Jaci Conry - At Home on the Water

Photo by Julie Soefer.

Digital Edition 1.0

Text 2022 Jaci Conry

Front cover photograph by Jessica Glynn

Photographs 2022 as noted throughout

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any meanswhatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except brief portionsquoted for purpose of review.

Published by

Gibbs Smith

P.O. Box 667

Layton, Utah 84041

1.800.835.4993 orders

www.gibbs-smith.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Conry, Jaci, author.

Title: At Home on the Water / Jaci Conry.

Description: First edition. | Layton, Utah : Gibbs Smith, [2022]Identifiers: LCCN 2021022853 | ISBN 9781423657507 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781423657514(epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Seaside architectureUnited States. | Second homesUnitedStates. | Vacation homesUnited States.

Classification: LCC NA7575 .C65 2021 | DDC 728.70973dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021022853

For Mike, Max, and Emma:
Anywhere you are is home to me

Photo by Jane Beiles.

Photo by Jane Beiles.

Contents

Photo by Jane Beiles.

Introduction

M y husbandsparents have a summer home on Cape Cod. Perched on a small bluff overlookingBuzzards Bay, the house has a sloped, rocky pathway that leads down to the beach.The shingle-clad house is a rambling structure, four bedrooms aligned on one level,each one with a view of the ocean. It is a home from which to observe so manythings: shorebirds and seals on the wide, flat rocks of the jetty; sailboats andfishermen; the oceans multitude of hues. Theres subtle and, occasionally, not sosubtle drama to be witnessed when the ever-changing skyline meets the sea. Sunsetsand sunrises and storms take on great significance there. Scents are heightened: thewhiff of marine life, salty water and sunscreen, and the beach roses that grow wildall around permeates the air.

A house by the sea conjures magical notions of an oasis. Atthe mention of one, we imagine a place geared for relaxation and outdoor living, aplace for wiling away afternoons with a book. At that dreamy beach house, there willbe picnics and sea-glass collecting; togetherness and bathing suits; lemonade andseafood; laughter and cocktails at sunset (or much earlier); and sand, sandeverywhere. Thats what a house on the water means.

In my career as a design writer, Ive visited countlessocean havens. Truly, they come in all shapes and sizes. From the most rustic ofcottages, with century-old board-and-batten paneling, no-fuss furniture, and antiquehooked rugs, their colors long faded to sleek-lined, white minimalist manses withwalls of glass and state-of-the-art smart-home systems. In all cases, these homes bythe sea are much beloved by their inhabitants. They are places to which people comehome again and again when theyre in need of ease and serenity, breaks from lives ofbusyness.

This casual seating area features tones that evoke the coastallocaleincluding a rug in alternating sand-colored hues and blue throws andpillowsin an understated way. Photo by Julie Soefer.

And when did this fascination with homes by the water arise?When did white sand and rolling waves become symbolic of leisure time? The practiceof taking respite in oceanside locales originated among the European elite who begantouting the curative qualities of fresh air, exercise, and sea bathing as early asthe mid-eighteenth century. As Britain embraced the Industrial Revolution, those wholabored in the countrys increasing number of factories were viewed as havingstronger and more resilient constitutions. The upper classes, long consideredfragile, sought to improve their physical prowess, and the notion of the oceanhaving a restorative nature emerged. Along England's eastern shore, coastalresort communities catered to a growing clientele of wellness seekers who sought theseas treatment for a variety of conditions, including melancholy, gout, tubercularinfections, leprosy, and hysteria.

It was called sea bathing back in the late 1700s, and bythe turn of the next century, the practice of swimming in the ocean was mainstreamfor those seeking a cure for any type of ailment. Those so dedicated to the healingproperties of time spent by the sea built their homes in coastal European enclaves.As the 1800s progressed, romantic sensibilities began to be attached to the ocean.It was Romantic writers and artists at the turn of the nineteenth century who addedemotion and wonder to the act of strolling along the beach or watching the tideturn, writes Daniela Blei, in a Smithsonian Magazine article titled Inventing the Beach: The UnnaturalHistory of a Natural Place. The coastal landscape became a site of transformativeexperience, where the individual was immersed in nature.... The beach held thepromise of self-discovery.

Steps lead down the sloped pathway to the pool area of this Nantucketretreat. Photo by Julie Soefer.

In a Hyannis Port home, the family rooms wall of glass affordsmaximum views of the beach; the blues of the ocean and sky are reflected in therooms textiles, while sand tones are found in the sisal carpetand the coffee table. Photo by Jessica Glynn.

In the adjacent dining room, half of the beadboard-clad walls arepainted white, while the upper portion is a deep blue. Photo by JessicaGlynn.

According to Alain Corbin, a professor at Pariss SorbonneUniversity and author of The Lure of theSea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, by the 1840s, thebeach had become a sought-after escape from the city and the drudgery of modern lifefor many Europeans. There was an irresistible awakening of a collective desire forthe shore, he explains. The rail system made train travel affordable and easy,which resulted in middle-class families taking to the shore in increasing numbers.Vacation, which had once meant an involuntary absence from work, became a desiredinterlude that people looked forward to all year long.

Over the course of the 1800s, the phenomenon of the seasideresort made its way to France, Italy, and Germany. Eventually, the appeal of coastalhavens took hold across the Atlantic in the United States. As the great wealth fromthe postCivil War boom created the Gilded Age, the countrys wealthiest familiesbuilt palatial seaside homes in Newport, Rhode Island, and Palm Beach, Florida. Astime went on, other elite private retreats flourished on Cape Cod and inCalifornias coastal enclaves.