VILLAS — The housing market is tough right now, and toughest of all for those who just want a modest home to live in, ideally close to jobs, schools, grocery shopping and other necessities.
For those starting out with a young family, those looking to downsize but still have room for visiting grandkids and those looking for an actual summer house they can rent out as an investment until retirement, it’s easy to feel despondent about the market.
Every once in a while, though, a little sun beam pokes through the clouds, and this time that sunbeam is pointing straight at the pretty rancher at 118 Shadeland Ave. in the Villas section of Lower Township.
In the last 20 years or so, Villas has become infamous for what it’s not: every time some beachfront row of millionaire mansions goes up within the sprawling borders of Cape May County’s most populous town, they change the name of just that neighborhood, resolutely making it somehow not Villas.
As a result, people think Villas is a world apart from the lifestyle they dream of in tony Cape May or windswept Avalon, despite the fact that they will eventually shop there, order food from there, take their kids to soccer practice there and so on.
Just a breath away from one of the Millionaire’s Rows that litter the western coast of the cape like filigree, Shadeland Avenue is an ordinary street for the neighborhood just north of the protected wilderness that used to be the Ponderlodge.
The palatial estate, once a private wonderland for a millionaire from an older era, became a golf club and venue where many locals were married or attended their prom.
Gradually the golf course fell into decline, attracting migrating birds by the thousands and slowly becoming one of the most enchanting protected parks (ahem, “wildlife management area”) in the county.
Shadeland Avenue is barely a block north, in fact the homes at the very end of the street almost spill into the wilderness like the street has been tipped southeast into the wide expanse of green.
This home is just a bit northwest of that junction, and a half-block north of the beautiful oddity that is Lake Champlain: an almost perfectly rectangular lake bordered on three sides by slightly larger ranchers, with attached garages marking them as later builds than those on Shadeland.
The home was built in 1978, making it slightly younger than most homes in Villas, although it was built along similarly efficient lines: a deceptively modest front set against a backdrop of green, on a 5,000-square-foot lot that looks tidy but deceptively small from the curb.
These homes were designed to keep their cards close to the vest, and the many upgrades this home has undergone do not change the fact that the first impression is of the sweetest little cottage on a street filled to the brim with sweet little cottages.
As if all this — the preserve, the lake, the neighborhood itself — were not enough, the home is barely a five-minute walk from one of the most scenic beaches on Delaware Bay.
The home greets visitors with a welcoming front porch, windows flanked by decorative shutters and flower boxes, and a tidy walkway and driveway. Only a gate at the right of the house hints at more hidden behind the home.
The front door opens to a bright living room with white oak hardwood floors that lead into the kitchen, where the home really does wear its heart on its proverbial sleeve because so many of the loving and careful upgrades are invisible except in the kitchen, where they spill over exuberantly.
The quartz countertops have a waterfall edge on both sides of the widened galley, leaving room for the center island that also has a waterfall edge, but this time of butcher’s block.
The stove sits in this center island, with a simple hood over that to keep the open spaces sweet and clean, which is one detail most people forget when cooking in an open-plan house: the grease will get everywhere unless the hood is actually used.
In this kitchen, it would be hard to forget it, but other clever design details await: the sink is under an east-facing window, meaning mornings will be pleasant but summer afternoons slightly cooler, with ample storage and counter space; the opposite side of the kitchen is where the refrigerator and microwave await.
It’s hard to imagine a more visually calming layout that utilizes every inch of space so well, and every detail is finished in a way that makes it enjoyable to use and easy to keep clean.
Best of all, an opening at the center leads to a back room that could be a dining area or the sitting room if one wanted to put the dining area in the front of the house.
This room is dominated by sliding glass doors that lead to the new 17-foot deck in the back. That is where the actual focus of life will be, at least for most of the year, excepting only the coldest days of winter.
The backyard is spacious and ready for games, garden beds or pets, surrounded by a new vinyl fence. A storage shed could be converted into a she shed or man cave, or just used to stash the kayaks one could pull by bike to the bay. A mature tree offers some shade for the primary bedroom in the back of the house.
The three bedrooms of this home are reached by a central hall. One bedroom looks over the front lawn, one looks over the side and the primary suite looks out onto the back.
The primary bedroom has an ensuite bath with a standing shower covered in custom tile with built-in niches and glass doors.
The second bathroom is along the hallway and slightly larger, with a tub/shower combination and wider vanity, surrounded by simple, long tile in a light limestone color. All the fixtures are simple Moen brand verging on shaker style, but every feature of this home is above builder grade and chosen with care.
The sellers have upgraded every detail, from HVAC to doors and trim, so it’s ready to start moving furniture and dreams right in. Although Shadeland Avenue exists in a pocket-like hideaway accessible only from Bay Avenue or Fourth Avenue from Village Road, it’s still close to everything one needs, from shopping to recreation, schools and an embarrassment of dining options.
The islands of Cape May and Wildwood are only a few minutes’ drive away, and in keeping with the tendency of the past few decades, this house is just south of the hilariously named “Wildwood Heights” neighborhood, where some enterprising jokester capitalized on the short commute to the islands.
Shadeland Avenue ends at Bay Avenue to the west, in another private, wooded enclave of beachfront mansions. Access to the beach is still possible for us humble sorts by sandy paths through the trees, because this is resolutely still Villas, forever.
