MIDDLE TOWNSHIP — There’s a certain charm to getting off the beaten path, especially once August arrives.
Wild ideas take flight, for instance: maybe the dream beach house is actually the one on a completely secret, hidden beach? Somewhere like 119 Beach Avenue in Pierce’s Point, tucked away on a nearly private road along Delaware Bay.
A house like this is not only unique, it makes the argument that the west coast is the best coast, at least on the Jersey Cape.
If one were to look up “secret” in the dictionary, the entry should include a photo of Pierce’s Point. It’s not remote, it’s not isolated — in fact, it’s conveniently close to everything one might need, from schools to hospitals to highway entrances, fine dining and waterparks. It’s just that the road turning west off Delsea Drive at King Nummy Campground in the western edges of Cape May Court House (or, as it’s been known for centuries: Dias Creek) looks like it will head into a fairy tale forest — or maybe more campground.
There is no indication from the two-lane highway that there is an entire community hidden away back there. It certainly gives no indication that there is beachfront property to be had in a magical location that has to be seen to be believed.
From Beach Avenue, the house looks simple, clean and welcoming. There is even a little raised garden bed in the sheltered lee behind the two-story wing of the house.
The home sits on a raised foundation, painted white to match the scalloped shingles in the roof peaks, and the rest is covered in a soft beige siding.
Parking is a practical matter of pulling parallel to the street along the house, and there are two ways to enter from Beach Avenue: a garden gate to the right and a small staircase leading to an enclosed verandah on the left.
This sheltered entrance for the side door really indicates that this is a waterfront house: the wind will kick up at certain unsettled times of the year, and while never as destructive as the nor’easters experienced on the other coast, that west wind can get a real attitude when seasons are about to shift.
It’s not often that the bay covers itself in white caps, but this house will have a magnificent view of the briny tantrum when it does.
From that side entryway, one walks past a very attractive curving staircase on the right and into the kitchen immediately to the left.
The priorities of this home are radically different from any land-lubber house, as will become quickly apparent. The kitchen is where groceries are dropped and entertainment begins, so it’s the first on the tour. It’s an unusual kitchen by any measure, with dark wood cabinets and a unique island built around a standard oven/range combo.
As much of the visual clutter of kitchen appliances is hidden as possible, and the lighting fixtures of dark metal and bubbled glass whisper of haunted old ports — albeit in a way that still feels clean and inviting.
This creates a handy spot for guests to settle in, chat with the chef and get their first drinks for a tour of the house to come. There’s no standing on ceremony here: the dining room is just to the right, part of the same open space, and the views take hold immediately thanks to a row of double doors leading out to the wide deck.
Those doors are Andersen hurricane-rated doors, so the view isn’t sacrificed just because the wind picks up a bit. Sunsets must light up these rooms like a holiday light show; but the striped canvas awning just outside means that the summer sun won’t overheat the kitchen during the long, slow afternoons.
Another interior set of double doors leads to the enormous living room, which is as much like a medieval great hall as a simple frame house from 1975 can get.
Wood paneling stained to a deep, rich color covers the barrel ceiling of the seaward half of this room, allowing space between the bay views and the roof for a very well-chosen iron chandelier and exposed wood beams.
Although the walls are freshly painted white to go with the new rugs, new loft upstairs and the new septic system (magical news in these little bayside hamlets that lack city water), it would be fascinating to see how this room might be decorated in some sort of Beach-Viking style.
Whatever choices are made, let them be joyful — just like everything else about this house and location.
The three bedrooms located “behind” the living room are, of course, closer to the street in this reversed, water-fronting house.
The two guest bedrooms are not inordinately large, clocking in at a little more than 7’ by a little less than 12’, but they have good-sized closets and a shared bathroom along the hall. The laundry room is also found here, behind the bathroom.
The primary bedroom suite is very large, encompassing nearly the entire back of the house, and in addition to an ensuite bath, it has a private courtyard patio open to the sky in the little area between the dining room and the bedrooms.
A sheltered little patio garden, pet-friendly and completely private, could be created here and no one on the street would ever know. Like a nautilus shell, this journey to Pierce’s Point keeps revealing more and more hidden places.
Up the stairs, and not hidden at all, is the second-floor bonus room. This could be used as a TV room or a child’s bedroom, an office or painter’s studio, as it’s a comfy space with laminate wood floors and slightly lower eaves.
Perhaps most importantly, it is the entrance to a deck that is arguably the most enviable part of this home. This wide platform looks over the entire scene: the deck below, the beach in front and the waves beyond. As inviting as the lower deck must be in all seasons, this is where family and guests will want to spend summer nights.
The other most-enviable part of this home? It comes with the lot at 118 Beach Ave. directly across the street. The current residents have been using that lot for additional parking, as this house was made for entertaining, and the 2,062 square feet of space takes up almost the entire western lot. It could be parking and a garden, or parking and a playground, or just a buffer to keep Pierce’s Point, already just a tiny scrap of high ground clinging to the cape, from ever getting too crowded. As such, it’s one of the wisest investments one could make here.
