Home of the Week: At home on land & water

They live comfortably aboard Ariel, their 44-foot Kadey-Krogen recreational trawler, as it cruises some of the East Coast portion of the Intracoastal Waterway. When the four live ashore, they are usually found at their unique home in the Crownsville community of Palisades on the Severn.

Though Palisades is just a few stoplights from Westfield Annapolis mall, you feel hundreds of miles away. The pastoral woodland scenery unfolds as you drive along the winding River Road toward the community.

Barbara and Jim have been married 25 years. Jim, 69, a retired oncologist, founded a practice in Rockville called Associates in Oncology and Hematology. Barbara, 53, a native of Arlington, Va., is an executive with a consulting firm.

"We met when I was in the banking business, financing physicians," Barbara said. "I handled the loan that enabled him to open his practice."

Chestnut, also known as "Chessie," is a Boykin spaniel, a breed honored in 1985 as the official state dog of South Carolina. Barbara's ancestor, L. Whitaker Boykin, developed the breed in the early 1900s in Camden, S.C. He wanted a dog that would retrieve wild turkeys he had shot while hunting in the Wateree River swamp, but large, longer-limbed retrievers tended to capsize the shallow, flat-bottomed vessels the Boykin family used. With a little genetic tinkering, the shorter, medium-sized Boykin breed proved perfect.

Merlin is easier to explain: He's a big white cat with blue eyes. When strangers arrive - poof! - Merlin does a vanishing act.

Lighthouse-like

Jim and Barbara's land home is at the end of a long, gravel driveway that threads through the woods. The home was built in 1992 atop a bluff on a plot of land that is nearly all waterfront. The octagonal-shaped wood frame building, completely encircled by a redwood deck, bears a resemblance to the Thomas Point lighthouse, the landmark screw-pile, cottage-style shoal light on the Chesapeake Bay.

"The house was built by developer John Nye for himself. It was a bachelor pad, so it didn't have a lot of closet space. He sold it to us shortly afterwards. We saw it in October of '93 and fell in love with it," Jim said. "We loved the openness of it, and it's high above the water, so it's not a flood risk."

"We've kept the landscaping natural," Barbara said, explaining the absence of a traditional lawn. "It looks like a house in the trees, not a typical suburban residence. When I plant, I put native plantings in and let the rest of the property go wild."

"We had another house in the area years ago," Jim added. "The previous owner had kept it nicely manicured. We intended it as a weekend home away from our old place in Bethesda. But we spent all our time weeding, mulching, mowing and planting. It was no fun at all!"

The couple often uses the wraparound deck on the second floor and a screened-in porch on the ground level for entertaining, meals or relaxing while gazing at the view. The home overlooks Maynadier Creek. From the couple's pier, there are glimpses of Hopkins Creek and Mathiers Point at the end of their small peninsula. The Bayberry Hill community lies across the water. Little Round Bay and St. Helena Island are reached by sailing a few minutes north.

The main level and front door are on the second floor. Visitors walk into an open space incorporating the kitchen, dining room, living room and a lounge area surrounding the Malm fireplace. "It's more for atmosphere building," Jim said.

The original fireplace blocked their view of the water, so during renovations the couple moved it to the other side of the room, where it soars upward to the 34-foot ceiling. Washington, D.C.-based decorator Sydne Murphy decorated the house and their boat with a fresh, contemporary touch, utilizing both antiques and new finds.

Beautiful baskets

The most striking feature in the kitchen is not the granite countertops or the built-in wine refrigerator, but the dozens of rustic, hand-woven baskets stacked randomly atop the walnut-stained cabinets. "I received them all from my patients as gift baskets," Jim said modestly. "They were so beautiful, we put them up there."

The master bedroom and a guest bedroom are on this floor, too. Both have their own bathrooms. They are reached by walking past a large, tall Victorian cabinet of intricately carved walnut. Made in Philadelphia, it was handed down through several generations of an Isle of Wight (Hampton Roads, Va.) branch of Barbara's family that settled in the region in the 1630s.

One wall in the master bedroom is occupied by floor-to-ceiling cherry wood cabinets built by Rick Avedikian of Washington, D.C. They handsomely compensate for the lack of closets in the original plans. (Barbara opens one of two closets in the home - it has room for, perhaps, six dresses.) The bed is placed directly under a skylight so the couple can look up at night and see the stars.

The centerpiece of the master bathroom is what Jim describes as "the big party tub."

"We've never used it," he said. "It takes 100 gallons of water to fill it up and we only have a 40-gallon hot water tank. When we renovate the bathroom eventually, we'll take it out."

Above the main floor, the couple installed a work space loft that appears to float in the trees. In addition to his-and-hers desks, a wet bar and a seating area, the work space holds two pieces - a low table and a sideboard-bookshelf - Jim built by hand during his medical residency in New York City.

"I bought a Thailand teak tree for $500 in 1968 and had it milled in New York City's City Island, a former watermen's community. I used the wood to build several pieces of furniture," he said.

On two walls of the work space hang three watercolors by a modern painter called Fitzhugh depicting Eastern Shore fishing scenes. A striking, vintage camel pack carpet from Persia also hangs on a wall.

The lower level holds a grand guest suite complete with a kitchenette, a pool table, exercise equipment and the third bedroom and bath.

72 steps down

Jim led the way outdoors through the screened porch where the couple usually has their meals in good weather.

"It's 72 steps down to the base of the cliff," Jim said cheerfully as he headed down the staircase to a pier set in the middle of a panoramic vista.

Tethered to the pier are the couple's two vessels, a Boston whaler for quick get-arounds, and Ariel, named for the Disney mermaid.

"Ariel is like a floating condo," Barbara said as she stepped down onto the rear deck and moved through the spacious, wood-paneled vessel.

Adding a touch of elegance in the living room is a pair of Tiffany-style lamps. The blown glass shades have been broken and replaced three times. "Now they're bolted down. If something aboard is not bolted, it's plastic," Barbara said with a grin.

"We bought this Kadey-Krogen trawler three years ago. She was built in Taiwan and finished in Florida," Jim said. "We now live six months of the year ashore and six months on Ariel. So far, we've sailed on the Intracoastal Waterway seven times. We stop at places along the ICW for a few days here and there."

The on-board kitchen is roomy, bigger than those in most Manhattan studio apartments. A stacked washer-dryer and a microwave are within easy reach.

The couple spends most of their time up front in the pilot house. "It's a rec room on the water," Jim said. "While one of us is piloting, the other one is curled up on the settee with Chessie and Merlin."

On gorgeous days, the family moves upstairs to an open fly bridge and pilots the ship from there.

The master bedroom, in the bow, is cozy without being cramped. A framed, abstract watercolor signed "Tashkovski" hangs over the queen-sized bed.

In the guest room, with the pull of a few knobs, the L-shaped sofa turns into a full-sized bed. A small hatch in the room leads to the pristine engine room, filled with pipes and things that hum.

"Ariel is a really comfortable boat," Jim said. "We like this lifestyle."

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Would you like to see your house, townhome, condo, apartment or cottage featured as The Capital's Home of the Week? To nominate your home, e-mail Wendi Winters at wendi@quantumstep.com. Include your contact information and details about your residence.