Sarah-Mai Miller and Heath Miller lived in 10 completely different homes and residences in 17 years. The couple owned three of these homes — an 1800s saltbox in Greenport on Lengthy Island and a contemporary cozy cabin and a glass cabin, each in a city referred to as Milan in upstate New York.
The couple’s ventures in actual property had been a pure extension of their jobs as artistic administrators. Collectively, they based Chalk 242, a artistic advert company they’d named after the handle of their first residence in New York Metropolis, a prewar constructing on the Higher West Facet. For the Millers, the traces blurred between work, play and residential.
The 2 homes in Milan had been nicknamed Maitopia and Mailan, a nod to Ms. Miller’s title. However they bore her husband’s out-of-the-box touches, like a lap pool inside two steps of the backdoor of Maitopia, and, most curious to Ms. Miller, a bath in the course of the tiny residence. “I noticed the designs for the bathtub and was like, ‘Actually?’” she recalled.
In February 2023, Mr. Miller, 47, died in a head-on collision on a rural, darkish highway on the North Fork a number of miles from their Greenport residence. Mr. Miller was driving. His pal who was within the passenger’s seat, and the 2 occupants of the opposite automobile died.
Mr. Miller’s loss of life left his spouse stricken with grief, reliving each reminiscence of what they’d constructed collectively. The night time Heath died, Sarah-Mai referred to as her dad and mom, who drove by way of the night time to be with their daughter. Different family and friends members supplied their help and presence within the coming days and weeks. Ms. Miller ultimately went again “residence” to her native Ohio after the casual celebration of Heath’s life in his hometown, York, Pa., the place a few of his household nonetheless lives. She returned to the saltbox residence in Greenport weeks later to see if she may very well be there alone. She had a bit of firm, Rufus, their canine. “It was so empty,” she stated. “Day by day was a reminder of how quiet it was.”
She lasted 4 days. It was time to let go, she thought. She listed the house. After which she listed Mailan, the ‘cozy-modern glass home’ upstate. After which she and her husband’s enterprise associate, Max King, determined to promote Relaxation Co., a boutique lodge that her husband helped create out of a rooster coop. Piece by piece, Ms. Miller has spent a 12 months shedding a lot of the property that they purchased and renovated so she will be able to choose up the items.
“I don’t suppose grief ends,” Sarah-Mai stated. “However it modifications.”
Doing What They Liked
The Millers met after they labored on the Columbus, Ohio, headquarters of Specific, the clothes retailer. Mr. Miller’s job was operating the artistic route for the model, which included working with fashions and stylists for picture shoots, whereas Ms. Miller was employed as an web coordinator, a novel title on the time that included dressing mannequins.
Mr. Miller had helped interview his future spouse for her job and needed to go on her for a extra skilled candidate. Finally, the particular person answerable for Buyer Relationship Administration overruled him.
Two months later, they started relationship, Ms. Miller stated, recalling how Mr. Miller’s nattiness was a bit intimidating. “I grew up in small-town Ohio the place there’s no such factor as vogue,” she stated. “Heath was fashionable. He cared about his look.”
That carried over to the décor of his residence. The primary time Ms. Miller visited, he apologized for the “mess,” she recalled, laughing. “It was the cleanest and nicest residence I’ve ever seen.”
Lower than a 12 months later, the couple moved to New York. Their first residence within the metropolis was on 242 West 104th Avenue, which they renovated shortly after shopping for it, making use of a mixture of trendy aesthetics with old-school New York grace, plus a splash of business.
They acquired married in Turks and Caicos in June 2008, which occurred to have been their first trip spot collectively greater than a 12 months earlier. Heath’s son, McKenzie, who was 12 on the time and from Heath’s earlier marriage, was additionally in attendance. They’d return to Turks and Caicos many occasions after their wedding ceremony, staying on the identical lodge and going to their favourite seashores.
New York was a cultural initiation. Along with attempting out as many new eating places as they may, they beloved frequenting museums and artwork exhibitions, the place they sought inspiration for his or her jobs. This inspiration would ultimately spill into many areas of their lives — residence décor, wardrobe and the enterprise they had been planning.
By this time of their careers, having grown weary of company energy and the best way stakeholders typically dilute creativity, the newlyweds talked rather a lot about doing work that they each beloved versus work they thought they wanted to do. “A good suggestion goes to be polarizing,’” Sarah-Mai recalled Heath saying, a philosophy that will sooner or later issue into their attitudes round designing their dwelling areas.
Chalk 242 was born.
Maitopia
Whereas they had been constructing their enterprise, the Millers had been in search of a second residence, out of the town. They had been versatile on places inside a two-hour radius and ultimately discovered a three-acre parcel of wooded land on Willow Glen Street in Milan, with an adjoining stream. Mr. Miller had no technical know-how, however he was decided to design the house himself, Ms. Miller stated. “It paired along with his design aesthetic and background,” Sarah-Mai stated. “One thing simply clicked for him. He might see it actually clearly.”
Inside a 12 months of buying and clearing the land, Mr. Miller had give you the designs for the house, that includes a one-bedroom lofted construction with a peaked roof and that lap pool that they may soar in simply by opening the again door. The enormous pivot door that swings open to the small pool, as an illustration, took Mr. Miller, three of their buddies and a contractor to put in.
