1 00:00:04,896 --> 00:00:05,517 WAYNE WARREN: I think that there's a wonder 2 00:00:05,620 --> 00:00:07,172 about being around the water. 3 00:00:07,275 --> 00:00:09,689 And I do find that it's relaxing and calming, 4 00:00:09,793 --> 00:00:13,793 and it just fits my personality and fits me. 5 00:00:16,344 --> 00:00:17,931 BARBARA BURR: The entire home is sort of 6 00:00:18,034 --> 00:00:21,655 oriented around the feeling of being on the water 7 00:00:21,758 --> 00:00:23,931 so that you feel really I think connected 8 00:00:24,034 --> 00:00:26,862 to the water wherever you are. 9 00:00:26,965 --> 00:00:29,413 Our beach in particular just happens to be 10 00:00:29,517 --> 00:00:31,206 in relatively calm waters. 11 00:00:31,310 --> 00:00:36,620 And I think that being here and just being present here, 12 00:00:36,724 --> 00:00:38,827 it is a form of meditation. 13 00:00:38,931 --> 00:00:40,517 WAYNE WARREN: I would absolutely agree with that. 14 00:00:56,310 --> 00:00:58,586 BARBARA BURR: Here, the sunlight really wakes us 15 00:00:58,689 --> 00:01:00,448 up pretty early, which we like. 16 00:01:00,551 --> 00:01:03,103 We also like to sleep with the doors open, 17 00:01:03,206 --> 00:01:05,862 and the birds will also wake us up. 18 00:01:05,965 --> 00:01:08,655 And then we often go for a really long walk 19 00:01:08,758 --> 00:01:09,724 to start off our day. 20 00:01:12,137 --> 00:01:14,586 We're in Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, 21 00:01:14,689 --> 00:01:16,896 in the town of Oak Bluffs. 22 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:21,517 Martha's Vineyard really has a lot of a feel of sort 23 00:01:21,620 --> 00:01:24,206 of a beautiful country town. 24 00:01:24,310 --> 00:01:27,103 And then in the summer, there is the hubbub 25 00:01:27,206 --> 00:01:29,724 of all of these people coming in for their vacations 26 00:01:29,827 --> 00:01:31,448 and so excited. 27 00:01:31,551 --> 00:01:35,655 But the foundation really is this country town feel, 28 00:01:35,758 --> 00:01:37,931 like that feeling doesn't leave. 29 00:01:39,758 --> 00:01:44,137 When we're not here, our home is in Washington, DC. 30 00:01:44,241 --> 00:01:47,551 When we're driving up, the minute you come over that ridge 31 00:01:47,655 --> 00:01:50,827 and like the Woods Hole ferry is in front of you 32 00:01:50,931 --> 00:01:53,896 and the water and the seagulls and the smells and the sounds, 33 00:01:54,000 --> 00:01:55,586 like everything sort of descends. 34 00:01:57,103 --> 00:02:00,758 I think that as an African-American person, 35 00:02:00,862 --> 00:02:02,896 you've heard about Martha's Vineyard for years because it 36 00:02:03,000 --> 00:02:05,310 has a reputation of being a vacation spot 37 00:02:05,413 --> 00:02:07,103 for African-American people. 38 00:02:07,206 --> 00:02:11,206 It is just such a big part of what makes Martha's Vineyard 39 00:02:11,310 --> 00:02:13,000 Martha's Vineyard today. 40 00:02:13,103 --> 00:02:15,931 And for us, we're a mixed family, so obviously like that 41 00:02:16,034 --> 00:02:18,482 is just amazingly comfortable and welcoming 42 00:02:18,586 --> 00:02:19,896 and wonderful for us. 43 00:02:20,000 --> 00:02:25,862 [calm music] 44 00:02:25,965 --> 00:02:29,103 The property, when you first come in, 45 00:02:29,206 --> 00:02:34,206 there's a living room, a kitchen, two guest rooms. 46 00:02:34,310 --> 00:02:37,448 Upstairs, there's the main bedroom 47 00:02:37,551 --> 00:02:42,275 and a big deck that overlooks the patio and the lagoon. 48 00:02:43,862 --> 00:02:47,067 We have a son, Julian, who is 22 years old. 49 00:02:47,172 --> 00:02:49,620 I think he was four the first time we brought him 50 00:02:49,724 --> 00:02:51,067 to Martha's Vineyard, and we've come 51 00:02:51,172 --> 00:02:53,310 back every summer since then. 52 00:02:53,413 --> 00:02:57,172 And about five or six years before we bought this house, 53 00:02:57,275 --> 00:02:58,862 we found the lagoon. 