We had a really good 10 days at this house! We had actually been here 10 years earlier, when it was in the hands of a different owner. Some minor changes have been made, but essentially it is still the same home and grounds. The pool is great, the location is good, and it is as close to the beach as you can get! Our favorite features of the house are the pool and the second story deck that looks out on the ocean. This deck is where we spent a lot of our time and where we ate many of our meals.
There are a few things worth noting about this house though in terms of full disclosure that are not necessarily clear on the website:
1. This is not the ideal house to rent during the rainy season. This is not an enclosed house, meaning that all the rooms open to the outside and that to go from room to room you need to go outside. So when it is raining, to go from the bedroom to the kitchen, you get wet. To go from the living room to your bedroom (expect for the one bedroom that is connected to the living room) you get wet. The area for dining is also outside, although it has a roof it has no sides. If you sit under that shelter it is raining you still get wet and there is an area of the roof that leaks, so you really get wet under that. So while we made it work, this is not an ideal rainy season home. Also our bedroom on the second floor flooded twice as the rains came under the porch door. The house caretaker was great with helping us clean it up when we discovered it, but again, not the best time of year to rent this home. As I said earlier, we had been at this home before, but in the month of January when there was no rain and did not realize the differences it could make.
2. There is no large common indoor space. The website lists a grand salon, but I would say that this is a stretch. There is a room, the same size as the bedrooms that has a nice TV and coffee table and 2 sofas that seat 2/3 each. With all the rain we ended up spending significant time in that room. The house sleeps 8, but we did not have that many with us. If we did, that room would have been really too crowded. So again, this is a good house, but in nice weather when you can take full advantage of the outside.
The house keeper and the caretaker were both kind and helpful. The pool was very fun although it needs a good deep cleaning pretty badly to get the mold off the sides. The kitchen was well equipped. There is a decent restaurant within walking distance