Back in August 2020, Josh Pritchard put down a chain saw after doing some clear-cutting on land he had bought for $101,000 earlier that year in rural New Gloucester, Maine. He felt defeated. How was he going to manage what he and his wife, Natalie, envisioned: a cozy home for themselves and their five children where they could host friends and family? Even though Josh was president and partner of a successful design and marketing firm with clients that ranged from restaurants to credit unions to glove manufacturers, the sky was decidedly not the limit.

He and Natalie had already hired top talent, the architecture firm Woodhull (formerly Caleb Johnson Studio) and landscape architecture firm Richardson &Associates. And the project’s scope was by no means small: two gable-form structures joined by a breezeway for a total of 4,200 square feet set on 11 rolling acres with creeks, a spring-fed pond, and a sled-ding hill.

At that moment in August, two friends arrived with good news. “We were up all night talking about this—we’re going to general contract your home,” declared Stephen Gilbert, Josh’s business partner, who happens to live down the road in a home also designed by Woodhull, and Chris Morrison, co-owner of Northe Woodworking, a custom cabinet and mill-work shop in nearby Lewiston.

In fact, almost everyone who ended up working on the house was a friend or relative, which cut down on labor costs. Aside from Josh and Chris acting as general contractors, Natalie’s brother, Tim Mosher, did the finish carpentry. They found more savings in Natalie’s past thrift store picks (using, for instance, an antique hutch in lieu of cabinetry in the primary bath) and in their interior designer’s high-low choices for finishes and fixtures. If, say, the designer, Emily Rand of Portland’s A Visual Pursuit, was going to suggest a splurge on the blue wave tiles in the children’s bathroom (a nod to the family’s interest in surfing and skateboarding), the sinks were going to be white, utilitarian, and wall-mounted with piping exposed.

“Putting worn things in a new home makes it feel more relaxed and welcoming and familiar.”
—Emily Rand, interior designer

While some of the team’s work—electrical, plumbing—is hidden behind walls, much is on display, especially in the kitchen and bathrooms. There, Rand layered whites and combined handcrafted and vintage items with Morrison’s clean millwork. Morrison used white oak for the kitchen’s open shelves and refrigerator facing and also for under-shelf cabinetry and drawers, as well as a spacious island with a white concrete top and radial end, an aesthetic connection to curved forms elsewhere in the house, including two striking, oversize circular windows.

Now, Natalie and Josh say, they have what they hoped for: a welcoming home and, as a bonus, one where they can break bread with the people who built it.

Project Credits:

Architecture: Woodhull / @woodhullmaine

Contractors: Josh Pritchard and Chris Morrison

Structural Engineering: Intelligent Design Engineering

Landscape Design: Richardson & Associates

Interior Design: A Visual Pursuit / @avisualpursuit

Cabinetry Design and Installation: Northe Woodworking / @northewoodworking

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