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A boat cruising up to the dock announces that guests have arrived at Bill and Cathy Bristow’s Kittery Point home, where friends are welcome from both land and sea, and a sunny day is justification enough for an impromptu get-together. 

Summer alone is an occasion to celebrate at the Bristow home. Located on the shores of Chauncey Creek, the Nantucket-inspired house overlooks the creek’s blue waters, the fir trees that grow tall along the banks, and the Piscataqua River beyond where lighthouses illuminate the night sky along with the twinkle of stars. It can all be taken in from a comfortable seat on the patio or across the wide green lawn to the dock’s edge where Adirondack chairs surround an outdoor fireplace often lit at night to counter the cool breezes off the water and to allow the gathering to last after the sun has gone down.

The Bristows built the house with summer entertaining in mind. After 30 years in the Seacoast area, they had plans to move to Florida, but they also wanted to create a summer place specifically for their family and friends to gather, maintaining bonds formed when the couple first moved to the Seacoast area after marrying in 1976. “Since our families were all far away we really became a close-knit group,and our children all grew up together,” explains Cathy, “and they remain close friends.”

They also wanted to create a place for their children and first grandchild to gather. Their children, Shawn, owner of Squaretail Outfitters, which offers some of the finest saltwater fishing on the East Coast, lives with his fiancée Liz and her daughter, Hannah, in Rye, Megan, a nutrition coordinator for Hannaford’s and a Dietitian at a local hospital, and Carlie, a photography major at The Art Institute of Boston, had grown up on the Seacoast. “We moved to Florida yet all of our kids are up here, and they love it,” says Bill.

He smiles when he adds that the large house is actually a “downsize” for the couple since they formerly owned three houses in New England, located in New Castle, N.H., Nantucket, Mass., and Stowe, Vt. Though the New Castle home was in the Seacoast area, it wasn’t large enough for the entertaining they wanted to do. “We wanted to make sure we had a home up here to do that in the summer months,” says Bill.

The Bristows searched for several years before they found the right property, which they found by chance in the newspaper. “I was reading the paper on a Sunday morning and saw it and said, ‘We ought to look at this,’” says Bill. “We came on the following Tuesday, which was a dreary, rainy day, and we didn’t have to say anything to each other. We knew this was it.”

 When it came to designing and building the house, the Bristows decided local was the only way. Best friend and builder Steve Barnhorst of Harbor Point Homes in Kittery was the first they asked. “When we were looking for an architect, I pulled out the phone book and found Coastal Architects,” says Bill. They chose the Kittery Point architectural firm, working with Brian Rodonets and Jan Lamont.

Rounding out the team of local professionals were site engineers from Easterly Survey of Kittery, Martha Petersen Landscape Design, also of Kittery, and landscaper Chad Knowles of CK Landscaping. Chad, who also built the outdoor fireplace, was a familiar face because his parents are the Bristows’ next-door neighbors.

“They were a wonderful team to work with,” says Bill.

The Bristows both agreed that the house’s design should be classic, simple, and nautical—a house with a “Nantucket feeling,” explains Cathy. “We knew what we wanted and had a lot of input.”
For research, Brian visited the Bristows’ house in Nantucket and took many photographs of buildings on the island. The Nantucket Life-Saving Museum played a major role in the design, inspiring the distinctive cupola Brian designed for the top of the Bristows’ house.

The Nantucket-style design of the outside influenced the interior space with dramatic results: inside the front door, a center staircase opens the space above the front foyer all the way up to the cupola. In the front foyer a nautical compass rug marks the directions exactly, and a carpet of stars on the stairs to the third floor, designed by Jan and Cathy, recalls the name the Bristows christened their home: “Sea Star.”

In between the staircase landings are cozy nooks with couches and chairs, where it is easy to imagine sinking into with a book in hand. That relaxed sensibility is pervasive throughout the home’s interior design, whose style Cathy describes as “simple elegance.” Cathy, who was an art major and started a paint-your-own pottery store, selected new fabrics and pillows for furniture, which they brought from their former houses and chose to recover instead of replacing. A bathroom sink featuring a fish painted by Cathy onto the bowl was also relocated from their home in Nantucket.

The Bristows carefully incorporated elements important to them in the house’s design. Guests have plenty of room to gather while the host prepares a meal in the large, airy kitchen designed by Jan and furnished by Dovetailed Kitchens. Each morning, Bill and Cathy exercise with views of the water in a home gym on the second floor. Previously, their exercise space had been in the basement. “Working out is so important to us, we wanted to locate it on the second floor which has our bedroom, and both of our offices. It makes it easy to get out of bed and exercise,” says Cathy.

Each also has a home office. Cathy’s office, decorated in her favorite color combination of green and pink, has a balcony that looks out toward the water. Bill’s office, however, looks out to the land side of the house because, as Cathy explains, “If he had a view he’d be in his office all the time.”

Outside, a large farmer’s porch and patio overlook a lawn—large enough for games of touch football—that slopes gently down to the water below. At the water’s edge a “moon garden” of white flowers reflect the light of the moon at night. “All the flowers are white and they’re basically blooming all summer,” says Cathy.

They moved into Sea Star in June 2006, but could not wait until the house was finished to enjoy the property. Bill explains that during construction they would come over to the property and just sit and relax or work on the gardens. “When the house was under construction we used to come over on the weekend and spend the days here,” says Bill. “We actually kept our boat here before the house was finished.”

The Bristows continue to be grateful for their home’s picturesque location. In summer they both enjoy watching boats chug by on their way to the lobster pier just upstream on Chauncey Creek. Bill points out that the land across the creek is protected by conservation easement, meaning that the quiet privacy and views of tall pine trees will remain unspoiled.

Now that the house is completed it fulfills its purpose of a gathering place for family and friends all summer long and into the fall—from Fourth of July celebrations to the family’s annual Thanksgiving turkey bowl—or any occasion created by the arrival of guests dropping in by sea or land.

“Our  children and their families and friends love coming here and spending time,” says Cathy. “It’s the way life should be.