This year’s HGTV 2015 Dream House is located on Martha’s Vineyard at 15 Crocker Drive in Edgartown.
The house was designed by the amazing local architect Patrick Ahearn who has offices in Boston and MV and built by Timothy McHugh Builders of Martha’s Vineyard.
As with all HGTV Dream Homes, the House Planner was Chuck Thomasson and the Interior Designer was Linda Woodrum. I met Chuck and Linda when I toured the HGTV Green Home in Plymouth a few years ago. I did like that home (though I had many issues with it as well) but I have to say that I love this year’s Dream Home. Their selection of Mr. Ahearn as architect was a home run right out of the gate – for me at least.
The house is 3200 sq. feet and is built around a central open plan great room/dining room and kitchen. The wings (meant to look as if they were all separate cottages that were eventually joined together) house the three bedrooms, bathrooms, laundry rooms and one-car garage.
They have even included a little matching dog house that is also totally gorgeous. Note the weathervane on the cupola. The dog house also conveniently hides a utility access drum of some kind from the house.
The front door opens right into the open main living space – which is one of my very few complaints of the house. I do wish the entry had some kind of foyer space.
I believe the door and trim are Ben Moore’s Essex Green – the same as my front door here at Nook Cottage! Always a classic.
The great room as viewed from the back doors towards the front door. The dining area is to the left and the kitchen is beyond that.
The vaulted and beamed ceiling with the windows has kind of church effect, which I love.
The dining table with the kitchen beyond.
Another view towards the rear French doors. There’s quite a Something’s Gotta Give house quality to this space, no?
The kitchen is fine – fairly modest in size for a 3,200 sq. ft. house. I do like that it’s at least slightly apart from the main living/dining space.
I think as a space it could use a little more interest – perhaps more interesting cabinet hardware or a more colorful center island – either painted base cabinets or a bright blue quartz counter top.
For the 2010 Green Home in Plymouth, MA, designer Linda Woodrum used a red quartz counter top that was spectacular:
The HGTV 2015 Dream House master bedroom suite features a coordinated color palette of blue green, white and gray. This room also features a vaulted ceiling with antique beams.
I would certainly have put half-shutters on the lower portions of the windows behind the bathtub for privacy. Otherwise, the curtains would have to be fully closed, or shades pulled fully down. This is a one-story house resulting in absolutely no privacy in the bathrooms.
And now, onto the other wing of the HGTV 2015 Dream House, which includes the guest room below. It’s funny, maybe it’s just I don’t care that much for the color palettes, but I feel like the decor of these spaces isn’t quite as interesting as the rest of the house. Also, is it just me, or is anyone else getting sick of seeing window treatments hanging so high over windows? While I agree with the “high and wide” philosophy, there is a whole lot of blank space over these windows. Also, I would have gone wider with the window treatments all the way to the side walls behind the bed. The great heigh makes them look a little too thin.
And the guest bathroom:
The “children’s” bedroom is done up for a little girl or two. Pretty, but a little cacophonous for a space with a vaulted ceiling.
And the kid’s bathroom:
The laundry room is basic.
The back porch is pretty great with a full dining table to the left and an outdoor shower on the far right. Love that!
Someone in some comments section noted that there is no basement in this house, which I thought strange. In fact, there is something of a basement – accessible via a bulkhead just outside the master suite.
On the floor plan, you can see it’s outside the master closet and here’s a pic from the outside. This is also where the a/c compressors are located. I assume the windows have sound proofing since this would be pretty loud right near the master bedroom.
What I don’t know is how large the basement is – does it stretch the entire length of the house (which would make for an enormous basement) or only under this wing? I would think it way more convenient to have the basement access nearer the garage – or even via a staircase from within the garage. But then, I personally hate bulkheads – I’m pretty sure I’d fall in never to be heard from again – haha. As an aside – my Grandparent’s house on Cape Cod had a trap door on their porch for access to their basement – which was a small space dug out of the crawl space to house their washer/dryer. That thing would freak me out when I was little!!!
The Dream Home Show premiers on HGTV on Thursday, January 1st. Two entries a day can be logged in and the deadline is February 15th. I read somewhere that the prize total is about $2 Million dollars. The property alone sold for about $650,000. Add to that the house and all furnishings, landscaping, a new car and one -year membership to the local homeowners membership club, the price tag seems about right. Average Edgartown house values are around the $2M dollar mark, and other houses on the street seem valued around $700,000-$900,000 per Zillow Trulia and other sites. The real estate tax rate is quite low in Edgartown at $3.70 as opposed to West Tilbury at $8.79. The winner would be paying income tax on the total winning package of $2 Million. Nothing comes for free! But, aside from that, it would be fun to be the winner, wouldn’t it?
What do you think of the architecture and decor – would you change much?
