When Ann and Lee Tacon were wrapping up their tenth year abroad in London, they knew they needed to find a place in the US that their three adult children could call home. Graduates of Spring Hill College, they had enjoyed time spent in Fairhope, so they bought a cottage on the Bay south of Bailey’s Creek where they lived while they chased a couple of houses near the Grand Hotel.
In 2013, they found a waterfront lot just a golf cart ride away from downtown Fairhope. Working with Clay Adams, a principal architect at Walcott Adams Verneuille, they came up with a concept to develop the whole property, focusing first on a two-bed, two-bath carriage house where they would stay while creating one of the most intentional living spaces on the Bay.
A native of Mobile, Lee grew up sailing in the Bay and the Gulf. Even when he was living abroad in the UK, he continued to sail, competing in a sailing race that his company put on each year in the North Sea. The space beneath the carriage house would become the perfect place for him to restore and repair his own fleet of boats.
“We call it the boathouse now for obvious reasons,” Lee says. Sitting right outside the boathouse is a large sailboat he is currently restoring. “A Flying Scot,” Lee explains. “It’s the same boat I learned to race as a club racer.”
When the boathouse was completed, the Tacons worked with Clay Adams again to design the main house, which was a much taller order: a five-bedroom home that didn’t appear too big, with the charm and aesthetic of a 100-year-old Bay house but built brand new with fortified construction.
While their original plans for a pier-and-beam style house were eliminated due to Fairhope’s height restrictions, the Tacons successfully brought their vision to life through thoughtful architectural details, such as brackets, corbels and paneled siding, coupled with impressive technology, like motion detection lights in the hallway, heated bathroom floors and electric shower knobs.
Bright, white walls, an open-concept kitchen and vaulted ceilings make the two-bedroom, two-bath boathouse feel comfortable and spacious.
Even the soil was not left unturned. “Geotech, a company out of Mobile, came out and tested the soil, and we did a lot of soil work after that,” Lee explains. “Chris Francis came out to help protect the old oak trees on the property. We did a lot to try to make it right and save as many trees as we could.”
The newly classified Master Gardeners also added a few trees of their own in the mini orchard that lines one edge of the property between the boathouse and main house. Now they enjoy Granny Smith apples (yes, they have had a few!), Joey Mexican avocados (they have to pick quickly to beat the squirrels) and figs (the most prolific of the bunch).
“One day we came out here, and there were female mockingbirds lying on their backs in the nets of the fig trees,” recalls Lee. “They had gorged themselves on so many figs that they literally couldn’t fly — it was hilarious. I picked them up and put them on a table in the garden until they eventually flew off.”
Across the yard from the orchard, the Tacons grow peppers, tomatoes, eggplants and zucchinis in a large, fenced-in garden, where they plan to add a greenhouse one day. Potted plants hold the hope of jacaranda trees they plan to plant near the beach, the seed pods foraged by Lee himself from the foot of a tree in California while visiting their son.
When they had a solid design plan in place for the main house, the Tacons interviewed several builders before deciding on Patrick Waller.
“Because we were living on the property, we knew we needed a personality that was going to mesh well with ours,” Lee says. “Patrick was marvelous. He took a lot of pride in this project, and he still comes by and looks after things for us.”
Within two years, the main house was completed. Inside, the Tacons tried to stay local as much as possible, with antique sliding doors from a 1920s building at a local high school and beautiful, artisan doors from Charles Phillips in Mobile that provide the perfect disguise for the security system control center hidden within. But it doesn’t get more local than the enormous Red Oak dining room table that divides the kitchen and main living space crafted from a tree found on the lot.
Attention to detail is displayed in every corner of the indoor living space, highlighting the Tacon’s excitement for technology and desire to make their home as efficient and accessible as possible for all of their guests, even the furry ones.
“All three of our kids have dogs, and they always bring them when they come to visit,” Ann explains. “So, we created a dog room with hidden, built-in kennels where they can sleep and a bi-fold door so they can jump up and see us if they get a little separation anxiety. In the hallway, there is a hidden doggy door that slides in and out of the wall so they can have a little leg room back here; it also doubles as a baby gate so the grandchildren can’t wander out the back door.”
Speaking of grandchildren, the Tacons didn’t have any when they started this building process.
