All wet and making a design statement.
WHERE THERE'S SAND AND SURF, bathing alfresco doesn't just makes good sense, it makes for an experience that delights the senses.
"You feel like you're at the beach when you're showering outside and feel the summer breezes. The laid-back atmosphere (Down the Shore) lends itself to outdoor showers," says Walter Niebling, office manager and sales associate for Diane Turton Realtors' Bay Head office. "It's different from being back up north at your other home."
Niebling, who has 12 years of experience selling homes at the Jersey Shore, says outdoor showers are a must for the majority of his clients.
Many of those showers are maintenance-free vinyl boxes slapped on a deck or patio, or under a raised home. And that works for many owners and buyers.
But for some, such as Brant Beach homeowner Maureen McElwain, nondescript wouldn't do.
"Make it more inviting, so people will use it. I think that's the best way to keep people from coming in with sand on their feet," says McElwain, a mother of three teens who knows a thing or two about cleaning up after beachgoers. "If it's a dark, dingy space, I don't think it will feel as good."
Four years ago, McElwain, an interior designer, hired Surf City builder Paul R. Maina to upgrade her once-rundown outdoor shower so it would match the character of her 1938 cottage.
It was sided with cedar shakes, and a vintage-inspired arch top cedar door that opens to reveal a river stone accent wall and copper ceiling panels was added. Bathers wash beneath a rain-head fixture and stand atop a thick stone slab, rather than composite decking.
"We wanted to make it a sanctuary for people coming off the beach. It feels spa-like to me," says McElwain, whose main residence is in Upper Saddle River. "We even put lighting in, so you can still take a shower at night and look at the stars."
McElwain isn't the only one at the Jersey Shore who didn't treat an outdoor shower as an afterthought. Beach Haven architect/builder Robert Stack has given a few of his top billing.
After overhauling a Ship Bottom residence -- converting it from a three-unit condo to a duplex -- the owners and Stack turned their attention to the drab detached cinder block shower/shed combo. They decided to mimic the exterior details of the new duplex, from its siding in Pacific blue to its pitched roof and new cupola perch.
"You take the smallest thing and apply all the materials from the house to it, and it becomes a gem," says Stack. "Because it's smaller in scale, it becomes a highlight, like the period at the end of a sentence."
While not yet a trend, Niebling says he could see an upscale outdoor shower having the power to sway a buyer.
"They are all still pretty typical. I think you would be onto something if you embellished a shower," he says. "It would make a home stick out in someone's head."
If increased resale value is what you're after, Niebling advises against creating a space that is more ornate than the home or neighborhood.
"There's a cap on how much you want to spend on a shower before it's not going to be cost-effective," he says.
For McElwain, shelling out more than market price for her shower -- which always garners "oohs" and "ahs" from guests -- has been well worth the expense. "Yes, we paid more," she says, "but I think we will get a lot more use and enjoyment out of it over the years."
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