Home Diaries: Issue 03 - A Family Builds a Lakeside Maine Retreat
February 20, 2026 | By Lucia Gagliardone
Imagine you find yourself at Andy and Becky’s home in Lakeville, Maine. With a fire crackling in the wood stove and the kids safely tucked in bed, you pull on a sweater and step outside, heading to the dock that looks over Bottle Lake. Two partner loons call out to each other across the water with their haunting birdsong. You look up and the Milky Way lays spattered across the vast, inky-black sky. You are one of fifty or so families that return to this beautiful sanctuary, the Boulder Point Lakehouse, year after year, collecting recurring memories built from quality time in the wilderness with loved ones.
Andy and Becky built their Maine getaway with this scenario in mind. They chose The Hangout (V1) design because it created the perfect basecamp for families – including their own – to explore and relax together in a place that is “wild and beautiful”, while enjoying the comforts of a modern home. Andy grew up adventuring in rural Pennsylvania during family trips, and he wanted to recreate this vacation ritual with his own family of five in Maine. When Andy and I spoke on the phone – on what he called a “dreary, dark, rainy evening in Central Pennsylvania” – I instantly recognized the admiration in Andy’s voice for the rugged New England landscape and the promise it held for fostering exploration and connection for his loved ones.
Foundation begins.
Views from the future living room.
Walls take shape!
Starting to look like a house!
Andy: We're in a town called Lakeville, Maine – I use the word “town” very loosely, because I think there are 60 people that live there year round. Our home is on Bottle Lake, which is part of the Grand Lakes chain, about a dozen interconnected lakes. It's a wilderness experience. Most of the land is undeveloped– either conserved via land trusts or stewarded by the Passamaquoddy Tribal Nation.
Lucia: What drew you to this particular place when you decided to build a home?
The house sitting in the woods.
Andy: We wanted to build something in a place that was wild and beautiful. You get on these lakes and you hear the loons, the soundtrack of wild, untamed places. We also have one of the darkest skies in the continental United States. I remember the first time I was up there overnight to work on the house. I looked up at the sky around 11 o’clock, and I was taken aback by how bright the stars were. There's no light pollution: you can see the Milky Way because the sky is so dark. As I was staring at the Milky Way, I was hearing loons; their call carries better through the nighttime sky. You just feel like you're in a very special place.
Lucia: I particularly love the phrase “wild and beautiful”. Can you speak more to what that means to you and the motivation behind building your home in a “wild and beautiful” place?
Andy: Growing up as a child, we only took one vacation a year and we went to the same place every summer. We rented cabins at Moshannon State Forest in Pennsylvania. For me, being young, I loved the outdoors, I loved to fish, I loved to hunt. But what was most special about that week was that I had freedom to explore in a way that I couldn't explore the other 51 weeks out of the year. I could leave that cabin, hop on my bike, and go wherever I wanted to go. There was a lake at the state park, so I would take my bike to the lake and fish. One time, I was in the stream above the lake fishing for trout and a coyote walked out of the woods, looked at me, and then walked back into the woods.
Lucia: This trip seems like a treasured family tradition.
Andy: It was a time when we were able to connect as a family.
We saw aunts and uncles who we didn't see any other time throughout the year. I remember family gathering around the picnic tables and playing games and having conversations. We connected as a family in a way that we didn't connect the other 51 weeks of the year.
Lucia: What do you hope carries over from that childhood experience to the home you just built in Lakeville, Maine?
Andy: Our place in Maine kind of recreates that experience on a jumbo-sized level. It provides a home base for adventure, right?
But it also gives us a space where we can gather as a family and enjoy each other's company. We can play games, we can laugh, we can talk in ways that you can't really do when you're at home. When you're there, you're there.
We wanted a place that was big enough that we could share this experience with not just our immediate family of five, but our parents, aunts and uncles, and friends. Having four bedrooms, a little bit over 2,000 square feet of space with a very large, open area between the living room, the kitchen and the dining room just felt right for us. When we're not there, we're opening up our place as a rental. It feels really rewarding that we're going to be able to give that experience to others through this home. We have a guest who's booking for this summer. He's a grandfather, and he's planning a vacation for his wife and their children and grandchildren, 10 of them coming up in August. He told me that 50 years ago, he canoed the Grand Lakes Chain that our place is on. He wants to take his grandchildren out on a canoe while they're there and go paddling around the lakes and overnight camp on some of the lake islands. He's going to be recreating the experience that he had 50 years ago with his grandchildren and our house is going to help make that happen for his family.
The walkout basement and future deck area.
Siding begins!
Rainscreen installation complete!
Siding progress mid-winter.
A house becomes a home - landscaping begins.
Lucia: I love the idea that when you're not there, there could be 50 other families having that “special week”. Zooming back a little, what led you to choosing to build your own house versus buying an existing property?
