PHOTO BY MARK MENDEZ
Normally for the annual coastal issue of Cottages & Bungalows I’d be writing about island vacations, summer cottage rentals and beach-side travel. But 2020’s global pandemic has other ideas. We’re experiencing a world we’ve never imagined and changing our behaviors and perceptions in untested ways. And yet gratefully, my message here for this letter is not altogether different from what I’d normally reminisce on in C&B. It’s merely simplified: Home and everything in it is precious. The people, the possessions, the feelings of our homes have become so much more to us since we’ve been safely sheltering in them. Those of us home huggers have always known that how we craft our home can have a lot to do with our happiness and peace of mind. But now more than ever, our homes are our sanctuaries, and we are more mindful of everything we do, create and put into them.
I hope you see and read the stories of the homes in this issue and they remind you of the journeys each of us go through in finding, building and making our homes. That you relish the process of every choice and rediscover the meaning of every element. And that it helps you enjoy every second in yours.