[music playing]
MARY BARRETT: To me, a cottage is just
a home that's more casual, a place
where your family can gather, and just
a place where you can relax.
We have this house because it's become a really
important part of our family.
It's just a place that we all enjoy.
We all just feel really strongly about it
and about being with each other here.
This is my happy place.
This is where I want to be all the time.
Well, it's definitely exercise, but it is meditative--
just a whole different experience of Maine.
This town is Boothbay Harbor, Maine.
It's on the coast.
It's about an hour and 20 minutes north of Portland.
It's a beautiful, beautiful part of the country.
Everything is focused on outdoors.
It's very casual.
It's very relaxed.
It's very welcoming.
I think all of those things make Maine special.
My profession originally was a family practice physician,
but I'm retired now.
Just being by the water is so relaxing.
It's beautiful.
I find it very calming.
There's just always something to look at.
We had been living in Atlanta for 15 years
and were wanting to have a home on the water somewhere.
It just made sense to look up here because we have family
and because we have such a love of Maine.
We came up, looked around, and I mean,
it took me one day to find this house.
When I walked in the door, I was like, this is the house.
As soon as I saw the house, I called Steve
from Knickerbocker, which is a design
build company here in Maine--
he's also my brother-in-law-- and said, Steve,
would you come over and look at this house
and tell me what you think?
STEVE MALCOLM: The experience was wonderful
because we were able to take this old cottage that
was really quintessential Maine and bring it back, if you will.
The quintessential Maine cottage is essentially open porch,
rafter tails that are exposed, shingle style, lots of glass,
water views in as many places as you can get them.
It's very casual, very casual living.
MARY BARRETT: This was built around 1900,
and it was a getaway for people coming
up from the heat of Boston.
The house is built on granite ledge,
and it slopes down to the water, so everything's
kind of on an angle.
When we bought it, it had two levels--
the main level, which is kitchen,
dining, living room, porch, and a bathroom,
and then upstairs, five bedrooms and a bathroom.
Later, we added a bunk room, which is located down
underneath the porch, and there's
beds and a little living space and a bathroom down there.
The house is about 1,700 square feet total.
My daughter is Elena Duralde, and she
works for Knickerbocker Group.
She's an interior designer, and Elena
has been really instrumental in helping
to make this house what it is.
ELENA DURALDE: I definitely have more
than your standard relationship with this house.
I know every part of it very well.
Our home is called Basque in the Sun.
My father's side of the family is from the Basque region
of Spain, so it's a little pun.
MARY BARRETT: The kitchen was an addition.
Cooking and entertaining is a really important thing
to all of us, and so we wanted a kitchen
where we could really do that.
There was a wall here where it's open now.
None of this stonework was here.
One of the first things we decided to do
was to take down the wall, open up the view.
When that was all open, they were
able to bring in this big granite pillar, which took--
I don't know-- probably a big lift and a few people
to put it upright, and then just built everything in around it.
ELENA DURALDE: We have a big family,
and it's not uncommon for us to have a big meal.
And then after our meal, we still
want to continue hanging out.
Something we do quite often is we play games,
and we're all very competitive people,
so it's usually pretty fun.
And then we also like to do puzzles,
so it's just a great thing to lay out on the table
when you have guests over.
MARY BARRETT: We built the fireplace.
We replaced the old brick one, and we
wanted to do something with it that was kind
of unique and special to us.
We put in two stones, one that is in the shape of the state
of Maine, and one that's in the shape of the state of Georgia,
which is where we live when we're not here.
This is the state of Maine right here,
and that's the state of Georgia.
STEVE MALCOLM: One of the things that Mary
wanted out of it was to get as much light to the inside.
The palette is pretty dark in general,
but we wanted to introduce more natural light
because it was so cut up.
We opened it all up.
ELENA DURALDE: They didn't even have windows in areas
where there was just a beautiful view.
So like in this area, for instance,
these windows were added.
Everything that was done was to basically highlight
the view-- take advantage of the view
from every part of the house.
MARY BARRETT: To me, in this home,
it just feels a little kitschy, a little odd, interesting.
The things in here sort of are reflective of our family
and of what we like.
One of the collections that I started at least 20 years ago
was kitchenware that had green on it.
I really didn't have any place to display it.
One day I was walking up these stairs,
and I just noticed this big blank wall.
And I thought, that's where I can
put all my kitchen green ware.
I got to pick the bedroom I wanted, and this was it.
This obviously has this incredible view
that's right here, so I can just lie in bed
and look out at the ocean.
My husband and I bought this in Spain.
There's a town called Talavera where they make pottery.
And we went there, and we found this lamp, which we loved.
And we never hung it until we bought this house in 2009.
ELENA DURALDE: This is a big gathering
place for us as a family, and we use it for many things.
We have dinner parties out here.
We spend every morning out here.
We can take a nap in the hammock.
MARY BARRETT: This part of the house-- there was a stairway
here that went down to an area underneath the porch, which was
just a storage area, just kind of a dirt floor, dark,
one tiny little window in there.
So the bunk room was sort of phase two of our renovation.
Once we had grandchildren, we thought,
well, it'd be great if we could put in some more beds
somewhere.
So the bunk room is built on top of ledge, and it's not just
like a flat level surface.
It's angled, and it's rock, and we had
to build around all of that.
Beds are at different heights, and there's
little drawers built in and spaces that appeared.
ELENA DURALDE: We had several different iterations,
and this was kind of the layout that worked the best.
We have these bunk beds.
We've got a twin bed behind the porthole,
and then we've got a queen.
So it's kind of the perfect situation for a family.
I think the general goal with this space
was to kind of mirror the aesthetic of upstairs.
I would say it's a touch more nautical than upstairs,
but that was kind of really what we were going for,
was the look and feel of if you were on a boat.
We've got these cleats which are handles to get
up into the bunks.
Obviously, we have these buoys.
We utilize the porthole detail because that bed in there
was kind of feeling cavernous, and also we
wanted to be able to allow them to get some natural light
in there and to see the view.
MARY BARRETT: And then we added all these windows
because these windows weren't here,
so that's what really let the light in here
and also opened up the view from down here.
ELENA DURALDE: I mean, I felt like we're on the same page
the whole time about the vision and the space.
[music playing]
So you guys haven't even been here before.
We added two stones.
One is Maine, and one is Georgia.
You got to find them.
I see Maine.
You found Maine already?
Yes.
STEVE MALCOLM: The opportunity to work on a family house
was really kind of special because we're
a very pretty tight family.
And of course, now when we come over here
and we have fun and have dinners and have drinks on the porch,
it's really fun to sit and see and experience
the work that we did.
Here's to the beginning of summer in Maine
and plenty more lobster.
ELENA DURALDE: I think the story of this house--
I think what it started as, what it currently is,
and what I hope that it always stays is many things.
It's a retreat.
It's a gathering place.
And I think it is like the center of family.
And for us, it's a really integral part
of our connections, and it brings us together
from all around the world.
And the hope is that it stays that way,
and it's passed down to our children.
And they love it as much as we do,
and it remains that kind of respite for people.
[music playing]