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Kettle House in the oak woods at dusk, its glazed living room reaching out over the rim of the hollow on steel beams.

Kettle HouseLloyd Harbor

No. 31 / New house / 2020

A cedar house in Lloyd Harbor that bridges the rim of a glacial kettle, a hollow the last ice sheet left behind.

Scope
New house
Completed
2020
Area
3,340 sq ft
Lot
1.6 acres
Bedrooms / baths
4 / 3.5
Design, approvals, build
7, 4 and 15 months
Contract
$2,780,000
Final cost
$2,824,000 (+1.6%)
Changes
2 owner, 1 site
Superintendent
Dana Whitlock
Approvals
Building permit, Septic approval, Planning board
01 / The site

A hole the glacier left.

1.6 acres of oak woods with a kettle in the middle: a bowl 14 feet deep and 90 feet across. It holds water in April and is dry by June. Every builder who walked it before us wanted to fill it.

Contours every 2 ft. High point 143 ft, low point 127 ft. Ground generalized from the survey, which stays with the owners.

130140MAIN WINGBRIDGE ROOMTHE KETTLE, 14 FT DEEPwater in April126.3141.0N050 FTKettle HouseL-1 · CONTOURS EVERY 2 FT · HIGH 143.2 · LOW 127.4NO. 31

Kettle House, site plate

130140MAIN WINGBRIDGE ROOMTHE KETTLE, 14 FT DEEPwater in April126.3141.0N050 FTKettle HouseL-1 · CONTOURS EVERY 2 FT · HIGH 143.2 · LOW 127.4NO. 31

On a small screen, scroll sideways to read the whole sheet.

02 / The brief

Do not fill the hole.

A couple who had walked their dog around the bowl for ten years before they bought the lot. They wanted to keep walking around it, and to look into it from the kitchen.

Bluestone steps leading down beside the glass end of Kettle House into the ferns of the hollow.
PL. 01 / The bluestone steps down into the kettle beside the glass end of the bridge room. Dry by June, as promised.
03 / The answer

A room across the rim.

The main wing sits on the east rim. The living room is a 30-foot glazed bridge on two steel beams that reaches out over the edge of the bowl, and bluestone steps lead down into it. In April the room looks over water; in July, over ferns.

LIVING (BRIDGE)30'-0" x 18'-0"MUDROOM12'-0" x 14'-0"ENTRY10'-0" x 14'-0"STAIRPANTRYKITCHEN18'-0" x 20'-0"DINING16'-0" x 20'-0"64'-0"34'-0"N10 FTA-101 · KETTLE HOUSE · GROUND FLOORThe living room is a 30-ft bridge over the rim; the kitchen looks down the bowl.

Kettle House, ground floor

LIVING (BRIDGE)30'-0" x 18'-0"MUDROOM12'-0" x 14'-0"ENTRY10'-0" x 14'-0"STAIRPANTRYKITCHEN18'-0" x 20'-0"DINING16'-0" x 20'-0"64'-0"34'-0"N10 FTA-101 · KETTLE HOUSE · GROUND FLOORThe living room is a 30-ft bridge over the rim; the kitchen looks down the bowl.

On a small screen, scroll sideways to read the whole sheet.

04 / The price

The steel was the change.

First price $2.65M to $2.95M. Signed at $2.78M. Final $2.824M, up 1.6 percent: two owner changes and one site change, heavier steel after the engineer saw the soil borings.

First band
$2,650,000 to $2,950,000
Contract
$2,780,000
Final
$2,824,000 (+1.6%)
Construction
$2,566,000
Site work and septic
$214,000
Owner changes
$16,500
Site change: heavier steel
$27,500
Total
$2,824,000
Sample data

Design fees are billed separately: 10 percent of construction for a new house, 12 percent for a renovation or an addition.

05 / Materials

What Kettle House is made of.

  • Steel beams

    Two wide-flange beams, 30-ft span

    Under the bridge room.

  • Black-framed glass

    Floor to ceiling

    Both long sides of the bridge room.

  • White cedar boards

    Vertical, painted

    The main wing.

  • Thermal-finished bluestone, a flat grey-blue surface.
    Thermal-finished bluestone

    Slabs on gravel

    The steps down into the bowl.

  • Rift-sawn white oak

    Site-finished matte

    Every floor.

Plates

More of Kettle House.

Inside the bridge room at Kettle House: glass on both long sides, oak woods all round and the hollow falling away beyond the windows.
PL. 02 / Inside the bridge room. Glass on both long sides; in April it looks over water, in July over ferns.
A desk and chair at a steel-framed window upstairs at Kettle House, the glass full of leaves.
PL. 03 / Upstairs, the study window: steel sash with an opening light in the middle, and nothing but leaves until November.
The kettle in July: a hollow of ferns in the oak woods, bluestone steps down into it and the glass end of the bridge room above.
PL. 04 / The kettle in July, from the bottom of the bluestone steps. The bridge room reaches over the rim on two steel beams; the heavier steel was the one site change.

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