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Introduction
THE MAGIC OF IT ALL
When my husband, Ron, and I, were first married, our favorite piece of "artwork" was a prized poster showing a cedar chalet in the woods. Included in a catalog from a company selling pre-cut home kits, the picture represented what was then a distant dream of a rugged little cottage on a lake.
Years passed, and other art soon took the place of that poster, but nothing replaced the dream itself. In fact, every year or two we trekked around our state to hone our second-home vision by looking at everything from acreages with ponds to lake homes. Even vacation trips included the inevitable real estate search: How about a cottage in Sausalito? A condo in Maui? A little place in Key West? A lakefront getaway in the Ozarks? A townhouse in Palm Springs? In those travels, we scooped up dreams, as well as information. And we talked--oh, did we talk--about locations, home styles, furnishings, and what our ideal setting might be.
And then one spring it all came together. We decided that what we really needed was a regular weekend escape--a place close enough so that, in the summertime, we could be lounging on our own lakeside dock by sunset on a Friday evening. What happened next is strange but true: I had a dream that our ideal second home was out there somewhere, if only we could find it. Trusting the dream, we began our hunt in earnest. Just a few weeks later, we found the perfect lakefront A-frame--and it had been put on the market the very week I'd dreamed of it.
Since then, I've come to think of our little lake house as a kind of Velveteen Rabbit--a place so often and lovingly used that it has become "real." To us, it's not just a place but a beloved member of the family. In fact, I'm so happy to get "home" to it on Friday evenings that I'd put my arms around the entire house and hug it if only I could.
When I consider the stories of all the homeowners featured in this book, I wonder: Grand or modest, what is it about second homes that touches us so? Why is it that perfectly normal adults who suit up for work and act their age Monday through Friday find themselves chasing each other across the yard with squirt guns on Saturday? What is it about a second-home location that moves us to lie, childlike, in the grass to look for constellations at night--or hop out of bed much too early in the morning just to see the sun rise? Why do little things seem so special? Morning coffee becomes an occasion when we're on the dock with our feet dangling lazily in the water.
Whatever their sizes, locations, or price tags, these getaways--where phone calls are few and junk mail never arrives--offer a special sense of enchantment and an opportunity to reawaken a childlike sense of play that gets lost in the workaday world of traffic snarls, ringing phones, crowded airplanes, crammed schedules, missed lunches.
You don't have to share my attitude about our A-frame retreat--a cottage that others might drive by without a second glance. The point of this book is for you to clarify your own vision--and make it real. You can start the process right now, because this book is designed not only to help you plan your own great escape but to let you relax, dream, and get away simply by turning the pages. Along the way, we'll help you consider location, home style, your lifestyle, financing, and all the other essentials, but we've included big beautiful photos of homes and great settings to help you sense the fun and magic of it all. That sense of magic makes me believe that our little A-frame, standing lonely and empty on the shore, somehow came to me in a dream to let me know it was waiting for us to "adopt" it. Is your second home out there somewhere just waiting for you to find it, too?
Denise L. Caringer
Editor, Second Home
Chapter One
DREAM ON
When you want to get away from it all, where does your heart lead you? For some, it's a shore thing for beachcombing and romantic sunsets. Others take the first backwoods exit to solitude. Whether there's a mountaintop or a rural hamlet in your daydreams, the perfect spot for a getaway home is any place that renews your spirit and lets you do the things you love. The homeowners in this chapter knew their psyches and their needs before they chose their locations. Now, on weekends, they head off in different directions--to the woods, the lake, an island, or the seashore. Come along on a tour designed to stir your own dreams.
THE BIG WOODS
Sometimes, it's easy to pass up paradise in search of a getaway. If you'd rather spend the weekend with a deck chair and a good book instead of a hammer (who wouldn't?), the fixer-upper may not be for you. Then again, it may be your perfect getaway in disguise if the location is right. That's what Mickey and Tom Harris of Tulsa, Oklahoma, realized when they first laid eyes on a one-room, vintage-1934 log cabin that had grown with makeshift add-ons over time. What clinched the deal was the wooded site on a peaceful lake within driving distance of home. And they figured that by phasing in needed remodeling and decorating changes over several years, they could ensure plenty of relaxation time. The plan worked.
"We fished really hard the first 10 years," Tom says. "We still love to fish, but we'd just as soon sit on the porch and watch for deer. We still consider it a getaway from the city, but rather than isolating ourselves, we spend more time now with friends."
Guided by their love of Country French antiques, the couple transformed the forlorn cabin into a charming French farmhouse, inside and out. They replaced blond wall paneling and acoustical ceiling tiles with honey-hued pine planks and rugged beams. Original pine floors, once hidden under carpet, were restored, and the couple scrounged through attics and lumberyards for traditional wood windows to replace aluminum sliders. Consummate collectors, they mixed antiques and reproduction furnishings. An early 18th-century painted armoire with gathered fabric and chicken wire insets forms a living room focal point, while new upholstered seating offers modern-day comfort.
With a massive stone fireplace and exposed walls, the cabin's original log room formed a rustic touchstone in the redesign because, with only new windows, it remains essentially unchanged. Fresh country fabrics, inviting colors, sink-in seating, and personality collections take the primitive edge off the space. In fact, one look at the oversize ottoman, and there's no mistaking the fact that comfort tops the couple's design agenda. Sharing their retreat with friends is part of the fun, so the dining room features an ample antique farm table--a $40 find from an old Missouri building--surrounded by 10 circa-1890 French chairs repainted yellow.
"Tom used the table as a workbench for years, then we realized that the tin top was actually pretty cool, so we moved it into the dining room," says Mickey.
The charms of the past often don't carry over to aging kitchens. As Mickey says, the novelty of cooking over a wood stove in the 1930s kitchen quickly wore off. Doing much of the work themselves, the Harrises created a French farmhouse kitchen with a modern stove and dishwasher flanked by painted wood cabinetry and stonelike concrete counters. A wrought-iron table serves as an island, as well as a style bridge linking the functional with the romantic. To preserve the cabin's original look, the couple added new windows that reproduce the style and aged finish of the room's original panes.
UNDERSTANDING YOUR PSYCHE
Second-home locations are inherently inspiring, so emotions can run high when you shop for a getaway. To make the best choice, shop with a clear vision of what you really want.
* What hobbies do you want to indulge or develop? Does your dream include great fishing, as the Harrises' did, or perhaps a nearby town dotted with antiques shops or a great flea market?
* Do you crave peace--or partying? With serenity at the top of their list, the Harrises chose a lake that allows only canoes and johnboats with trolling motors. No noisy jet skis!
* How often do you plan to get away? It's easy to "vacation" every weekend if you choose a site that's a two- or three-hour drive from home.
* How much light do you need? A log cabin in the woods is fine if you fantasize about Davy Crockett's wild frontier. If you lean toward light and airy, think bright beach house, instead.
SAND AND SEA
Is it wing tips or flip-flops? What you stuff into your beach bag determines how much you enjoy a trip to the shore. The same holds true when packing amenities into a beach home. Leave the buttoned-down rules back home, as the owners of this home near Wellfleet, Massachusetts, did. Taking liberties with classic Cape Cod design, they chose vaulted ceilings for volume and large windows for wraparound seascapes.
Excerpted from Better Homes and Gardens by . Copyright © 2000 by Meredith Corporation. Excerpted by permission. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
