A home on the water, or the next best thing
I've always wanted a house on the water. I don't have one. Twenty years ago, I had a house in California with a pool. More recently, during my stint as a live-in home stager, when I inhabited six houses in four years, I lived in a house that wasn't mine on a lake. Every morning, I woke up to a lake view from my bedroom. I would look out at that calm water and feel lucky. I'd think, look what I get to see! It never got old. At night, I would often sit on the porch until the sky grew so dark that the horizon disappeared, and the lake and sky became one.
However, when DC and I bought the Happier Yellow House five years ago, a water view wasn't high on our priority list. It wasn't on our list at all. Other factors like location, number of bedrooms, access to good restaurants, price, a fenced yard for the dogs were.
A few years later, when we redid our landscaping, since I couldn't manifest a lake or ocean view, I lobbied for a pool. I lobbied hard. After all, we live in Florida, pretty much on the equator. In summer, it gets hotter than asphalt on Mercury.
“I've had a pool. I don't want another one,” DC said. “They're too much work.”
“I've had a pool, too,” I said. “We can hire a service. Plus, swimming is good exercise.”
“You never swim,” DC said. I hate that he's so practical.
“I would if I had a pool!” “Join the Y,” he said, not kidding.
“But I want a pool just to look at,” I said. “And to sit by with my feet up and a fruity umbrella drink.”
“We'll put in a fountain. You can prop your feet on that. I'll bring you an umbrella drink. ”
Argh!
Our landscape designer drew up two plans, one with a pool, one without. We priced out both. We looked at not only the cost of putting in a pool (a lot), but also the upkeep, which surveys say runs between $3,000 to $5,000 a year for maintenance, repairs, electricity and water.
I couldn't justify a pool either, but that didn't stop me from wanting one. Not then. Not now. Some desires, including most of mine, are not rational. What's rational about diamond jewelry and designer handbags?
We put in a water fountain. Sigh.
Anyway, all this whining is to say that when I was offered the chance to review a new book, “At Home on the Water,” by Jaci Conroy (Gibbs Smith, May 10), I jumped on it. If I can't have a house with a water view, at least I can live voyeuristically through those who do.
The coffee table-style book arrived. I pored over its 208 polished pages. I vicariously (and enviably) toured 12 coastal homes, ranging from a rustic cottage in Nantucket, Massachusetts, to a grand, modern revival house in Palm Beach, Florida, to a Spanish colonial in La Jolla.
“What inspired this book?” I asked Conroy, when I got her on the phone at her Boston home, where she lives with her husband, son, 11, and daughter, 9. Turns out, she does not have a home on the water, but does have a second home on Cape Cod within walking distance to the beach.
“The idea came during the early days of the pandemic,” said Conroy, a writer and editor for home magazines, and current editor of New England Modern magazine. “We were all home sitting with uncertainty and a lot of down time. I started asking myself, where would I want to be right now? And I started picturing the kind of home I personally was craving at the time.”
Which is the kind of home I crave all the time.
She drew on her magazine connections for candidates to feature. Then, she did all her research, including interviews with owners, architects and designers, remotely.
“Each home in the book represents an escape,” she said.
Her favorite is a home in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts, featured in a chapter called “Past Presence.” It speaks to her because “it's not too fancy, and it's movein ready for a family with kids.”
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm off to put my feet up on the fountain.
Marni Jameson is the author of six home and lifestyle books, including “What to Do With Everything You Own to Leave the Legacy You Want,” “Downsizing the Family Home What to Save, What to Let Go,” and “Downsizing the Blended Home — When Two Households Become One.” You may reach her at marnijameson.com.