Bilek Builders brings a fresh look to an old waterfront home.

“I’m not poet enough to tell you what the salt marsh looks like at high tide.”

~Michael Cunningham, Land’s End

With the everchanging shores of our Cape coastal towns, there seem to be more and more reasons to lift existing homes or incorporate an elevated design into a new structure. Flood zones dominate the Outer Cape, with its high influx of storms, weather changes and erosion. This means each year, waterfront houses edge closer to the raging tides of the Atlantic—and closer to their destruction. Horror stories spring to mind of cottages tumbling over sand dunes, of generations of history covered by the sands of time. It takes a special team to preserve what is soon to be lost, and in the marsh-laden Sunken Meadow in Eastham, Bilek Builders was able to pull off a miracle that saved a family’s cherished home from potential ruin. 

Marirose Lynch of  RE/MAX Coastal Properties was on the lookout for a special home for her friends, John and Deborah Duarte. She learned the house at 385 Harmes Way was literally in harm’s way. This 1960s-era classic Cape family home, sandwiched between Sunken Meadow Beach and the marshlands, was directly in a flood zone, and its proximity to the shoreline meant impending doom. Still, Lynch could see its potential, and when she brought it to the attention of the Duartes, they fell in love. They reached out to Bilek Builders, a Harwich-based General Contractor and Project Management firm, headed by E. Christopher Bilek, with over forty years of experience to help them with plans on how to enjoy this uniquely situated home for years to come. 

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