Walk to Private Beach • Dog-Friendly • Screened Porch & A/C • Sleeps up to 6

This house is a big part of our life as a family. We love sharing it with old friends and new. My mom gets to come up a lot more often, retired and living in Rochester, New York. My husband and I live in Charleston, South Carolina, and have a couple of great kids, ages 16 and 18. We only make it a couple times a year. No matter how near or far, our Cape house is always in our hearts.

We are blessed to have dear friends as neighbors. They check in regularly to make sure things are running smoothly between renters. Good people.

My dad had his eye on this spot before I was an even a twinkle in his eye. Some friends from church invited him to come stay for a while one summer (in a neighborhood just east of here), and he fell in love with the Cape. He and my mom honeymooned at the Daniel Webster Inn in the historic village of Sandwich. A few years and a baby later, they were breaking ground on this property. My dad designed this house. It is part of us.

I remember bits and pieces of our trips to the Cape while we built the home we are still enjoying today. I climbed on the mounds of dirt, swung from the branches and dined on the finest "Fly and Spider Leg Soup" (a delicacy my mom concocted to entertain my then five-year old imagination) after days of working to make our house a home.

We would vacation here several times a year, mostly over the summer and for a few Thanksgiving feasts. Being an only child, my parents would allow me to invite a friend along once in a while. We used to love racing up and down the rocks at the beach, scouring the sandbars and tidal pools for sea creatures and daring one another to jump from the bridge over Scorton Creek.

Now I am reliving some of these same memories with my OWN children. What a blessing. I wish everyone could be so lucky.

My dad has since passed, and my mom and I are in charge of the property now. We've made a few adjustments here and there, but my dad is still very much a part of the house. He was so thoughtful about his work, and very creative. Any decisions we make are with my dad in mind and we hope we are doing him proud.

PET-FRIENDLY : We are big-time dog lovers. Our dogs usually go wherever we go! Boarding animals can be costly (and a little heart-breaking), so bring 'em on! It's not easy finding pet-friendly accommodations while on vacation. Let them enjoy that wide open beach with you (on leash) and curl up by your feet at the end of the day.

Close to the beach? Our place is pretty darned close to the beach. It only takes a few minutes to walk to it. And it's private. You don't have to pay to park and you can always find the perfect spot to sprawl out your beach towels and coolers. And you can always scoot back up to the house for a sandwich.

Quick drive: We really love this spot. It's not too far onto the Cape - only seven miles - and that Saturday traffic can be a real bear, making the Upper Cape towns like Sandwich rather appealing. Our house is right off 6A - a beautiful scenic and quintessentially Cape Coddy highway that winds through villages, shops, restaurants and taverns.

Just like home: We've spent A LOT of time up here. So it's stocked with everything you might need, from a hair-dryer to a jar of Trader Joe's Cookie Butter. We try to keep the pantry stocked with things like flour, sugar and spices (because who wants to buy a whole bag of that kind of stuff when you just need a little bit?) Lobster pot, all that. And we have several coffee-makers on backup in case one breaks down. Not that we expect anything to break down, you just never know. You won't feel like we just picked up and left right before you came, but you'll pretty much find anything you might need - a place for everything and everything in its place. A LOT of other rental properties are this stark, white-glove kinda deal, which is nice if you stay at a hotel. We like people to feel like HOME.