Andy: We had some very specific expectations and desires as to what we wanted our home to be. In the region of Maine where we purchased our land, there aren’t many existing homes that would check off all the boxes for us. A lot of the homes are beautiful in their own right, but they're smaller. The windows are smaller. They're built to keep the outside out and the inside in and it wasn't quite what we wanted. When we found Holly’s plan, The Hangout, we knew it was right for us. We were drawn to the contemporary design: clean, big windows, plenty of sleeping space and plenty of gathering space. Even though we didn't have a very large building envelope, the home fit perfectly within the allowable area and it maximized the view of the water. It was the perfect orientation for the home.
Lucia: That's very serendipitous. I’m really interested in how you engaged with the local Maine community during the build process. Can you talk more about the community building aspect of this whole process and what that has meant to you?
Andy: On a trip up to Maine I wanted to find someone to build the home for us. As I was driving to the lake, I saw a cabin being built, so I went up and I knocked on the door. The woman who lived there said, “come on in” and I had a conversation with them about their builder. I also went to a local sporting lodge and asked if the folks there knew anyone who could do site work for me. When I spoke to the site work gentleman, I told him who I was thinking about as a builder. Of course, he knew that builder and gave me a really strong endorsement! Similarly, I found somebody to do some painting for us by stopping in at a local general store. All the general stores up in Maine have a bulletin board where people put their business cards. Throughout the process, I've met some wonderful neighbors. My friend and I went up in September to assemble furniture and a retired couple on the next road over spent two days helping us put together the furniture. They brought over lunch because they knew we wouldn't have any groceries. This was the first time that we had ever met them in person, and here they were spending a day and a half with us helping us.
The deck overlooking the lake.
The living room - those views!
Lucia: It’s incredible to see how meeting local folks and getting involved with the community was important to your home-building journey. What advice do you have for others who are looking to build their own home, especially in a remote location?
Andy: Building a home from afar is doable, with some pre-planning. Here’s my advice:
First, make sure you have detailed plans. Had we not had plans that were as detailed as Hereabout’s, our build process would have been much more difficult doing it all the way from Pennsylvania. The plans were not only detailed from a structural standpoint, but very detailed from a design standpoint.
Showing the height of the showerhead, how the kitchen and the various bathrooms should be tiled, where the hooks for towels should be placed, and where the mirrors should be placed. I could go on and on. Our builder was great in terms of structure and quality, but he had never built anything like this. We would tell him, “ just build it exactly like it says on the plans with respect to the design”.
We really leaned a lot on the very detailed plans.
Second, make sure you have a good line of communication with your builder. Our builder didn't like to get texts at six in the evening because that was his time to eat dinner. I had to respect that. But he would wake up at four every morning.
I could send him a text at five or six in the morning, and he'd get back to me right away. Also, ask for lots of photos. Be clear about your expectations. If there's something that you know you want in the home, make sure you communicate that as early in the process as you can.
Third, figure out where and how you’ll be sourcing things for the home. We had so much stuff that we had to buy and have shipped up there, and had to have a plan for that. The local lumber supply store served as kind of a depot to send all of our stuff to. They'd give it to our builder and he'd take it to a storage unit and lock it up in there until he needed to access it.
Lucia: Thank you so much for that advice. You mentioned things that people might not think about when they're starting the build process; super helpful! My final question is what does this home mean to you and your family?
Andy: I think it means to be present with each other in a place that is beautiful, with limited distractions around us. What we built in Maine is a place where we can connect on a deeper level.
Beautiful sunsets happen almost every night on this lake from this dock.
We, as a family, are going to get to experience that together. We're going to get to look up at the sky and see stars and other families are going to be able to do the same thing. And that's really special to us.
One of the cozy ground floor bedrooms.
The clean and bright kitchen.
The living room - with an amazing view of Bottle Neck Lake.
Upstairs bathroom
The hallway & bridge!
Cozy loft - perfect movie lounge.
Looking down on the living room.
I listened in awe as Andy described his connection to the land, his interactions with the local community as he navigated the building process, and his aspirations for the home moving forward. I absorbed his reverent perspective of the Maine wilderness and noticed that his dedication to honoring the land and building community bridges enabled the build’s success. Andy hopes the Boulder Point Lakehouse is a launching pad for families to cultivate and collect memories over the years, surrounded by miles of untouched wilderness. I feel confident that Andy and Becky, their three children, and the countless families who will vacation there will experience a home they truly love.
Book a stay at Andy & Becky’s house - the perfect Maine Vacation!
To learn more about Andy and Becky’s home, including rental and contact information, visit Boulder Point Lakehouse on Facebook : Link Here.
To learn more about Hereabout Home, please visit www.hereabouthome.com/ or get in touch with Founder Holly Mumford here: hello@hereabouthome.com.
Hereabout designs ready-to-build home plans for those who desire a home they truly love. With over a decade of experience in residential design, Holly started Hereabout to bridge the gap between budget and design for those who seek a thoughtfully designed home. With a passion for design and a dedication to sustainability, she’s focused on making quality design attainable. Creating warm, livable spaces is at the root of her design philosophy, and she believes that homes are truly a space to belong and connect.
About the Author
Lucia Gagliardone is a Vermont-born, Brooklyn-based interdisciplinary dance artist and writer. Her work explores memory excavation, ancestry, queer worldviews, and play as a facilitator for change. Learn more at www.luciagagliardone.com.