Ultimate lake house
 

This is what you get when you combine money, good taste and respect for surrounding environment.


https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...0814791_zpid/?

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kenneth...on-11631888117

Is it an insulated and heated year 'round house or a summer/seasonal house because the walls and pitched ceilings look to be non-insulated?

It certainly appears to be a non-insulated summer house which seems very unusual for a designer/big money house like that.

" ....... heat ..... insulation ...... don't need it ...... don't want it ...... we only go there from June 27 to August 13 ...... and that's it ..... for just 7-weeks!"

60-year old Kenneth Irving, grandson of Irving Oil founder, K.C. Irving 1899-1992 ...... you know the Irving Oil gas stations all across NH and Maine ...... maybe he lives in Saint John, New Brunswick and for him it's not unusual to have a non-insulated summer house down in Maine, between Bangor and Mt Desert Island just for a simple summer place on the water ..... nothing too fancy .... sort of like a Lake Winnipesaukee island house! ..... asking price, ten million dollars, includes 484-acres and 1.5-mile shoreline on deep water, Craig Pond in Orland, Maine with 11-rooms and 8-bathrooms, domestic plumbing water drawn from the lake.

So's when you turns on the kitchen faucet .......apparently ....... what comes out is Craig Pond water ....... just like a Lake Winnipesaukee island house ..... and most everyone does the lug-a-blue-jug for cooking and coffee from the water vending machine at the Hannafords' Store.

A lot of the price is probably the acreage.
If I remember correctly, Bahre's home sold for roughly twice what he purchased the land for.

Generational cottage/camps that stay within a family for a long time are seldom large.

The Irving's will have money for generations due to their business holdings, so if they are selling this property... they don't seem to see it as the ultimate. Something about the property/location itself doesn't seem to sit well with them.

Builder
 

Serious to see who did the project design and build. It's certainly Bensonwood style!

The land was purchased by Ken Irving in about 2005.

Supposedly, the property tax is only about $7500/year, which is hard to believe. This seems way too low to me as compared to Winnipesaukee.

But why would Irving, that could afford the property regardless of the annual property tax, want to rid himself of it?

If the intent was to build a generational property in the first place, why is it being sold? I know the Sander's sold the camp that the wife inherited that was in Maine, but that was to purchase the one in Vermont were they intended the family to be located for the foreseeable future.

Don’t understand why you think something is wrong. Family situation are constantly changing maybe he decided he likes another area or state as he and his family grow older etc. could be many different reasons no need to assume something seems off


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There is nothing wrong. The linked NY Times article states they have moved to the west coast. Probably creating the equivalent home there. The architect was Rob Whitten from Portland, Maine. They have done a few here on Winni. Very talented.

With 484-acres and 1.5 miles shoreline on deep, clear water Craig Pond in Orland, Maine that looks to be a great spot for a youth summer camp. Maybe Ken Irving, Irving Oil, could sell it to the Paul Newman Hole-in-the-Wall summers camps that owns different camps in different areas of the country.

You know some of the purchase price for their salad dressing and frozen pizza goes to fund the summer camp program. Do they have a summer camp in any of the six New England states.

The existing seasonal 11-room house could remain as as the directors home of the summer camp, and all the ball fields, tennis courts, basketball court, recreation center, dining room, waterfront, horse barn, volleyball court, camper cabins and everything else could get built up, out back of the founder's house.

Sort of a reverse story from the historic Lake Winnipesaukee death and demise of all its summer camps to the Maine birth of a new summer camp with a great waterfront location.

http://www.holeinthewallgang.org/abo...r-and-History/

I didn't state wrong... that was Joey. I questioned why the sale? You answered it. I generally don't follow a lot of the links... so had I read the article I would have known.

With that level of wealth, having homes in vastly different areas is understandable.

This was your quote

“Something about the property/location itself doesn't seem to sit well with them.”

Which implied there was something wrong.


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And I went on to explain why the Sander's property did not sit well with them.

The Irving property doesn't sit well with them because of location, much the same as the Sander's.

The Bahre property was placed for sale because the son passed away, and the generational nature of it no longer became a defining factor into ownership.
The part of the property with the deceased son's home on it is still for sale.

It sold mostly for the value of land because the widow no longer wanted to deal with it. She could have held out for a better offer - especially in this market - but didn't see the personal value to her time or efforts on the matter.

When we sold the Winnisquam property, we were asked what was wrong with it. I stated nothing. It was purchased for the easy access to the lake for fishing and duck hunting. The lake had been further developed and that changed the nature of what could be done and the quality. The people that purchased it didn't hunt or fish... so not an issue for them.

When we later sold the Crystal Lake property, I was asked the same question. Nothing wrong with the property, just a medical incident (non-emergency) occurred and on the way to LRGH, I realized how long it took from Crystal Lake into Laconia. In an emergency, I felt that distance/time to be too great.

Nothing wrong with the properties, the locations just didn't sit well with me.

Of more interest to me than who owns it or why they sold it is the incredible job done to blend it into the landscape. It shows that you can have a very large house and yet have it blend into its environment and keep the lake looking more natural. Way better than huge green lawns with all their fertilizer destroying water quality.

Granted. But I think that less than money, it takes a certain taste.
Any lakefront owner could go more camp and less cottage, if that were their personal taste. They would let the restricted shoreline naturalize, choose more earth tone colors when doing exterior work, and ask us to make the windows/doors look more traditional to decades old norms.

Houses blending in....
 

I was up at Squam Lake a couple weekends ago.... hadn't been there for a few years. I was stunned at how different the lake feels compared to Winnie.

It was a gorgeous sunny Saturday (granted after Labor Day) but the boat traffic was minimal. I was fishing a bass tournament and spent many hours fishing along shorelines and islands and it was great not fighting boat wakes all day. The other thing that really stood out was the way most of the waterfront properties blended beautifully within the wooded lots. At times you really had to look carefully to see the the house (mansions!) nestled in the woods.

Of course I spent an an inordinate amount with my face buried in the lake chart.... man, what a terrifying place to navigate!

Don't get me wrong I still love Winnie! variety is the spice of life methinks!

Cheers...

Gusman

Squam is fun, but it will humble you.
My brother in law and I ran aground there in the 90s and there was NOTHING marking the rocks.

Fortunately, we were going slow, but I still ended up in the water pushing the boat (aluminum bass tracker) off the rocks. You can't sleep on that lake, but man, it is beautiful.


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THIS ultimate lake house in Maine is what you get when you combine sensible use of money, good taste, and respect for the environment: