What an opportunity! The home at 2095 Windward Way in The Moorings has just about everything anyone could ask for in a seasonal waterfront home, or, for that matter, in a family waterfront home. It is not huge: 2,550 under air, 3,700 under roof. But the Barbados-style house, which was completely remodeled in 2007-08, has an open flowing floor plan, four bedrooms – including a generous master suite – three full baths, a pool, a deep-water dock and a beautifully landscaped waterside yard for kids or dogs to play in. And it all comes for a mere $1,150,000.
“I don’t know where you can get a fixer-upper on the water for that amount,” says Marsha Sherry, broker at The Moorings Realty Sales Company, “ and this house is move-in ready, in beautiful condition. The owners took it back to the studs, raised the ceilings and built it basically as a new house in 2007. They put in some lovely details.”
“We opened the house up and removed some walls to bring the outside in and make it kind of casual for the lifestyle we enjoy when we are in Florida,” says owner Marilyn Kercher, a snowbird who, with her husband, has homes in Chicago and Wisconsin. “The house lends itself to a Vero Beach lifestyle. It is great for parties or having a lot of visitors. We have four children and 11 grandchildren and they are often down at Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter. We always have a full house during spring break.”
The house is on one of the nicest streets in The Moorings, where well-kept and in many cases upgraded homes sit on large waterfront lots. Many of the homes on the street have been taken back to studs or concrete block walls and rebuilt like new, while others have been taken down completely and replaced by new luxury homes that elevate the look and aggregate value of the neighborhood.
The house has good curb appeal, with a clean, uncluttered Barbados look. The front yard has an expanse of grass and lots of subtropical plants.
The front door opens into the home’s expansive public area, which includes a living room, large kitchen with an island and plenty of granite counter space, a dining area and a charming family room that comes into focus around a massive coral stone fireplace – one of the few original features the Kercher’s (wisely) retained when they renovated the concrete block house.
The entire space enjoys water views via many sets of sliding glass doors, all of which can be protected with storm shutters if the wind begins to blow – though the home is on a protected cove.
“We moved in not too long after the big storms and all the boats in the marina came through the hurricanes in good shape,” says Marilyn Kercher.
While the public space is open and spacious, it is also well defined and has a useful degree of separation between the different functional areas. The overall space is large and well-designed enough so that a group of teenage children could socialize in the family room while parents and friends watched TV or talked in the living room without one group disturbing the other.
“I love the fact that our whole family or a group of neighbors could be together [in the kitchen and adjoining spaces] and not be crowded,” says Marilyn Kercher.
Upon entering through the front door, there is a full bath that serves as a powder room to the left. Next to it is nicely decorated room with a closet and three Palladian windows that is used now as an office. With the closet and adjacent bathroom, it could be a fourth bedroom.
Beyond that room is the generous master suite, with a large bedroom with a back wall made of glass sliders that open onto the lanai and let in pool and marina views. There is a walk-in closet, and the master bath has a huge corner soaking tub, an oversize glassed-in shower, double sinks and mirrors, granite countertops, and lots cabinets and drawers in the built-in vanity that stretches the length of one wall.
On the opposite side of the public space, beyond the kitchen, is the entrance to the two-car garage, a laundry room and two guest or children’s rooms that share an updated bathroom. The back bedroom has water views, the front bedroom garden views.
The home’s wonderful outdoor space has a perfect southern exposure and includes a covered lanai that is more than 500 square feet, a pool patio with pavers and a lovely tiled pool, a green, grassy lawn running down to the seawall along Spyglass Cove and a dock with a seating area, a fish cleaning station and room for a large boat.
“My grandkids love the pool and they love the fishing,” says Marilyn Kercher. “They catch so many great fish and it is so much fun for them. We all love watching the dolphins and manatees that come into the cove.”
“We got so many manatee in here they look like stepping stones,” says Sherry, whose office faces the same cove and enjoys the same picturesque marina views.
“It has been great living in the Moorings,” says Marilyn Kercher. “They have so much to offer with the boating, beach, golf and tennis. This has been my favorite house.”
