Home for all seasons

Bethany Beach greets "The Big Chill" during the holiday season at the oceanfront vacation home of Frank Hurley and Catharine "Kit" Dorrier. Every year, the Washingtonians invite their friends, many of whom also own real estate at the Delaware resort, to prepare gourmet meals and make merry for a few days around Thanksgiving and New Year's Day.

"This is a terrific place to cook and hang out. There's enough space for all of us," says Patsy Rankin, their neighbor in Washington and owner of Patsy's Restaurant at Bethany Beach, who has shared holiday feasts with the couple for more than two decades. On a November weekend at the couple's beach house, Rankin and her daughter Robin joined Kate and Len Dwojeski from the holiday "beach family" to reminisce about past celebrations.

It's easy to understand why the longtime friends, whose names are painted on wine glasses stored at the house, like gathering in the big, open rooms. In addition to being on the beach, the classic shingle-style dwelling with its white porch columns looks like it's right out of a Ralph Lauren advertisement. Water can be seen through windows in nearly every room, and flowing spaces bring a sense of the beach indoors.

Designed by Washington architect Jim Rill, the property recalls the shingled beach houses characteristic of New England. Cedar shakes, cottage-style windows, and porches in front and back create a feeling of historic authenticity. From the beach, the gambrel roofs framing the ends of the house rise from the sand dunes like twin mountain peaks.

"The inspiration is from the American summer home from the turn of the [last] century," Rill says. He cites the Addy Sea, a 1902 house-turned-hotel in Bethany, as one of his sources for the late Victorian look of his design.

Tiny house movement sprouts

GRATON, CALIF. - As Americans downsize in the aftermath of a colossal real estate bust, at least one tiny corner of the housing market appears to be thriving.To save money or simplify their lives, a small but growing number of people are buying or building homes that could fit inside many living rooms, according to entrepreneurs in the small-house industry.

Some put these wheeled homes in their back yards to use as offices, studios or extra bedrooms. Others use them as mobile vacation homes they can park in the woods. But the most intrepid of the tiny-house owners live in them full time, paring down their possessions and often living off the grid.

"It's very un-American in the sense that living small means consuming less," said Jay Shafer, 46, co-founder of the Small House Society, sitting on the porch of his wooden cabin in California wine country. "Living in a small house like this really entails knowing what you need to be happy and getting rid of everything else."

Shafer, author of "The Small House Book," built the 89-square-foot house himself a decade ago and lived in it full time until his son was born last year. Inside a space the size of an ice cream truck, he has a kitchen with gas stove and sink, bathroom with shower, two-seater porch, bedroom loft and a "great room" where he can work and entertain - as long as he doesn't invite more than a couple guests.

D.C. puts a brake on foreclosures

If you are a District homeowner facing foreclosure, there may be some good news. Last month, Mayor Adrian Fenty signed into law emergency legislation intended to help struggling homeowners.

Under the new law, effective Nov. 17, before a lender can foreclose on a residential property, the borrower must be given the opportunity to enter into mediation with the lender in an attempt to prevent the loss of the family home.

The question now is straightforward: Will mediation work?

Experience elsewhere may offer some insight. Currently, 23 states - including Maryland but not Virginia - have enacted some form of mediation legislation.

The Maryland program is under the auspices of the Office of Administrative Hearings. Chief Judge Thomas Dewberry said, "Our research with other mediation states indicated that only 12 percent of pending foreclosures would be resolved through mediation. Our law just started this year on July 1. We had 96 homeowners request mediation, and 43 cases successfully avoided mediation. We are pleased with that number."

The old way

Before the new law was enacted, to initiate foreclosure in the District, a lender had only to send the borrower, by certified mail, a formal notice of foreclosure sale. A copy of that notice had to be sent to the District government. The lender could not foreclose until 30 days elapsed from the date the notice was delivered to the District.