Inside a Salt-Sprayed Beach House in New Brunswick

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.

A couple and their child look out the large windows of their home — The home’s panoramic windows flood the interior with natural light. Outside, extensive sandbars reveal the ocean floor at low tide, and the saltwater is full of striped bass, mackerel and shellfish.

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.

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Shortly after buying the lot, Joshua met with Peter Braithwaite, a Halifax-based architect who went on to design the couple’s home. Braithwaite remembers their first meeting vividly—it was a stormy Atlantic day, with hurricane-force gusts lashing the coast. “We met in the cottage. Sand was blowing in at our feet, and rain poured through the torn screen windows,” he says. “But it made sense why Joshua and Chelsie wanted to build there. The property has an unimpeded view of the ocean, and the area comes alive in the summer.”

A bed covered in coral bedspread — Built as a refuge against Chaleur Bay’s mood swings, the home is a haven from snow drifts, salt spray and gales that can flatten the grasses outside

Braithwaite’s team had to address the horizontal rainstorms, so they took inspiration from Cape Cod’s resilient mariner homes, which have long withstood coastal turbulence thanks primarily to one material: cedar. For the home’s walls, they chose locally sourced white cedar, which is more resistant to rot, salt air and warping than other woods.To prevent further weathering, Chelsie and Joshua dipped each piece of wood into a treatment solution. Over the years, as the cedar is stained by salt spray, pelting rain, UV exposure and time, it will change colour from pale yellow to grey, reflecting as well as resisting the climatic conditions.

A boxy, sand-coloured wooden house on the beach — Wrapped in Eastern white cedar, the home is built to withstand rot, salt air and warping. And an outdoor steel staircase leads directly to the rooftop patio.

Joshua and Chelsie cut costs by doing much of the labour themselves: they demolished the old structure, excavated and prepared the foundation for the new build, built a rock and sand breakwater and did the landscaping. The home is just 1,300 square feet, so many features do double duty, like the dramatic steel staircase that hugs two sides of the square exterior. Not only is this a space-saving measure that allowed for more indoor living space, but it also allows Joshua and Chelsie to go directly to the 600-square-foot rooftop patio, where the couple host friends and family in the summertime. “We love gathering for drinks on the beach, but having a wide view of the ocean from high up is a different kind of serenity.” says Chelsie.

A kitchen with a wooden counter and chairs, and a vase of pink tulips on the counter — Every inch counts in this 1,300-square-foot home. In the kitchen, the blond plywood island doubles as a prep station and a dining table.

In the kitchen, one side of the island has been dropped down to create a dining table, while the other side leaves space for storage. This allows Joshua and Chelsie to seamlessly switch from prep station to hosting hub—useful on special occasions like their lobster roll night, when the couple throw a party celebrating spring’s seafood bounty, caught just hours earlier by friends with lobster boats.

A woman holding the hand of a child as they walk barefoot on yellow-brown, grainy sand — Chelsie Jenks and her daughter, Della, spend many mornings strolling the sands of Youghall Beach—right outside their front door

Every morning, Joshua, Chelsie and their almost-two-year-old daughter, Della, start the day with the sound of the ocean. As the sun rises, Chelsie and Della often check the tide, collecting sea glass, rocks and shells as Joshua prepares breakfast. “Whether it’s winter and the tides are moving through plates of ice, or it’s a powerful thunderstorm in the summer, the ocean is always reacting to the weather,” says Joshua. “It’s amazing to witness.”

This story appears in the July 2025 issue of Maclean’s. You can buy the issue here, subscribe to the magazine here or send a gift subscription here.