On a recent misty morning, Island architect Patrick Ahearn and contractor Tim McHugh stood talking on a freshly manicured lawn in front of a brand new home on Crocker Drive. They were not alone.
Dan Martino and Greg Martino, who run the local production company Martha’s Vineyard Productions, were there. David Welch, an Island photographer, was also on hand, as well as Beth Kurtz and Matt Muenster from the cable network, Home & Garden Television.
Normally Mr. Ahearn and Mr. McHugh wouldn’t be surrounded by such a large group at the completion of a project, but the house on Crocker Drive at the Field Club in Katama is the location of the 2015 HGTV Dream Home.
The cable network revealed the Vineyard as its location for the 19th annual Dream Home giveaway and sweepstakes in August, naming Mr. Ahearn as the home’s architect and Mr. McHugh as the contractor. Building began five months ago, Mr. Ahearn told the Gazette, and a grand Cape Cod-style home was completed last month.
This week, a Donaroma’s Nursery landscaping crew arrived to lay down sod and grass sprigs. On Tuesday morning, while a light rain drizzled down, landscapers roamed the property, some watering shrubs, others clipping plants in window boxes.
The Dream Home features three bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms, and a large gourmet kitchen with two stove chimneys. It also has a matching custom-built doggy dream home, too.
The interior hasn’t been completed yet. If all goes according to the HGTV schedule, Linda Woodrum, the official designer for HGTV Dream Homes, will furnish the entire home by the end of the month.
This is the first HGTV Dream Home built in Massachusetts. Between Dec. 29, 2014 and Feb. 17, 2015, people can enter up to twice a day either online or by mail for a chance to win the home. Entries will be selected at random and then organized into batches and assigned numbers that get printed on ping-pong balls. In May 2015, one ball will be randomly drawn to name the winner. Last year the sweepstakes had 72,427,440 entries.
When HGTV came to the Island to check out some potential plots of land to build on, Mr. Ahearn knew the Field Club would be a winner.
“HGTV was really trying to create a home that would have that romantic appeal in the broad market reach for their sweepstakes and tell the story of Martha’s Vineyard in a really nice way,” Mr. Ahearn said. “In the early days when people lived in Edgartown, they would go out to the Katama plains and guys would build little cottages or shacks and go out to fish, go out to hunt, and that, from a historical point of view, is the story of how this HGTV house began.”
The home has three cottage pieces broken into three components, all of which are connected, giving the feel that “there was one cottage and then over time and over the years two other cottages were then built on the property.” Mr. Ahearn said his hope was to give people passing by the illusion that the home had been on the Island for a long time.
HGTV has contracted many local companies for the project. Martha’s Vineyard Productions was hired to produce three one-hour episodes, which are scheduled to air early next year. The local production company has also been documenting the development of the Dream Home and will continue to film until Dec. 2. Air dates will be posted on the HGTV website closer to the start of the new year.
In the meantime, special clips will be posted on the HGTV website with blog posts that include photographs by Island photographer Jocelyn Filley.
And come May, the winner will walk away with more than the house. The grand prize also includes a car and a yearlong membership to the Field Club.
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