Summer Rental in Nags HeadIt's the first unofficial week/weekend of Summer! How many of you have a Summer rental?
In New York it is very common to rent a place by the beach (Hamptons or Jersey Shore) for the Summer. The wife and kids go for most of the Summer, and the husband commutes there on weekends.
Singles may take a share in a house, and alternate weekends. Or sometimes a family might rent a beach house for a week or two of Summer vacation.
Beach cottage in Nags HeadRental houses can be funky. When I rented in the Hamptons I would load up the car with Limoges china, silver plate flatware, stacks of sheets for make-do slip covers and curtains, new lampshades, art work, and good beach towels and nice sheets for the beds.
When I finally bought a little house, it was decorated all in white. It was a cottage and so cute.
Now we don't do a Summer rental. Summer mornings in New Orleans are like being at the beach. You can feel the sea air from the Gulf, and the river and humidity keep things feeling tropical.
Nags Head streetThe morning light is gentle, and the air is soft. It's the perfect time to enjoy our newly refurbished patio and yard, and take a cup of coffee and book and sit outside and pretend I'm at the beach.
The beach house I once owned in the Springs in East HamptonLike all of you I love "beach" books for the Summer. You know, the kind that used to be called "light reading", a good story so breezy you can finish the book in two or three sittings.
Visual Vamp back in the day at her beach house in East HamptonI recommend Mary Kay Andrews "Summer Rental". I read another of her books last Summer called "The Fixer Upper", and just loved it.
"Summer Rental" has all the necessary elements for a good beach read: Woman loses her job, but is locked into a Summer rental with her best girlfriends. Each one has a story to tell. There's sexy romance, and a bit of thriller. And as with the "Fixer Upper" the house and its decor is a central character too.
The beach location in the book is Nags Head, that still has 7 of the original 13 beach cottages built 100 years ago (it's called Cottage Row). I love how people at the beach call these big old sprawling houses "cottages".
I love an old fashion beach house - sea breezes only, screens on the doors and windows, cracks in the floor to sweep sand into, funky yet charming. Nowadays beach houses are so fancy that you hardly feel like you get away from your formal life. What do you think? Funky or fancy?
And a prayer of thanks on this Memorial Day to everyone past and present who serves for us in the armed forces.
I love the "sweeping of the sand in between the floor boards." We've never really done a beach getaway for more than a weekend. As it happened the place was a dive, we (my husband) wanted to purchase. I just couldn't do it. While I love the "idea" of a beach getaway, it's not much of one for me, by the time I haul all that stuff from home. too much work, for a vacation. I want someone to do that for me, but since I can't afford that, I'll just pretend in my yard.
ReplyDeleteI would prefer a funky beach house just as long as you would come with your limoge, linens and your partner.
ReplyDeleteWe rented an upstairs, a stones throw from some posh beach homes in the Hamptons....I loved that funky place and walking everywhere.
pve
I believe you asked how one might change the living room in the above cottage. Take down the valence. This is the beach, not Barnam & Bailey Circus.
ReplyDeletei just like my beach house and my beach read to be comfy---easy to settle into, interesting but not requiring too-too much thought. fun.
ReplyDeleteyou mentioned how n.o. feels beach-like in the summer...this morning, here in central indiana the weather peeps were calling for 90 degree/high humidity weather--giving heat warnings to their viewers. my husband & i walked outside around 8 a.m....and both looked at each other and laughed.
we had discussed how excited we were about finally having summer weather/using the pool, etc. i guess our alabama bred bodies were expecting that huge wave of humidity and heat the minute we opened the kitchen door.
instead, it was great...it felt like fall in southeast alabama--just warm enough to be comfy & just enough humidity to make you feel like you were wrapped up in a beach blanket after an early summer swim in the gulf.
nanne in indiana by way of alabama
i want one!!!!!
ReplyDeleteI went to Nags Head (actually Duck area) for years
ReplyDeleteevery. single. summer. with the ex and his family. My boys and the ex still go.
One week rental - on the beach - screen doors slapping open and shut all day long.
Funky and old, please...I don't like those huge, big new places.
I love the beach!!
I like your home. The arrangement of your room is awesome and excellent. It looks very colourful.
ReplyDeleteMy childhood beach vacations were always at Nags Head. I live too far away now, but the pictures really bring back sweet memories. Great post.
ReplyDeleteValerie, I wish you would tell us more about the glory days of living in East Hampton. It sounds like you had a wonderful life.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fun summer beach read. This year we may do a weekend in the Hamptons but otherwise, just enjoying our little beach club in town. There's nothing better than settling my little toes in the sand under an umbrella with a good book!!
ReplyDeletexo Elizabeth
Funky and old with casually handled antiques. Thank you!
ReplyDelete