54 00:02:58,965 --> 00:03:00,379 We were just like, oh. 55 00:03:00,482 --> 00:03:01,931 Once we found the lagoon, we were like, 56 00:03:02,034 --> 00:03:03,206 there's no going back. 57 00:03:03,310 --> 00:03:04,931 This is just an amazing spot. 58 00:03:05,034 --> 00:03:08,517 But it was also like April 2020, so it was the right 59 00:03:08,620 --> 00:03:10,068 the beginning of the pandemic. 60 00:03:10,172 --> 00:03:11,931 Everyone was just sort of still on lockdown. 61 00:03:12,034 --> 00:03:14,758 Then they say this is the kind of house you buy sight unseen. 62 00:03:16,620 --> 00:03:18,310 A week later, we decided we're going 63 00:03:18,413 --> 00:03:20,068 to buy this house sight unseen. 64 00:03:20,172 --> 00:03:22,344 And like five weeks later, we owned the house. 65 00:03:24,172 --> 00:03:28,000 So this, when we first pulled up, we certainly had the, 66 00:03:28,103 --> 00:03:30,275 oh, my gosh, can this be real? 67 00:03:30,379 --> 00:03:33,000 Like this is an amazing-- 68 00:03:33,103 --> 00:03:37,310 like, we know the lagoon, but this on the lagoon is just-- 69 00:03:37,413 --> 00:03:38,517 it's just beautiful. 70 00:03:40,689 --> 00:03:43,172 So when you first walk in, the first thing 71 00:03:43,275 --> 00:03:47,517 I think that catches your eye actually is the row of windows 72 00:03:47,620 --> 00:03:51,689 across and looking out onto the lagoon, which I just think 73 00:03:51,793 --> 00:03:54,067 is just really pretty, and lets all the light in. 74 00:03:54,172 --> 00:03:59,379 The home is set up to really be comfortable and livable as 75 00:03:59,482 --> 00:04:03,517 well as sort of consistent with the feeling 76 00:04:03,620 --> 00:04:04,758 of being on the water. 77 00:04:06,793 --> 00:04:08,862 One of the things that was always really important to me 78 00:04:08,965 --> 00:04:10,862 was to have a good kitchen because I like to cook. 79 00:04:10,965 --> 00:04:13,068 But I also want a good kitchen that's 80 00:04:13,172 --> 00:04:17,103 near wherever Wayne and Julian were going to be hanging out. 81 00:04:17,206 --> 00:04:20,896 So there's a lot of beach/nautical details 82 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:22,724 in the house. 83 00:04:22,827 --> 00:04:26,965 A lot of the light fixtures are from actual reclaimed ships. 84 00:04:28,931 --> 00:04:30,620 So there's two guest rooms. 85 00:04:30,724 --> 00:04:33,172 This one has a peachy element. 86 00:04:33,275 --> 00:04:36,000 And then the furniture, the nightstands, 87 00:04:36,103 --> 00:04:38,793 the bed frame, the little bookshelf 88 00:04:38,896 --> 00:04:42,275 are all either reclaimed or antique. 89 00:04:43,931 --> 00:04:46,862 Our other guest bedroom, just sort of the mirror. 90 00:04:46,965 --> 00:04:48,413 This one's the turquoise one. 91 00:04:49,655 --> 00:04:51,000 This came with the house. 92 00:04:51,103 --> 00:04:53,620 They look like stained glass windows. 93 00:04:53,724 --> 00:04:56,241 They are very reminiscent of the kind of detail 94 00:04:56,344 --> 00:04:58,344 that you see in the gingerbread houses 95 00:04:58,448 --> 00:05:02,413 in the campground in town, which is a famous part of Oak Bluffs. 96 00:05:07,310 --> 00:05:10,137 So then this is the door directly on the other side 97 00:05:10,241 --> 00:05:12,689 of the front door that leads out onto the patio 98 00:05:12,793 --> 00:05:14,551 and out into the lagoon. 99 00:05:14,655 --> 00:05:20,379 Literally, it's like four steps from the porch to these stairs, 100 00:05:20,482 --> 00:05:23,379 and the stairs take you right down to the beach. 101 00:05:23,482 --> 00:05:25,862 WAYNE WARREN: So 50 steps and you're at the beach. 102 00:05:25,965 --> 00:05:27,379 BARBARA BURR: We won't count the steps. 103 00:05:27,482 --> 00:05:29,206 WAYNE WARREN: We won't. 104 00:05:29,310 --> 00:05:30,724 BARBARA BURR: But I'm going to just promise you there are 50. 105 00:05:30,827 --> 00:05:33,448 WAYNE WARREN: Arkansas, Alabama, Kentucky. 