The Living Beach – March 1, 2017

Nature is a mutable cloud which is always and never the same
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

One thing that you can count on is that the beach will be different each and every day. Sometimes the changes are small, sometimes the changes are big. The snowstorms we had a couple of weeks ago had a big impact – the beach is way rockier now than it was a month ago.

Can you believe this rock was completely covered by sand six months ago?!

So were these ones…

Let’s compare September 1st and March 1st… all of the pictures were taken at low tide.

Where did all the sand go?!

In 2011, my dream home had to have…

Last week I was looking for something on my old blog, and I came across a blog post that I wrote for my friend Nancy at Marcus Design in 2011. I thought it would be fun to post it again here…

It’s really hard to narrow down my one big dream home must-have – there are so many things that my dream home just has to have! Not that I’m greedy or anything ;-) But I’m so inspired by décor magazines and blogs that I now have a huge list of things I love – black steel framed windows, kitchens with no upper cabinets, herringbone wood flooring, floor-to-ceiling windows, amazing architectural details…. but the one thing that truly takes my breath away is a house on the water with spectacular views. Seeing as this is my dream house, I’m dreaming big – REALLY BIG!

Beautiful blue everywhere you look from this home in Greece ...

Design Elements

And this home in New Zealand ...

Hillery Priest Architecture

Living in this house would be like living on a cruise ship, minus the animal towels ;-)

Architecture Design |Home Decoration | Furniture

I could wake up to these views every morning!

Creative Home Idea

Home Decorating Plan

Alexander Gorlin Architects

If I lived by the water, I'd definitely have as many windows as possible so I could enjoy gorgeous views from every room.

Architecturezine

Although I'd probably spend most of my time outside on my waterfront patio.

Home Decorating Plan

Cooking dinner every night wouldn't be so bad if this was the view out the kitchen window ...

TMS Architects

And then I'd eat my supper out on the patio.

TMS Architects

Although it wouldn't be so bad to eat at a table inside with a great water view like this ...

Hillery Priest Architecture

My waterfront dream home definitely needs an infinity pool too :-)

Home Decorating Plan

Yep, no doubt about it, my dream home has to be next to water. It can be big ...

Rotarian Home Exchange

Or small ...

K&B by the Sea

As long as my dream home is on the water, I'm happy :-)

I hope this inspires you to follow your dreams – six years ago, I never would have imagined that I’d actually be making my dream come true!

Windows on the water side DONE!

It was cold and it got windy, but we kept plugging away and got the rest of the windows on the water side of the house installed on Saturday :-) It was great to finally remove the boards and Tyvek from the window openings and get the views from inside the house back.

A few hours later, the kitchen windows were in.

Pretty good view from inside :-)

Action shot ;-) It’s not easy to squeeze caulking in the cold. We kept the tubes in a cooler with a bottle of hot water. Whatever works!

Not the greatest picture, but here’s the view from the guest bedroom. Who wants to come over for a sleepover? ;-)

All done!

Eight windows down, 20 more to go!

 

 

Linking to….

Our windows to the world

Woot! We got two windows installed! Before…

During…

 

And after!

Two windows down, 26 more windows and 8 skylights to go! EEEK! I’m really happy that we finally settled on these tilt & turn windows from PolyTech. I’m also happy that we added transoms to the windows. They add a nice detail without interfering with the view.

And in other progress news…. Brian finally finished installing the underlay on the roof, so the house is pretty much weather-tight now. YAY! And he’s installed some of the exterior trim too.

I started filling and taping all the seams in the styrofoam insulation before Christmas and finally got back to it this week.  There’s still some left to do at the tops of the two end walls, but that job might have to go to Brian. I’ve overcome my fear of heights a bit, but not that much! All the red stripes are my handiwork :-)

After a day of work on the house, we had a nice sunset walk on the beach with the dogs.

Next on the agenda – buying 600 screws and installing more windows. We’re doing a pretty good job of keeping all the local hardware stores in business!

The Living Beach – February 1, 2017

To go out with the setting sun on an empty beach is to truly embrace your solitude.
¬ Jeanne Moreau

It’s been a pretty easy winter so far – we had a couple of big snowfalls on a weekend in early January, but between the following rain and warm temps, all of the snow is gone. That being said, there are some small flakes falling right now…

Without much stormy weather, the waves haven’t removed much more sand from the beach. Sometimes it fluctuates from day to day, and there was a whack of seaweed on the beach for a while. But overall, the quotient of stone to sand has stayed pretty much the same.

 

There’s definitely been a lot of sand removed from the beach. This rock was completely hidden under sand in the summer,

Comparing the beach to how it looked on January 1st (top) and February 1st (bottom). Not much change….

Let’s see what February brings to the beach…