Explore the Fall 2025 issue
On the cover: Built for life: A family’s creative spirit shines in this Portland home. PHOTO: DARREN SETLOW PHOTOGRAPHY LLC.
Designer: Eric Din, Landform Build
Builder: Spindrift Carpentry
Structural Engineering: L&L Structural Engineering Services
HVAC/Solar: ReVision Energy
Insulation/ERV Installation: Casco Bay Insulation
Air-Tightness Testing: All-Around Home Performance
Cabinets: Eric Din
Metalwork: Cumberland Ironworks
Site Planner: Land Design Solutions
Editor’s Note
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IT’S ALL ABOUT THE WOOD…
Five years ago, the cover of our fall issue declared that the secret to low-carbon homes was “all in the wood.” As I read through this year’s fall issue, it is clear that Maine’s high performance building industry is both driving and adopting the imperative of a wood-centric philosophy to help realize our state’s carbon-reduction goals. At the same time, we’re seeing growing interest in the circular economy, using approaches like deconstruction to reduce landfill waste and give a second life to building materials.
Both approaches feature prominently in this issue’s cover story, Built for life. After a Portland couple discovered structural concerns in the Cape they had been hoping to renovate, they partnered with a nonprofit deconstruction organization to systematically dismantle the existing home and salvage its building materials for reuse. In its place, they built their dream home, a super-efficient house that prioritized Maine-sourced Northern White cedar siding, a stunning cross-laminated timber (CLT) basement-to-roof staircase and hand-crafted wood cabinets.
A “wood-first approach” and reducing carbon impact were also central to the Northern Forest Center’s goals in restoring a 19th-century Bethel landmark, transforming it from an empty, neglected single-family home into nine market-rate, year-round apartments that opened this past summer. Old oil boilers were replaced with high-efficiency, wood pellet furnaces, Maine-manufactured TimberHP wood insulation was used in the walls, and 14,900 original pieces of woodwork and flooring were restored. Read more about the project in Historic & modern.
When it comes to landfill waste, constructions materials aren’t the only home-related culprit. Furniture waste is now six times higher than it was in 1960. Investing in high quality, locally crafted pieces is one way to address this while also adding a work of functional art to your home. Learn more about five Maine women making heirloom quality pieces in Custom craft furniture.
If you love a wood fire, but the air quality concerns associated with traditional wood stoves give you pause, you might want to check out masonry heaters. They heat more cleanly and efficiently through higher temperatures and interconnected channels that can circulate heat for up to 12+ hours from a single burn. Long used as a primary heating source in European and Nordic countries, they are starting to gain traction in the United States, too. Learn more in Heating with stone, brick & clay.
Find all this and more in this issue.
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