NORTH CAPE MAY — Popular lore has it that the warren of streets given nearly rhyming names in North Cape May carry all the monikers of the developer’s family members.
The neighborhood boasts a Suzanne, Joanne, Linda Anne … and Mindy, which does kind of break up the Annes, but then again, in a household of rhyming names, no one can immediately tell who is being called by Mom.
Suzanne Avenue is a calm lane in the middle of it all, not too far off the convenient Bayshore Road, but not directly on it, either.
The home at 200 Suzanne Ave. is a short bike ride away from the beach on the Delaware Bay side, a short walk to restaurants and shopping and a short drive to every other attraction on the peninsula.
In no other respect is this home short on anything; the owners have packed every square foot of the place with unexpected luxury and comfort.
The deceptively modest facade along Suzanne Avenue is easy enough to find: just a pale gray home built in a popular 1970s style, but expanded a bit since then.
A wide driveway fills the front, where a second garage was built to add even more space than the original car bay that was tucked under a bedroom in the classic split-level style. If one didn’t live in a house like this at least once, can one really brag about living in the ’80s?
All expectations have to be thrown out, however, because this home has been completely refurbished in a way our ’80s selves would never recognize.
A curved walkway leads one from the driveway to the shade under a mature tree, where a spacious front deck looks out over the corner of Suzanne and Deborah avenues. The front door opens to a clean, white, open-plan great room with distinctive touches of light, honey colored wood: the hardwood floors, the hearth surrounding the gas fireplace from floor to ceiling, the window trim, the kitchen cabinets and a pillar holding up a unique archway detail from the entry hall to the kitchen.
What was just a softer take on a midcentury modern idea in 1975 when this home was built is now truly modern in reality, with only architectural details and furniture to demarcate the different zones in this functional living space.
The entry hall offers a drop zone and a place for guests to congregate during a party, while the dining area is farthest back in the corner, with a huge bay window by the table. All of these spaces have deliberately been kept simple but warm, with luxurious finishes and a calm palette.
This is a space made for gatherings, with seating under the granite countertop and plenty of clearance for guests to mingle. The tile floor in the kitchen picks up the lightest shade from the countertops, while a custom backsplash carries the natural tones of those surfaces into a geometric pattern.
Light is bounced around but it’s kept in check by the warmth of the custom wood cabinets, including some very high, glass-fronted cabinets over the counter to create a bar feeling between the kitchen and dining areas.
The appliances are all recent, stainless steel and very sleek, but the standout feature of this horseshoe-shaped kitchen is just how much storage and counter space it offers. Multiple cooks could fit in here, each with their own work station, each still able to chat with the assembled guests or at least keep an eye on the action — making it a truly perfect blend of cook’s kitchen and family gathering spot.
With all this open space, the once-dreaded basement door is now completely open to the downstairs, connecting the busy kitchen to the laundry room and back door on the lower level (where more surprises await).
One large bedroom (of three total) and a full bath (also of three total) are down there, still used as the children’s room after all these years. In every other respect, this lower level has been opened up and made brighter, though unlike almost every other house from this era, the garage still remains.
Even with the addition of another larger garage, they kept this one. This choice was made possible by an addition to the back of the house, where a sunny family room has views of the backyard and its many charms.
That old back door, formerly squeezed in what was little more than a closet in these homes long ago, now leads to the completely modern family room.
One can easily imagine the kids being sent down to play and hang out in this space while the adults dish both food and gossip upstairs in the kitchen. At no point will their kids have to traverse the scary gloom of the old-style basement: a character-building experience no one would wish on a kid today.
As below, so above: another short flight of stairs just off the entry hall reminds one that this is still a split-level house, and up on this top floor are two very large bedrooms and two more baths.
The first bedroom is just a simple room with a closet and double windows looking over the street. The primary bedroom suite is a pale green room in the coveted corner spot, with windows on two sides, a larger closet and a simply shocking new ensuite bath.
The bathroom has an enclosed shower snuggled into the corner, a wide vanity, a low pony wall hiding the toilet and a platform jacuzzi tub — like some pagan altar of whirlpool magic hidden inside a modest, suburban house.
This is the last hint before this apparent love of water reaches its peak outside, but for the winter months it’s hard to beat this unexpected luxury.
Then, suddenly, the backyard beckons. It’s summer at last and the obvious choice for favorite space in this unique home is now truly open for the season: the backyard patio, pool and hot tub occupy what in most homes would be a wooden deck and a few straggly shrubs, turning a hidden corner of the property into a luxury resort.
The only indication that something is afoot is the low stone wall with a sleek white top seen just outside the sunroom/family room door.
The fact that this is the highest point of a complete in-ground pool is astonishing. The sleek, square design is kept starkly intentional throughout this courtyard area: the patio, the surfaces of the pools, each zone opens to another like the concentric circles of a natural shape, while keeping that stark clean line.
It is almost perfectly proportioned for the space, and feels like someone just pulled a rabbit out of a hat. In this case, the rabbit is a perfect staycation, and the hat is the modest environs of sleepy little Suzanne Avenue, where the practical, reasonable people live, traditionally eschewing that showy stuff the island people indulge in to focus on raising a family and growing very sturdy tomatoes.
Not anymore. This courtyard is like someone won a contest: it has no business hiding out behind a reasonable split-level home. But there it is!
And it can only be seen as an incredible gift to the next family to live there. Pool parties will be epic, and if it must be an investment property? The rental value just doubled.
For those looking to raise a family here, there is one more surprise: the rest of the backyard is still out there, stretching all the way to the corner and completely enclosed by a fresh white privacy fence.
This grassy yard is clean and comfortable for pets, children, lawn games, dance routines or someone’s fantasy garden. The 70 x 100 foot lot has room for it all.