106 00:05:33,551 --> 00:05:37,344 [barbara laughs] 107 00:05:37,448 --> 00:05:39,655 BARBARA BURR: So one of the amazing things 108 00:05:39,758 --> 00:05:42,103 about this particular piece of property 109 00:05:42,206 --> 00:05:44,586 is that it comes with its own beach. 110 00:05:44,689 --> 00:05:46,620 I think it's 135-foot beach. 111 00:05:46,724 --> 00:05:48,586 That's our beach. 112 00:05:48,689 --> 00:05:51,827 Every time the tide goes out, it leaves different stuff. 113 00:05:51,931 --> 00:05:55,758 Here's-- like here's a full scallop, a baby scallop shell. 114 00:05:55,862 --> 00:05:57,586 That's a good one. 115 00:05:57,689 --> 00:05:59,241 WAYNE WARREN: This is the view when we were like, this has 116 00:05:59,344 --> 00:06:00,896 got-- you gotta be kidding me. 117 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:01,793 Yeah. 118 00:06:03,172 --> 00:06:04,448 That was the moment. 119 00:06:04,551 --> 00:06:05,413 Wow. 120 00:06:05,517 --> 00:06:06,241 Wow. 121 00:06:06,344 --> 00:06:07,103 Wow. 122 00:06:08,758 --> 00:06:09,551 Yeah. 123 00:06:16,448 --> 00:06:18,586 BARBARA BURR: So as we go up the stairs, 124 00:06:18,689 --> 00:06:23,172 the banisters are sailing ship mast. 125 00:06:23,275 --> 00:06:26,689 And so that's reclaimed from another vessel. 126 00:06:26,793 --> 00:06:29,655 Coming up the stairs to the second floor 127 00:06:29,758 --> 00:06:31,413 is the main bedroom. 128 00:06:31,517 --> 00:06:35,344 And then this bed actually was made by a local artisan. 129 00:06:35,448 --> 00:06:37,344 These are reclaimed doors. 130 00:06:37,448 --> 00:06:39,068 They're from Indonesia. 131 00:06:39,172 --> 00:06:43,103 And then a local artisan turned them into the bed frame. 132 00:06:43,206 --> 00:06:45,793 Here, one second, you're asleep. 133 00:06:45,896 --> 00:06:52,310 [chuckles] And the next second, here you are-- 134 00:06:52,413 --> 00:06:53,275 the lagoon. 135 00:06:56,172 --> 00:06:58,413 Right off the main bedroom, you 136 00:06:58,517 --> 00:07:02,827 just step right out here onto this deck, 137 00:07:02,931 --> 00:07:06,103 and it is something else. 138 00:07:08,413 --> 00:07:10,137 It's really just a whole different view 139 00:07:10,241 --> 00:07:12,896 of the beach and the lagoon. 140 00:07:14,655 --> 00:07:16,896 We can just like stand up here for hours. 141 00:07:20,275 --> 00:07:22,241 WAYNE WARREN: It fits our personalities. 142 00:07:22,344 --> 00:07:24,172 It's quiet. 143 00:07:24,275 --> 00:07:27,275 It's spacious enough for us to entertain with other folks 144 00:07:27,379 --> 00:07:29,068 that we enjoy. 145 00:07:29,172 --> 00:07:31,344 I don't know if it's traditional Martha's Vineyard as much 146 00:07:31,448 --> 00:07:33,448 as it's Barb and Wayne. 147 00:07:33,551 --> 00:07:36,379 It's like it fits Barb and Wayne, you know. 148 00:07:38,413 --> 00:07:42,793 [calm music] 149 00:07:42,896 --> 00:07:47,068 That was a place that Barb and I can grow old together 150 00:07:47,172 --> 00:07:49,724 and Julian can come up, whether it's with his friends 151 00:07:49,827 --> 00:07:53,275 or in a relationship, and it will be a nice, comforting 152 00:07:53,379 --> 00:07:54,206 place to be at. 153 00:07:58,172 --> 00:08:00,068 BARBARA BURR: We are at our happiest 154 00:08:00,172 --> 00:08:04,068 when we have time to go at our own pace. 155 00:08:04,172 --> 00:08:07,379 And so this space and like all of our favorite spots 156 00:08:07,482 --> 00:08:12,931 in the house, they are places that really do give us the room 157 00:08:13,034 --> 00:08:16,931 to take it down a notch and to really 158 00:08:17,034 --> 00:08:19,724 go a little bit slower so we can dive a little bit deeper. 159 00:08:19,827 --> 00:08:23,068 And like I think that there is like a natural connection 160 00:08:23,172 --> 00:08:27,000 between the space and our enjoyment 161 00:08:27,103 --> 00:08:31,275 of going slow and nurturing that internal life.