My husband and I had looked for property for over a year. It was all about finding the perfect location. We went up on my birthday and found this property. We know it was a diamond in the rough. The backyard was overgrown and the rooms made no sense but there was something special about the location. We walked into the backyard and found a little oasis and a life-size statue of Jesus.
After digging a little deeper we discovered, it was owned by the same family for multiple generations, a Portuguese family who had owned the property since 1762. The house was in disrepair and the last permit pulled to complete work was in 1952. We bought it and lived through a huge learning curve of what it meant to rebuild a house in Newport. Three years to the day after we purchased the property was the first night we spent in the house.
Surprisingly, through all the building and construction Jesus remained untouched in the yard. He now has a place in the back garden and helped us name the property Santo Mar which translates in Portuguese to Saint Sea. My husband immigrated from Guimaraes, Portugal as a teenager and later moved back to run his family’s bed and breakfast in the Algarve. Creating a comfortable vacation property is in his blood.