The story of Stay Close

The house was built in 1935, one of the original beach cottages on the island, and it still reads like one: modest footprint, porches doing most of the work, rooms sized for people coming in from the water.

Steps from the sound, one block from the ocean, between the two bridges.

It sits between the two bridges, steps from the sound and one block from the ocean, close enough to the town center that most of a day here can happen on foot. That position is the reason the house has never needed much of a plan. The sound is right there in the morning; the ocean is a block the other way; the porch handles the end of the day.

The Schultz family purchased the cottage in 1993. Chris's father, John, a master carpenter, led the restoration, and it happened the way family projects happen: over many years, in stretches, with everyone put to work.

The guiding decision was to keep what was already there. The original beadboard stayed. The structural beams stayed. The wood floors stayed. Where something had to be repaired, it was repaired rather than replaced, and the standard John set for that work is still the standard the house is held to.

That is why the house feels older than a renovation usually allows. The surfaces you touch are largely the ones that were here in 1935.

The family's days here have a shape that has barely changed. It starts with a walk on the beach, or a surf, before the island is properly awake.

Mid-morning is often paddleboarding: off Oxford Street, out into Lees Cut, on the flat water behind the island. Other days it is the Wrightsville loop on foot — the walk that circles the middle of the island and is the easiest way to see how the town actually lives.

When there is a boat and the day is open, it is Masonboro Island, the undeveloped barrier island south of here, reachable only by water. And whatever the day was, it ends the same way: back on the porch for sunset.

One note for the sake of accuracy: "Buddy's Beach" is a name our family uses for a spot we like. It is not an official place name and you will not find it on a map or a sign.

Dinner here is usually grilled local seafood. Someone makes the run for fish or shrimp, someone else takes the grill, and the meal happens outside with everyone still half in beach clothes.

It is the least complicated part of the week and, in the family's telling, the part everyone remembers. Restaurants are a change of pace rather than the default.

This has always been a family house. It was restored for family memories and shared stays, and it works best that way — people arriving at different times, a long table, a porch that holds everyone at the end of the day.

Nothing about that requires a schedule. The house sits close enough to the sound, the ocean and the town center that a group can split up all morning and still end up in the same place by evening.

These are places Chris and Anne recommend personally — nothing here is sponsored or endorsed beyond that. Hours and availability change, so please check before you go.