Susan and Mario Mercurio considered their alternatives carefully after they bought a 1920s-era home at 168 Seaspray Ave. in 2008. Because the couple enjoyed owning and living in Susan’s historic family home in Brewster, New York, their initial plan was to completely renovate their ocean-block home in Palm Beach.
“Our New York home was an antique — I love old houses,” Susan Mercurio says.
“We didn’t do anything to our (Seaspray Avenue) home for a few years. When we finally decided to get into the details further, we got approval for renovation plans,” she says.
But as it turned out, those plans would have required crews to carry out extensive structural work to the 1922 Mediterranean-style house.
“So we reversed course,” Susan explains.
Making the best use of the relatively narrow lot became a focus for the couple as they considered options for their new custom home.
“We wanted (to keep) the home’s existing footprint, but that wasn’t allowed (by the zoning code), so we went with a new build that conformed to the (current) setbacks,” she says, referring to the town’s rules for how far a house must sit from the street and neighboring properties.