Rebuilt from the ground up

The Drosts do not run a seafood restaurant, though there's a "Lobster Lair" sign over the front door of their three-story house in North Beach Haven.

The only lobsters served there are prepared by Adrienne Drost for family and friends - at no charge.

"It's the name of a game we played. The good dolphins were chased by an evil lobster," Drost, 47, said. She and daughter Samantha, now 21, were the dolphins; her husband, Joe Drost, 47, pretended to be an evil lobster, keen on capturing and whisking them to his dreaded Lobster Lair.

When the North Wales family bought a Long Beach Island cottage in 2003, what to name it was obvious. But though they liked the 50-year-old dwelling, it was difficult to maintain.

"Like a lot of old houses, it continued to deteriorate," said Joe Drost, who is president of Micron Technologies, a semiconductor-solutions company.

"The upstairs had a noticeable slant," said Samantha Drost, a college student who works at the Holiday Snack Bar in Beach Haven in the summer.

"We enjoyed its retro style for five years, until the moldy smell, cracked floors, and cramped spaces weren't charming anymore," said Adrienne Drost.

So in 2007, they decided to demolish the place - after holding a Labor Day Weekend yard sale at which people literally took the three-bedroom, 11/2-bath house apart, down to the old, outdated interior wood paneling.

With the help of contractor Ted Fluehr Jr. of Surf City, they built a three-story, five-bedroom, 31/2-bath house in its place.

They wanted this house, finished in March 2008, to feel like home. Adrienne, Samantha, and son Alex, 18, who works summers at the Catch, a Long Beach Island restaurant and bar, live there full time during the warm-weather months. (Joe Drost is there on weekends and vacations.)

They use the house year-round, too, hosting Thanksgiving and New Year's parties.

So the first thing they did was give it a better foundation. They put in pilings instead of a crawl space as a base. "Sand shifts," Joe Drost joked, which is why the previous cottage was literally sinking under their feet.

The Drosts also chose to build the new house traditionally, with bedrooms upstairs. A downstairs porch is shielded by pine trees in the backyard - a rarity near the beach at the Jersey Shore.

The front vestibule opens into one large space: Living room, kitchen, and dining area flow together.

"The last house was cottagey, and we wanted this house to be more modern," Adrienne Drost said.

In the kitchen, she decided against a wall of cabinets, to make the living area look more unified. Instead, the far wall of the kitchen features a framed lobster print and ample counter space used for food preparation and buffet meals.

Though the Drosts hired Craig Brearley Architects to design the house, Adrienne Drost worked on the interior design and picked the appliances she wanted, such as a gas stove with a griddle, to accommodate all the cooking she does.

(Making Thanksgiving dinner for 23 people in that kitchen was no problem, she said.)

The new Lobster Lair has bedrooms that provide ample sleeping space for visitors. Samantha and Alex have their own rooms, each with two twin beds. The guest room has two beds and can accommodate an air mattress if needed. Joe Drost's office doubles as a guest room, too - the sofa turns into a queen-size bed.

Every bedroom except Samantha's has its own deck, and there are outdoor showers on the ground floor and the third floor. The master bedroom has a private outdoor shower.

The family's frequent overseas travels inspired the master bathroom, which features an oversize shower area with double showerheads and body sprays.

Throughout the living areas, colors are soothing and beachy. A pale olive serves as the backdrop for the living room and kitchen.

Bright colors pop in the bedrooms, though: royal-blue bedspreads in Samantha's; rusty-orange pillows in Alex's. The master suite is painted a deep classic navy, offset by white accents. The master bathroom is the reverse: white with slate-blue elements.

On the all-outdoor third story, the centerpiece is an eight-person hot tub that is used year-round.

"You can see the sunrise and sunset from up here," Joe Drost said.

But the only way to get there is via outside stairs - which can mean some quick dashes to and from the hot tub in colder months.

Adrienne Drost's grandmother rented a Long Beach Island house every summer, and Adrienne Drost always visited, first solo and then with her husband, who was her college sweetheart at Rutgers University.

Today, the family likes North Beach Haven's location because they are close enough to restaurants and shops to walk or bicycle, but far enough away from the crowds that flock to the island every summer.

"The beach is busy, but it's not towel to towel," said Alex Drost.

Though both he and his sister will travel to Pennsylvania State University in the fall (Samantha as a senior, Alex as a freshman), the family plans to return to their Lobster Lair in every season.

"It'll be nice to come back to," Alex Drost said.