Part 4 of our ‘Home for the Year’ series reflects on how the homeowners delight in their sublime waterfront surroundings

For those fortunate enough to live in a waterfront home, the scenery becomes a central character in their day-to-day experience. The natural environment subliminally becomes a participant in every conversation, and a close confidant in each solitary point of reflection. For the Laverty family, the special site of their Nye’s Neck home, featured in each of our Cape Cod HOME issues this year, commands center stage as their life plays out.

A home on the water exerts a subtle energy that changes throughout the day. The mornings are often still and serene, and early risers at the Laverty home are able to settle in with a cup of coffee in a comfortable lounge chair on the covered terrace that runs along the back of the house. During late spring months, the scene might include the fitful splashes of brash “schoolie” stripers working the narrows around the breakwater. Warmer months might offer up the dramatic spectacle of an osprey couple teaching their young to dive for fish.

Charlie Laverty tends to take that quiet time to make the rounds in his extensive gardens that unite and delight throughout the property. Surveying his gardens like any avid gardener, Laverty is able to reflect upon the dew-speckled plants, shrubs, trees and other plantings when they are at their least-stressed moments of the day—making for a morning affirmation of the symbiotic relationship between the efforts of the human world as received by the natural world.

As the day and the family’s activities become more active, the breeze on Buzzards Bay beckons sailors and power boaters that traverse across the waterways in front of the home. When the property was constructed, builder Ralph Cataldo and his crew reworked the revetment that protects the home from the unwanted elements of the waterfront position, and generous granite steps were integrated to allow easy access to the private sandy beach for beachgoers of all ages. The family’s center-console powerboat bobs on a mooring just offshore, at the ready for the next adventure.

As the sun moves across the sky, and the abundant towering trees that appear throughout the property provide some welcome shade, an afternoon spent practicing pitch shots from the sand trap adjacent to the putting green or a multigenerational game of bocce brings out the competitive spirit of the entire family. A wrought iron patio table and chairs tucked into a shade garden that hugs the edge of the shoreline is the perfect place to sip an evening cocktail, while listening to the waves gently slap the beach just feet below.

The family often enjoys dinnertime in the screened-in gazebo, which spools off of the back of the house and is conveniently in proximity to the kitchen and new vegetable garden. On the patio, underneath an expanse of stars that seem to go on forever, friends and family gather around the oversized fire pit to recount the day’s activities and make plans for the next.

“I often tell people that I hear that Heaven is supposed to be wonderful,” says Charlie Laverty. “I just hope it is as nice as this.”