A Wabi-sabi Victorian in the Rockaways

When Joseph Giacona moved into a four-story Victorian in the Rockaways in 2017, windows were boarded, the plumbing barely functioned, and the place smelled of cat pee. It was a gut job. But doing the work in winter was a nightmare: There was no heat and not even insulation. So Giacona bought a sauna imported from Finland. “Right away, it gave me a place to hang out,” he said.

Which was the whole reason for buying the house. Giacona had been coming to the Rockaways for years to surf with friends, and he started wondering why he didn’t just live there. Prices were cheap after Hurricane Sandy, and he found himself driving around scouting “For Sale” signs. The house on Beach 93rd Street called out because of its location — just off the best surfing, on a street raised slightly above the flood zone. But everything else about it was a wreck. “It was a disaster,” he said.

Giacona wasn’t a contractor. He’d spent his 20s touring as a drummer with various blues bands and ended up practicing natural medicine in Williamsburg, where he also started a meditation center. He wanted a home that had the same sense of calm. “The house itself is almost like one big meditation space,” he said.

It’s also like one big spa. Next to the sauna, he added a cold plunge. A walkway outside means he can come in from surfing straight to an outdoor shower in the back that’s completely hidden from neighbors. A Japanese soaking tub was added upstairs just off an entertainment room, so he could unwind there while watching a movie on a pull-down projector. And on the top floor, a garret with a quiet bedroom and a hangout area, he added a rain shower that isn’t walled in glass. “I just wanted a big, wet bathroom,” he said.

He was inspired by Japanese wabi-sabi — the tradition of elevating the broken or mismatched, like bonding broken pottery with lines of gold. A kitchen backsplash was pieced together with swimming-pool tile; the concrete countertop includes chunks of sea glass; bumpy riverstones floor the rain shower; and salvaged old windows were hung together to wall off a bedroom. Extra cedar from a project in the backyard ended up on the outside of the sauna, where he laid it out in the pattern of waves then added little wooden gulls. “It became this insane art project,” he said. So did everything, down to a front door from a 1950s speakeasy and windows he patterned with stained glass. One shows the image of a Buddha, another was designed after Picasso’s “Cote d’Azur,” and shutters over the soaking tub include colored glass shapes that are semi-autobiographical (a Buddha and a pig that references his father’s nickname for the house back when it was a teardown). “Every little detail is over the top,” said the broker Olivia Ionescu. “It’s handmade — but well made.” Which matches the vibe of the Rockaways. “It’s not the Hamptons,” she said. “We’re going to have reggae at the launch party.”

Price: $1.995 million

Specs: Four bedrooms, three bathrooms

Extras: Backyard, front yard, front porch, balcony, terrace, sauna, cold plunge, rain shower, outdoor shower, sunroom, laundry, ice-maker, soundproof music studio, basement, driveway, roof deck.

10-minute walking radius: Rockaway Beach, Rippers, Uma’s, Zingara Vintage

Listed by: Olivia Ionescu, Corcoran