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“When I was really little, maybe when I couldn’t even read yet, I found myself building little models of houses with sticks and toothpicks and bits of cardboard,” says Nick. “I didn’t really know why, it was just a kind of intuition that drove me to do it.” Fast-forward a few decades, and that intuition has evolved into some of the finest homes on the Vineyard with Nick a kind of maestro with a clipboard, hammer and cell phone. Along with his father, Nicholas J Bologna and business partner Gary Haroian, Vine Island Builders specializes in what in some circles is a taboo term: the spec house. “I would rather think that our homes derive the ‘spec’ part from the word special, not speculate, as in the common understanding,” says Nick. As he explains their business model, a Vine Island Builders’ home is more like a finely crafted suit of clothes just waiting for right physique to fill out the cloth. And a three-level, shingle style design home with contemporary interior layout and 4,600 square feet of living space facing the Atlantic Ocean in Katama was just waiting for Ellen and Wilson Saville. “We were lucky to have found the Savilles who just fit so perfectly into this house. When we were designing and conceptualizing this house, we had envisioned people just like Ellen and Wilson,” says Nick. One of Nick’s happiest rewards was the thank-you party the Savilles put on for everyone who worked on the house. Many homeowners often promise such tokens of appreciation, but few follow through. “These are good people. When you become friends with the Savilles, you become part of their family." But with any endeavor into which a craftsman puts so much time and commitment, letting go of the keys is never easy. “The house becomes your baby for a year or more. To know that the keys have been passed on to good people is what makes any of the stressful times of building a house worthwhile,” says Nick. The front of the home has an inviting farmer’s porch and in the rear, facing the ocean, an octagonal gazebo style attached porch has become a favorite with the Savilles and their many guests. “A house that was welcoming, perfect for sharing with family and friends, and without any sacrifice of elegance was the concept we gave to the architect team of Sullivan & O’Connor,” says Nick, “And they did not disappoint us.”
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In Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the 1977 Steven Spielberg science fiction film about unidentified flying objects, actor Richard Dreyfuss found himself constructing little spaceship models all around his house without quite knowing why. Builder Nick Bologna had a similar experience growing up.