Modify and make it your own.

 When my sister, my husband and I first bought our "near the beach" house in Delaware over a decade ago we learned what in real estate land what was quirky and charming to some was downright dangerous to others.  See these rustic fence post guard rails on our salt box Cape Cod upper balcony? They only had TWO horizontal rails!   My ingenious hubby and some friends created a grid of 1x6's, stained them to match perfectly and you can see how nicely they match. (Although they do still look a fence built to keep livestock from straying!)

 The balcony shows off our ever increasing collection of seaside art.  Although in the beginning I called it the "bad ocean art collection" I had to modify my title as we kept finding pieces and a lot of them are downright wonderful.  So I decided to let "bad" be in the eye of the beholder..

We've modified HOW we use the house too.  When we all had corporate jobs it was a place to come and escape from our stressful crazy careers.  Then we had kids and it turned into a place to make memories by doing the exact same thing EVERY time we came.  My kids are teenagers now and bewtween their busy schedules and Bob & I both working in at Stifel & Capra trips to the show have turned into business trips: treasure hunting for merchandise for the shop, long conversations about "what's next?" that can only happen when a two hour drive takes 5 and you don't have your car charger, and delusion that the shore could be a place of respite again.

To that end my family came down for just 2 days and swore to take a real Sabbath from work.  The reality was there was some email checking and facebook posting but the big event was not living by the clock for 48 hours.   Two days of sleeping until we woke up, eating when we were hungry and moving with the sun.  Of course, Bob just said "Oh my Lord, look at the time; we gotta go!!!" So, back to our reality!  Suburban, filled and busy, trying to make a living while making a life, reality. It's all good.  Or will be if I can make a dent in my to-do list!