A Sugarloaf Mountain dream home
The dark wood siding lets the home blend in seamlessly with the background, while the contrasting lighter wood elements on the garage-turned-ADU and main house provide a lovely pop of color to the facade.
By June Donenfeld
Photography by Katherine Ripley
MEGAN FLYNN grew up in Bangor but spent many family holidays at Sugarloaf Mountain, where her family owned a condo. “It was such a special place for me, filled with amazing memories and, of course, great skiing,” says Flynn, the Boston-based co-owner of M. Flynn jewelry store. “And though the condo was eventually sold, Sugarloaf stayed close to my heart.”
Flynn’s husband, Roman Gramc, a software engineer, is also an avid skier. But having grown up in Slovenia, a country renowned for its natural beauty and alpine sports, his day trips to the crowded mountains around Boston had left him skeptical about Northeast skiing. Once Flynn took him to Sugarloaf, though, he fell in love with it, too. “After that, we knew we wanted a place of our own,” she says.
In the spring of 2020, the couple found their dream house at Sugarloaf and went to contract. But their luck didn’t hold. When the pandemic hit, they paused the sale, only to have another buyer swoop in and purchase the property. They resumed their search, but nothing panned out, and so, armed with a thoughtful wish list, they decided to take the leap and build their own. Construction began in 2021 and finished the following year.
Flynn and Gramc wanted an energy-efficient home that felt welcoming for friends and family but also comfortable and manageable when they were on their own. It also needed to be low-maintenance so they wouldn’t worry when they were hours away in Boston.
To help with the countless decisions they would have to make, the two got expert guidance from builder Joseph Hines and architect Ashley Hopwood Farrar of Meldrum Design in nearby Kingfield. “With so many advances in homebuilding— particularly around energy efficiency and airtight design— we quickly realized how much we didn’t know,” Flynn says. “Having Joe and Ashley guide us through the options and make thoughtful suggestions was invaluable in helping us design a house that is both efficient and comfortable.”
In the living room, the variegated stone fireplace and floor-to-ceiling windows take pride of place, along with comfy contemporary seating, a hard-wearing sisal carpet, and an ample, round wooden coffee table that all say, "Sit down and stay awhile."
The skillful design started with siting the house to take advantage of the mountain views to the southwest and maximize the sunshine (aka passive solar gain) that would help warm the home in the colder months. This positioning also helped to minimize the view of the garage from the road, another important item on the couple’s wish list. Outside, the Alpine Craftsman-style home has a solar-ready standing seam metal roof, and siding that showcases Maine wood, including an eye-catching mix of hand-cut red cedar shakes and white pine clapboard stained dark gray. Inside, the light-flooded house has wooden floors everywhere, save for tile in the bathrooms and thick stone in the connector between the garage and the house. The first floor has an ensuite primary bedroom ideal for aging in place; an open-plan kitchen, living, and dining area; a much-loved mudroom with ample, wellorganized storage; and a utility room. Expansive windows in the living and dining area admit abundant south and southwestern sun and provide views of Sugarloaf in the winter. A contemporary staircase leads to the two bedrooms, two baths and bonus room upstairs. Just outside the main house, a door in the attached two-car garage gives access to the one-bedroom accessory dwelling unit (ADU) above, where houseguests can enjoy complete privacy when they want it.
There is sleek storage everywhere you look in the kitchen/ dining area, with cabinets, counters and an open-shelf pantry that let items be taken out or cleared away at a moment's notice.
To meet the efficiency objectives, the project relied on heavy insulation, tight air sealing, heat pumps and an energy recovery ventilator (ERV) that keeps the indoor air fresh and filtered. There’s also radiant heat throughout the main building, which the couple had as one of their main goals.
“We love how it provides even, consistent warmth and is far more efficient than forced air,” Flynn says. While there is a traditional system on the first floor, it wasn’t practical to install one upstairs, so Hines and Gramc found a perfect solution in Warmboard®, an all-in-one hydronic setup that includes wood flooring, radiant subfloor panels and thermostats that allow for temperature control in each room. The panels are bonded to a highly conductive, thick aluminum alloy, ensuring the heat is spread quickly and evenly—and with lower energy usage. “Now we’re able to heat the upstairs more quickly than the first floor, and the system has proven to be incredibly efficient,” Flynn says.
Large windows in the bedrooms provide an ever-changing panorama year-round. In winter, you can lie snugly in bed and watch the snowflakes tumbling down; inside, all is toasty warm, thanks to the efficient underfloor radiant heating system.
The home also needed to be highly durable to withstand all the winter weather for decades to come. To that end, one of the many things Farrar did was to design the concrete foundation to extend three feet above the ground. This protects the wood siding from the moisture of the inevitable snow accumulation at the home’s base—and potential rot. The summer after construction finished, “We scattered a few pounds of wildflower seeds,” Flynn says, “and it’s been so much fun to watch them grow and see what comes up each year.” She’s also been cultivating a pollinator-friendly, low-maintenance, drought- and deer-resistant garden and working with a local landscaper to plant evergreens and trees that provide year-round structure. “The result is a garden that’s bright, fun, and sustainable—and low-maintenance.”
The couple is thrilled with their mountain retreat. And if they had to pass on some advice to people who want their own project to be equally successful? “It can definitely be challenging, and it takes time out of your day and away from work, but it’s also an incredible investment,” Flynn says. “If you surround yourself with people you trust, the process will come together beautifully. In the end, you’ll have a space that’s designed specifically for you and the way you live—and that makes it all worth it.”
Project Team
ARCHITECT: Meldrum Design
BUILDER: Hines LLC
INTERIOR DESIGN: Hudson Interior Design
STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING: Albert Putnam Associates
PHOTOGRAPHY: Katherine Ripley
Left: The welcoming front entry is set off by a stunning wood portico topped by an angled metal-clad roof that provides welcome shelter from the elements.
This article appeared in the Winter 2026 edition of Green & Healthy Maine. Subscribe today!
Find Maine experts that specialize in healthy, efficient homes in the Green Homes Business Directory.