Dream House | Cliffside Marvel: Rio Nuevo home soars above Caribbean Sea

This column has sporadically exposed homes that have staggeringly been built at the summit of coastal precipices, taking Jamaican residential architecture to untold heights that defy belief!

Our dream house today takes it to another level of extremity, going to where no other residence has dared venture before. That is, sitting its foundations on the very brink of a steep, rock-faced, vegetated cliff, 130 feet high above the rhythmic waves breaking on shore below. Oh, my gosh!

Here, you will simultaneously experience both anxiety and thrill by an emboldened architectural expression, fused with the colossal scenic attraction of its spine-tingling locality.

The single-level house in Rio Nuevo, St Mary, was constructed in 1972. It provides four bedrooms (opening onto an outdoor swimming pool deck and lanais), and four-and-a-half bathrooms (with glass shower and a vessel sink wood countertop). The flowing, ceramic floor areas constitute living and dining sections exiting to a porcelain-tiled pool patio and gardens, synchronising with a kitchen of bamboo-finished counters. The limitless seaviews, with their hypnotic allure, are available from many a window. A separate two-bedroom, two-bathroom cottage graces the property.

The internal décor is of an African-Caribbean atmosphere, projecting carved, wooden lignum vitae, blue mahoe and cedar furniture. Colourful, bold fabrics were flown in from Africa, integrated with grass mats and paintings from local artists. Warm colours with light pastel shades of red, producing a soft, pinkish tone, paint many walls.

Stephanie Saulsberry-Diakite purchased the property four years ago after visiting Jamaica regularly since 1982 and being a guest in this very house. Born in Detroit, Michigan, she has owned two restaurants in Atlanta. Saulsberry-Diakite is also a celebrity personal chef to the stars, including celebrated American actor, producer and director, Tyler Perry. She has been married three times, twice to her first husband from the Republic of Mali, West Africa.

Living in Jamaica these past years, this lady, who elucidates ‘food as her passion’, is so relieved that she has adopted Jamaica’s lifestyle permanently.

Barry Rattray is a dream house designer and builder. Email feedback to barryrattray1@hotmail.com and lifestyle@gleanerjm.com.