“Patrick Waller kept saying, ‘You don’t even have one yet, and you’re building all this for them,’” Ann laughs.
“All this” refers to the four-bed bunk room and hidden play loft Lee and Ann designed for the grandchildren they seem to have manifested — their fourth grandchild is on the way this summer. As the old adage says, if you build it, they will come.
On one side of the bunk room, guests will find a full bath and his and her offices and on the other side a full gym and sauna. Down the hall, revolving bookshelves hide mechanical rooms, as well as Ann’s gift-wrapping closet, and further down three bedrooms with ensuite bathrooms look out on beautiful Bay views.
But downstairs, the master suite takes the cake, with vaulted ceilings in the bathroom and an entire wall of windows gazing out at the Bay from the bedroom.
One area that provided a little bit of a design challenge was the walk-in closet for the primary bedroom. “We struggled with the layout,” Lee explains. “We are visual people, so we went out to the yard with stakes and flags and put them in the ground to try and lay out the closet. We even had hangers out there. A worker on our neighbor’s property saw us and he said, ‘Mr. Lee, that’s the weirdest-looking swimming pool I’ve ever seen.’”
While a swimming pool is being debated, the Bay-side yard already provides a haven for outdoor living. The large, screened-in porch has built-in heaters in the ceiling for colder weather, a brick fireplace accented by a wooden mantle crafted from a cherry tree on the property and a dining area for al fresco dinners. But perhaps most importantly, the porch serves as “the best place to watch storms” according to Lee, who rode out Hurricane Sally right here.
“One year for my birthday, I gave myself a Cape Cod Raven, a 1966 monohull boat from Cape Cod that they used to race, and I restored it,” Lee recalls. “She had to stay in the water during Sally, so I just sat out on the porch and watched. She was in a really big lift — one that can hold up to 16,000 pounds — and when the whole lift came up during the storm, she slammed into the pier, and it tore the sides up.”
While no home on the Bay is immune to storms, the Tacon’s property itself does not lie in a flood zone. With help from a bulkhead that hugs the property in tight, the elevation also allows for a sunken fire pit area overlooking the beachfront, as well as a quaint bistro table flanked by a citrus garden.
After touring the main house, it should come as no surprise that the wharf — the center of life on the Bay — also has all the bells and whistles (hot water shower, stove, dishwasher and ice maker, to name a few) courtesy of Doug Ward Construction. Upstairs, a cabin offers respite from the elements with custom cherry tree countertops built from trees found on the property, built-in storage in the eaves for floats and life jackets, custom fish welding in the metal railing on the balcony, shiplap from the original cottage on the property that Lee and his daughter salvaged and repurposed themselves and, most importantly, AC.
“When the kids are in town, we come out here every morning and have breakfast,” Ann says. “It’s nice for everyone to wake up on their own time and putter out here for omelettes.”
And if they’re extra hungry, next door they can find “the best cheese grits” homemade by their neighbors, a couple in their eighties with roots tracing back several generations on the same property.
“Becky sees me outside in the mornings and hollers at me to come over and have some grits, so I go across the fence just like in a TV show,” Lee laughs.
Even the boards of the wharf tell a story in the way the wood transitions, showing scars from previous storms. As the tour comes to a close, Ann points out African irises that will come back beautifully after the recent freeze, as well as trumpet trees and blueberry bushes that will blossom wildly in season.
“We started on this journey over 10 years ago, and we’re still working on things,” Lee says. “I need to paint the garden fence and refinish the countertops on the wharf before guests arrive for the Fairhope Arts & Crafts Festival… I just finished a Mardi Gras mask for the entrance gate, and Ann needs to approve my plans for a big basket for Easter. It’s a lot of work, but it’s been a lot of fun.”
While Ann and Lee seem to have thought of everything, there is one blank space waiting out near the road where a signpost would be, a tradition around here marking one’s spot on the Bay. Nothing has hit home yet, but with the creativity overflowing at this special waterfront home in Fairhope, the Tacons will think of something. For now, Lee can just add it to his to-do list — or better yet, Tac(it)on!
Because storms are as much a part of life on the Bay as jubilees, the Tacons installed an industrial drainage system that is carefully concealed within the landscape. Large machinery, like a whole-home generator and yard irrigation equipment, are concealed within a beautifully crafted outhouse.
