Caption Contest Winner

This Week’s Winning Entry:

“The Hills have Eyes” by Sandy Dunes ~ Carol Stiefer

Those smiley Lennon-style glasses on that glassy knoll are the legit windows of a legit house, and said house was carved into a dune in Atlantic Beach, Fl. Built in 1975, Dune House is the brainchild of architect William Morgan, who didn’t want any interlopers messing with the character of his block — to this day, he lives next door. “I’m very particular about the buildings on either side of my own home.” he says.

So what, pray tell, does life inside Dune House look like? Each 750-square-foot apartment consists of a two-story living area with one bedroom and one bathroom and built-in furnishings designed to fit the space. “I built it like a seashell,” Morgan says. “It’s a little like being in a submarine. When you go down the stairs, you go along the curved side of the shell to descend into the main living area, which looks out through very large glass doors onto the oceanfront. So you have a sense of being in the dune and looking out onto the Atlantic Ocean.”

As for heating and cooling apparently this part of Florida is ideal for this sort of living arrangement because the grass roof assumes the temperature of the ground water there: 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Humidifiers in each unit control the humidity. Sounds heavenly!

Now, about that buyer: “I think it could be a weekend retreat for someone who lives elsewhere—a seasonal retreat,” Morgan says, later adding, “It’s very quiet, by the way. You don’t hear rain when it’s raining, because there’s earth that covers the roof and the walls of the house.” Thus concludes today’s moment of Zen.