The British West Indies-style home designed by Moulton Layne and built by Croom Construction became home to Dave and Nancy Herbert in 2021 after they spent decades of moving around to follow a career in financial services. Their home in the Floralton Beach area of the barrier island, has a casual, open and airy plan with large windows that create a bright indoor living space.
It didn’t take long for Cathy and Steve to fall in love with the John’s Island lifestyle and start thinking about having a place of their own there one day.
“We found the plan, the architecture — really the whole thing — intriguing, but this was long before we were even thinking of buying a house in Florida,” Lisa Segalas shares. “However, what we saw in the pictures sent to us stuck in our minds for a couple of decades.”
That was the dream of a couple and their three young sons — to live near the waves they all love to ride on their surfboards — hoping one day it would become a reality.
What do you do if you’re house hunting and find one that doesn’t quite suit your lifestyle, but whose property and location are exactly what you’ve been looking for? For a couple from the Northeast, the answer was to call on a team of local professionals to make their vision a reality. A year later a newly transformed home reflects the couple’s personalities, interests and experiences thanks to the collaboration of builder Carl Lachnitt, architect Greg Anderson, and interior designer Leah Muller.
The Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club hits a quarter century milestone this year. In the run-up to the 25th anniversary, the club completed the latest in its ongoing efforts to upgrade, improve and enhance its facilities – the renovation of the golf clubhouse.
Having owned a condominium in Palm Beach since the early '90s, Agnes and Yves had grown fond of the coastal lifestyle. As the years went by and work responsibilities began to ease, the idea of building a house overlooking the ocean became increasingly attractive. The idea became a reality 15 months ago, and their home is everything the couple had hoped for.
The Ciampas’ heartfelt thank you also extends to architect Harry Howle, Spectrum Interior Design, and Reilly Construction, the team that transformed the 4,800-square-foot John’s Island courtyard home the couple purchased in 2011. Built in the late 1980s from one of three prototypes popular at the time, the form, function and flow of the floor plan were outdated. As Howle points out, “The plan was basically obsolete. Consequently the scope of work became very large.”
The house on Sandpointe Lane was supposed to be Lynn and Jim Odoms’ retirement cottage, a place where they could settle in and savor the slice of sea-inspired heaven Lynn had so carefully created. With three bedrooms and an office, it was the just the right size for two empty nesters.
When Carol Twyman talks about how she and her husband, Jeff, ended up building a home in John’s Island, the sparkle in her eyes says there’s more to the story than square footage, bricks and mortar. After years of short seasonal stays in their riverfront home near the Environmental Learning Center, the Twymans decided it was time to either renovate or relocate. Jeff was in the process of selling Greenline Foods, a produce company he founded 25 years ago, and looking forward to pursuing other interests. Carol was anticipating spending more time with family and tending to her garden.
It’s often been said that a house is a place, but a home is a feeling. Thanks largely to some pretty amazing synergy with their talented renovation team, New Yorkers Sandy and Mike ended up with a Vero Beach residence that is not only a visually stunning place, but a warm, inviting one that’s sure to make anyone who walks through the door feel welcome.
Patti Connor says with a smile, “At heart, I’m a beach girl. I knew any house we bought or built in Vero Beach had to be close to the sea.”
Jim and Sue Lawson never considered owning a home in Florida. Simply put, their perception of the Sunshine State lifestyle didn’t fit with theirs. But when a good friend of Jim’s invited them to his John’s Island home the couple’s feelings began to change.
Wanted: House on the east coast of Florida with ocean view, large enough to accommodate an extended family.
It only took one look for Hilary Mullarkey to know that the house framed by oak trees was what she wanted, a place where she and her three children could come together.
Like many of us who have chosen to call Vero Beach home the couple from suburban Washington, D.C., had visited family and friends often enough to know that this was where they wanted to plant roots of their own.
Everything she envisioned it could become is now a reality and she’s not shy about expressing how she feels.
“We restored the beach house not just because we wanted to live next to the ocean, but also out of a sense of legacy,” says the owner of a 1940s beach cottage. He continues, “A large Mediterranean house had been approved for the site and it would be a shame to have lost a simple beach house and a small piece of Vero Beach history to a 21st-century monstrosity.”
It took a strong team to pull off the complete renovation of the John’s Island West Clubhouse over last summer, and such a team did just that to the universal approval of the people who count – the members of the John’s Island Club.
Very few people have heard of Bayou West, and that’s one of the things that made it so appealing to Jim and Laurie Carney. A unique part of Vero Beach history dating back to the early 1970s, it’s a two-story apartment complex behind the Quail Valley River Club at the end of Riomar Drive. After 40 years, it was beginning to show its age, but when the Carneys decided to return to the seaside town where they had begun their married life they zeroed right in on it.
When viewed from the road the new home on the river is understated in comparison to many of the others in the upscale community. It’s when you are invited inside that the understated becomes extraordinary, for what you see tells the tale of a husband and wife who knew what they wanted and how to get it.
Falling in love with Vero Beach has always been easy to do.
