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.