From their first trip 25 years ago, Bill and Megan Goeller were smitten by the Chesapeake lifestyle. The Delaware-based couple made yearly visits for a decade?boating on the bay, fishing for stripers, enjoying the hospitality of the Inn at Perry Cabin?before they got serious about establishing a base in the area to share with now-grown children and grandchildren. Another decade passed before the right spot materialized: a prized half-acre lot on the Miles River in St. Michaels, Maryland, where their sparkling-new Cape Cod-style refuge offers a breezy, columned porch topped by a white-railed deck from which to revel in the magnificent view.
?We fell in love with St. Michaels when we first visited,? recalls Megan Goeller, wife, mother and chief influencer behind the project?s casual style. ?It?s a calmer pace of life, with kind people and beautiful views.? Veterans of home-building projects, the couple had previously built a getaway from scratch in South Carolina and were constructing a new residence in Wilmington?where Bill is president of an electrical contracting concern?when they called architect Christine Mizak Dayton of Easton, Maryland, in 2019.
?What brought them here was their love of the water. They also wanted to create a home that could entertain the family,? notes Dayton, who captured the spirit of St. Michaels with the couple?s relaxed, two-story, 6,000-square-foot retreat, completed by Focus Construction in 2021. Four thousand square feet of heated living space...