There is a particular dream that takes hold of people who live in the desert: a house by the water. For many Arizonans, the beach house is the ultimate second home - a place where the pace changes the moment you arrive and the ocean does the entertaining.
Building one well is its own discipline. The best beach houses are designed around the view and the light, built to shrug off salt and sun, and furnished for sand and wet feet rather than show. Comfort, not formality, is the governing principle.
Whether it sits on the California coast or the shores of Mexico, the reward is the same: a standing invitation to leave real life behind for a while. And for those who spend their days under the desert sun, the sound of water is a luxury all its own.
Originally published in View AZ Highlife Magazine, June / July 2007.