is pretty ridiculously low.”

“It was overly ambitious for me to do quite as much as I thought I could,” Nick admitted. “But we’re in and we love it.”

Martha's Vineyard
The back of both wings cantilever 2 feet over the foundation, lending a feeling of lightness. The dining nook extends another 3 feet. The sloping site allowed for a walk-out basement, where the kids play hockey, lacrosse, and Ping-Pong. – Chandler Cook

Nick enjoys a large view of the outdoors from his office, which is tucked behind the mudroom at the home’s northeast corner. – Chandler Cook

Architectural design Nick Waldman Studio, nickwaldman.com

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General contractor Woodpecker Brothers, 650-797-7827

Landscaping MV Landscaping Solutions, mvlandscapingsolutions.com

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