OMG, I Want This House: Block Island, RI

Block Island may be a beloved vacation spot for the New England set, but just because you’re joining the well-appointed hoards in their summer migration doesn’t mean you have to follow in their every footstep. For $1.65 million, you can distinguish yourself and your superior taste with a unique perch on the Atlantic Coast. This is no cookie-cutter Cape Cod, no canned clapboard, no conventional cottage; this secluded contemporary gem is the spot where your summer memories of upstaging your neighbors will be made.

It’s important to get in the mood when you’re en-route to vacation. You can can spend hours putting together the perfect summer playlist, or you can pick a spot that requires arrival by ferry. There’s nothing like the waves against your boat, the cawing of seagulls, and a glass of preparatory rosé to get you in the mood…or to make you really seasick.

It’s good to stick with the neutrals when it comes to the decor of your coastal chateau. Mother Nature is a show off and you wouldn’t want to incite her jealousy by upstaging her.

You are in the historic land of the Wasps, so get ready for days filled with bluff walking and lighthouse viewing and Polo wearing. When you’re not fraternizing with the Block Island gentry, you can fraternize with the island’s more important VIP residents: the plants and animals that occupy the protected land that covers nearly half of the island.

You could use the kitchen of your award-winning home (this is a United States AIA First Honor Award for Best Vacation House winner, thank you very much) to cook. Or you could spend your summer lobster-bake hopping like a quintessential New Englander.

Three bedrooms are spread throughout this 1,400 square-foot tower of a home. While it was built in 1975, like all good ladies, it’s had a few cosmetic—er—enhancements in the ensuing decades. Hey, vintage, meet modern! 

Some people like their après-ocean showers outdoors, but we take ours with a towel free of sand and a heavy dose of AC.

The listing agent describes the views as “just like a painting.” So when you’re looking out over your three acres that bleed into the ocean, give thanks for the fact that, with this au natural art, you won’t need to pay for the expensive stuff to hang on your walls.

Dating profiles have come so far since the nascent days of online romancin’ in the late 1990s. How big is the change, you ask? “Long walks on the beach” are out as a popular interest, and “sunsets on the back porch” are in. Like we said, so different. Add in a liquid happy hour, and you’ve got the makings of a Block Island evening to remember.  

There’s a long list of A-listers who choose to decamp to the northern Atlantic Coast when the thermostat skyrockets—the Kennedys, Taylor Swift, Tommy Hilfiger, and you if you choose to accept this $1.65 million challenge.