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Is Where theIs Where the Harbor Is Harbor Is

by brad favreau

all photos: landvest K ennebunkport has a legendary history of shipbuilding. It has retained its magnetic attraction to sailors and mariners of every stripe long after the last ship was launched along the Kennebunk River. More than three decades ago, Buzz Littell felt that tug. Standing on a spit of land beside a desultory lobster pound, he saw his future docked here on the river amid the sailboats.

Previous page: Barntheater–with its handsome post-and-beam rafters, this contemporary living space enjoys a front-row seat on the Kennebunk River.

This page: The kitchen’s rough-hewn beauty is a knockout attraction for guests. Dine here or enjoy dinner at Arundel Wharf Restaurant, steps away.

Next page: From the water, it’s ‘just a barn.’ But there’s more to this book than its pragmatic cover.

While many dreams fall by the wayside, diminished by their own weight, Littell, a commercial real estate appraiser in Amherst, New Hampshire, made good use of the years he knew he’d need to achieve his goal. In 1976, he scraped up the funds to create the shell of the post-and-beam house we see today. With his wife Linda, a mortgage banker whom he married in 1982, he embarked upon a tenyear plan, working hard, building capital, and keeping his eyes fixed steadily on his prize.

By 1991, Buzz and Linda were ready to take the plunge and become full-time Mainers. “We immediately felt at home in Kennebunkport,” Linda says. Steeping himself in the character of his adopted home town, Buzz leapt right in and became a lobsterman. The dream he and Linda now shared became a true labor of love. Slowly, they worked on their house to gether. They installed windows and skylights with a keen eye to the views of the surrounding water. They hung drywall, added Spanish tile given to them by a friendly sea captain, and trimmed out the house in a variety of woods, including cherry, hickory, cedar, and pine. “We built the decks so we could enjoy the salt air” of the nearby ocean, Linda says.

A boathouse, also of post-and-beam construction, was added to the property adjacent the property’s sensational 120 feet of deep-water dock. It’s “more beautiful than most people’s houses,” Linda understates of the space that comes complete with a woodworking shop. Living with water beside you here is magic. “I love rolling out of bed and jumping in my boat,” Buzz was fond of saying as the morning sun sparkled through their windows on the water.

Five years into the project, the dream was

realized but the house was only partially completed. Buzz passed away. As a last gesture to her husband, Linda hired a crew to quickly complete what she and Buzz had begun years before.

“He made me promise to finish it,” Linda says.

Though not large, the house is nicely proportioned. Rooms flow easily among three levels, the exposed post and beam structure adding elegant rusticity. The main level is made up of a spacious living room, dining room, and kitchen, each with granite accents that echo the rocky riverfront just beyond the glass doors. The master bedroom looks down on the living areas below. Additional bedrooms are found on the ground floor. Everywhere you look, a nautical theme is apparent, reflecting the bond Buzz and Linda had to the water. “It looks like the inside of a boat,” Linda says.

In spite of being located near the center of a major tourist destination, the house, situated on the peninsula, allows a high degree of privacy. (Buzz had years earlier widened the peninsula by filling in the river’s edge with granite rip-rap and 60,000 cubic yards of fill, now strictly forbidden by shoreland zoning regulations.)

Now that she’s remarried, Linda and her new husband wish to travel and have listed the property with LandVest, Inc., for $2.7 million. Agent Bill Davisson describes the house and dock as “a unique property in the middle of a maritime port environment.”

What’s exceptional here is how easily it blends in with its neighbors, yet is unlike anything else in town. Cozy and romantic, this rugged beauty is built to last. It’s time now for the dream to be passed along. n

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