By now you are either back from your weekend getaway, or like me, moving from beautiful relaxation mode to WORK! But I am bound and determined to spend my next holiday in a beach house, like this beauty that was featured in Veranda Magazine. Once the Wright Amendment goes bye bye in October, we will be able to climb onto a Southwest Air Lines flight at Love Field and get to Santa Rosa Beach via Panama City in less than two hours. I am sooo ready!
Located in the heart of Watercolor, 401 Western Lake Drive skirts Western Lake and is less than a five minute walk to the beach. If you know Watercolor, you know all there is to do there: kayaking, paddle boarding, fishing, shops and restaurants, plus the Watercolor Beach Club which has two pools. Plus my favorite — just lay out at the beach, with the ocean in the background. This elegant home has a touch of sophistication, but it was designed to be a large, casual family compound. Built in 2007, the home has 4433 square feet and four bedrooms, four full baths and two half to house everyone plus the kitchen sink. Most beach homes in this neck of the woods have twin beds in as many room as possible to fit in more sleepers. There are four full baths, and two half which also helps with guests.
And the listing agent, Karen Wagner, who once lived in Dallas, tells me the home has been reduced! Asking is now $3,600,000. That’s all it takes to have a family compound getaway!
The classical proportions and sophisticated modern lines you see are the work of Bates & Corkern Architects and designer Liz Hand Woods of Birmingham, Alabama. The three-story home just embraces outdoor living. The front porch presents a traditional welcome to the street, but the moment you walk inside it’s a contemporary world with natural, beach-washed finishes. A sliding barn door introduces the breezeway and a private courtyard with a pool and outdoor showers. All is tucked within a lush natural landscape along the lake. You get formals — which means flipflops, no bare feet — and a family room that are designed to bring you relief and respite from the heat and beach experience. Then there is a huge kitchen with every amenity and a screened-in porch breakfast room.
Coffee. On that porch. Priceless. 
