The day that pieces of the ceiling rained down on his wife as
she was taking a shower, Arnold Karp knew he had to get serious about renovating the vacation home he and his brother own in Watch Hill, Rhode Island. “We had talked about it for years,” said Karp, whose New Canaan-based company, Karp Associates Inc., specializes in custom homes and renovations. “At that point, we decided we better make a concerted effort to get moving.”
The brothers had always been close. After they married and had kids, their families started vacationing together. “I can’t remember the last time we went on a vacation that didn’t include the eleven of us,” said Karp. During one holiday, the brothers decided it was time to follow through on a long-held dream: a seaside retreat that would easily hold the nearly one dozen members of their clan. (The Karps lost the senior member of their dream-house team in January, when their mother, Arlene, passed away unexpectedly.)
Because both families live in New Canaan, they confined their search to the coastal communities of Connecticut and Rhode Island. In 2000, they found the perfect spot: a 1910 shingle-style beach house on one and a half waterfront acres. Set on a bluff, the 6,500-square-foot property, though dated, had great potential and, most importantly, a spectacular ocean view.
Karp consulted all 11 family members as he planned the makeover.
“It wasn’t just about creating a house for our two families, but for the next generation,” he said. The biggest challenge was to design the house with enough space so that people wouldn’t feel like they were on top of each other, but cozy enough that they wouldn’t feel like they were in a warehouse. He created several communal living areas on the first floor—a sunroom, a family room, a great room and a screened porch—with enough seating for a crowd, and then added lots of little niches and quiet spots for reading and writing.
Collaborating with Sabrina Foulke, AIA, of Point One Architects in Old Lyme, he spent two years thinking through the project, which took 16 months to build. Plans to renovate and expand the existing structure were scrapped when workers discovered evidence of a fire at some point in the house’s history. “Even though I’m a guy who does this professionally every day, there’s always something you don’t consider,” he said. They ended up tearing down most of the original structure, leaving only part of the ground floor and the chimney in what is now the great room.
One of the goals, said Karp, was to maximize the waterfront setting, something the original homeowners did not do. He moved the entry from the side of the house to the front, put the kitchen in the back and placed windows everywhere. Out back, a negative-edge swimming pool seems to fall into the lily pond, which separates the property from the dunes and the beach. “It’s an architectural engineering marvel,” Karp said.
For the interior of the now 9,000-square-foot house, he chose a blend of vacation casual and seaside elegance. The rooms are bright and airy with antique oak floors and a soothing palette of grays, whites, blues and browns. The foyer is the most formal space with raised oak paneling. “It gives the house an old feel,” he said. “Everything goes casual from there on.”
To keep maintenance and operations costs down, he installed state-of-the-art heating and cooling systems and covered the roof with a composite material that looks like wood but is guaranteed to last 50-plus years. The spacious kitchen is designed for entertaining, with two deep sinks, the largest non-commercial stove on the market and two warming drawers. And the kitchen drawers are extra wide to accommodate 24-piece place settings. A special place was designed for a second dishwasher in the dining room. For charging multiple iPads, iPods and smart phones, he installed extra electrical outlets.
Sleeping quarters are spread out across four floors. One bedroom and bath is on the first floor. There are six bedrooms and bathrooms on the second floor, including two master suites with private terraces. The third floor, once the attic, is now shared office space with a full bath and ample room for air mattresses. The basement has a bunkroom for guest overflow, two full baths—and there’s an outdoor shower. “Everyone said I was crazy putting in so many bathrooms,” said Karp. “But when it’s 6 p.m. and fifteen people have to shower, I look like a hero.”