for VACATIONS by the SEA
Proper construction is a most important point in a beach house such as the one above, because unless the house is well built, your vacation by the sea can be a pretty miserable affair. Cold damp winds have a way of finding chinks in the walls and sand will blow under the windows unless they’re properly fitted.
The board and batten walls of this beach house are as satisfactory as any you can select. Moisture-laden atmosphere is not as likely to affect this kind of material, especially if it is well painted. Incidentally, when buying paint for your beach house, be sure to get the best, because salt air is very hard on paint. Pay a little more at first and save the work of a paint job next season.
A shake roof would look nice on such a house, and would be satisfactory if the shakes were stained. Composition shingles, perhaps, would be a good idea, too, but they do not make such an interesting roof.
The interior plan of this house makes it a good one either for week-ends or for semi-permanent use. Indeed, if you like to commute, it could be occupied all year ’round, since it has all the comforts of a modern city home. There’s one master bedroom, connected directly with the bath, and a large bunk room for guests. If bunks are used here, be sure to build them along the lines of a ship’s berth, just for a nautical atmosphere.
As a matter of fact, a beach house is just the place where lots of imagination can be used. Door knobs and other hardware of bright brass, a colored ship’s lamp over the front door, and perhaps a couple of real portholes instead of the small windows in the bunk room and the bath, would lend a very salty air. Such items can be bought at any ship chandler’s. The living room, for example, might have a “deck” of scoured oak, with linoleum in the other rooms inlaid with anchors and other seagoing devices. Lengths of fish net, complete with leads and corks, make fine window drapes—and above all, get a small ship’s bell to call all hands to meals.