Mr. Miller gave the impression to be on to one thing. The peaked roof, detrimental house and glass home windows, like hefty fragments of a geometrical puzzle made what is basically a one-room, tiny home really feel extra spacious.
And so they stored it naked: “Whenever you’re going from one location to the subsequent, you’re at all times bringing these things with you, and also you don’t wish to be surrounded by stuff. You simply wish to be in a spot that’s welcoming and clear.” That made it simple after they determined to lease it out by way of on-line reserving websites.
One among their frequent renters was Tina Roth-Eisenberg, the designer finest identified for her weblog Swiss Miss. Ms. Roth-Eisenberg began posting photos of Maitopia to her social accounts every time she rented it, shocked by the creativity and a focus to element. In an Instagram put up dated Nov. 12, 2021, she wrote, “I’ll always remember the second after we entered the driveway, in spring of 2016. There she was, this contemporary, tiny magnificence. As we acquired out of the automobile my daughter seen the Swiss cross” on the shed “and jokingly stated, ‘This home was ready for you, mommy!’ It felt like destiny, however she later realized that Mr. Miller had hung it there as a result of he loved the graphic attraction of the cross, its clear traces. Ms. Miller had been a fan of Ms. Roth-Eisenberg for years and so they quickly turned buddies.
By 2020, they’d purchased the lot throughout the highway and constructed a brand new residence that they referred to as Mailan. They discovered an keen purchaser for Maitopia: Ms. Roth-Eisenberg. Wanting to present a proposal in particular person, Ms. Roth-Eisenberg met the couple within the metropolis with a houseplant and illustrations of Maitopia that her kids had made. “It felt like an adoption,” Ms. Roth-Eisenberg stated. “Like I adopted this labor of affection.”
Mailan
As a baby rising up in Ohio, Ms. Miller had seen a glass home and instructed her mom she needed to reside in a single similar to it. Mr. Miller had at all times been obsessive about the glass home that the architect Philip Johnson had constructed in New Canaan, Conn., which appeared to rise out of the grass, equal components stately and understated.
Mr. Miller’s creation was smaller, however it was grander than Maitopia with two bedrooms, two full baths, plus an open lounge space with wooden flooring and wooden slat paneling alongside the outside. She relished the view that was the wood-burning range searching onto the pool, and the woods past it. These woods contained “enjoyable little parts,” Ms. Miller stated, “just like the treehouse that Heath and his son, McKenzie, had constructed. Heath was a artistic. He needed to at all times create or else he’d get stressed.”
The Salt Field
Greenport on the North Fork of Lengthy Island was a distinct vibe, neither woods nor straight seaside, neither rural or suburban. The Millers had vacationed in Mattituck, a fast drive from the home in Greenport they’d ultimately transfer to, and was really helpful to them by household buddies who had vacationed there.
In contrast to Maitopia and Mailan, which they constructed from scratch, the Salt Field had been standing for the reason that 1830s on a decently busy intersection the place the Major Street meets Rt. 48, or what’s regionally referred to as the North Street. The Salt Field’s age, almost 200 years previous, and its shaker-style minimalism are what first attracted the couple. The wide-plank flooring had been initially a part of the house, a few of them over a foot broad, as was the spectacular Dutch colonial type entrance with its stalwart trim.
When it got here to the renovation, which started in April 2021 and was accomplished later that November, the Millers needed to pay homage to the architect who constructed it, although they didn’t know who that was.
The vital factor was that it exemplified simplicity and coziness, whereas allowing the fashionable theme that the couple had grown to like. They moved the kitchen from the place the second bed room downstairs presently stands, to the lounge, incorporating the wooden hearth, whereas making the second room downstairs a library/examine, replete with two excessive again chairs, a gasoline hearth and built-in cabinets that Mr. Miller constructed. “It was our canine Rufus’ favourite room. At night time, when she slept in there, we’d put the fireside on low and hold her snug every time it was chilly,” Ms. Miller stated.
It was one in all her favourite rooms, too. “All of the houses we constructed had an intimate vibe to them,” Sarah-Mai stated. “Heath was an extrovert and I’m an introvert, and our residence was an area that felt like ours. If we did entertain, the house lent itself to smaller teams.”
However it was largely simply the 2 of them, plus Rufus, cooking meals, taking part in chess or cozying up by the fireside. After they ventured out collectively, they loved driving across the island.
Mr. Miller was out along with his pal, William Value, whom he didn’t get to see typically. Mr. Miller needed to point out off a few of his favourite spots, and Ms. Miller stayed residence to present them house and time to catch up. Mr. Value, who was a passenger in Mr. Miller’s Tesla, died, as did Peter Smith and Patricia O’Neill, passengers in a 2020 Ford Explorer.
Earlier than Mr. Miller died, he and his spouse talked about the place to maneuver subsequent. They thought of Charleston, after having fun with a two-month highway journey down south after they had been closing on the salt field. Ms. Miller is now occupied with Paris or staying put in Ohio or settling into her residence in New York Metropolis. “I’m nonetheless studying to not get hooked up to issues,” she stated, remembering how she and her husband went from mission to mission. (She additionally misplaced Rufus, who was eight years previous, in December.) “At the moment, we stated, ‘We have to hold going. We have to hold transferring. We had been accumulating homes and recollections.’”
Just lately, she purchased a saltbox-style residence 20 minutes from her dad and mom’ place in Ohio. She is about to begin renovations.
