SALT AND CEDAR

A couple build a minimalist retreat in sync with the Atlantic's stormy coastlines

- Lindsey King

IN BATHURST, NEW BRUNSWICK, along the shores of Youghall Beach in Chaleur Bay, the seasons can be brutal. During the winter, snow drifts bury fences and the ocean can freeze into jagged peaks, as though halted mid-surge. Come summer, storm waves slap windows and strong winds shear beach grasses to their roots. But instead of resisting the area's horizontal rainstorms and the slow, corrosive work of salt, Chelsie and Joshua Jenks built their home in tandem with the natural world: when viewed from a distance, the boxy, sand-coloured house practically disappears into the shoreline.

Chelsie and Joshua grew up in New Brunswick with a shared affinity for the water. In 2018, the couple were looking to build from scratch and heard a cottage owner down the road was selling her waterfront property. . At the time, all that stood on the land was a single-bedroom clapboard cottage, its grey shingles fraying and peeling away like the bark of a birch tree. The couple envisioned something more modern.