Designing a Forever Home for a Sailing Couple | The Cedar Residence, Maine

Nestled in the quiet town of Monroe, Maine, this is Mike and Susan's forever home — The Cedar Residence. Chloe and the DesignWithFrank team collaborated closely with a local green builder, Kenny Cole, design and build the house for clients Mike and Susan. Mike and Susan are retired New Yorkers who moved to Maine and desire a calming space and enjoy sailing. The Team Designer: Design with FRANK Builder: COLE Carpentry iPad Sketch Software: https://www.deta.studio/ Monroe sits a short drive from the coast, surrounded by ponds, forests, and wildlife. Eagles, beavers, and native flora make it the kind of place you never want to leave. For Mike and Susan, it was the perfect setting to retire, reconnect with nature, and build a high-performance home designed to last a lifetime. Built for Maine Winters | Energy Efficient Home Build This home is engineered for the harsh realities of northeastern weather — heavy snow, ice storms, and bitter cold. Designed with building science principles and nearly net zero, every system was chosen for good thermal performance: Swedish frost-protected slab with triple-layer XPS insulation Radiant floor heating embedded in a high-thermal-mass concrete slab Airtight walls with continuous insulation, eliminating thermal bridges Dense-pack cellulose blown-in roof insulation via raised heel trusses ERV HRV system for fresh, filtered air in every room The result: passive house design principles applied to a real-world custom build, with double the insulation of a typical home. For more from Designwithfrank Instagram – ‪@design-with-frank‬ Website – https://www.designwithfrank.com/ Photography by Gabriel Munnich Residential Design by design with FRANK Built by Kenny Cole Filmed by Gabriel Munnich & Chloe Fan Edited by Ash Wang Production by designwithFRANK Location: Belfast, Maine