With their serene marshes, gentle tidal breezes, and slower pace of life, South Carolina’s Sea Islands have a way of pulling people in. Jake and Hilah Schutt live in San Francisco, but the South has always been entwined in their lives. Hilah spent summers on the beach in Pawleys Island, while Jake has fond memories of sailing off the Eastern Shore of Maryland and spending time on his family’s farm in Alabama.
So it was no surprise that these Californians found their way to the Lowcountry to build their vacation home in Kiawah River’s sprawling 2,000-acre waterfront community.
“We knew that Charleston was an area we wanted to focus on,” Jake says of their search for the perfect spot to plant a proverbial flag in the sand on the East Coast.
In 2021, a friend serendipitously sent them a link to the Kiawah River website. He thought the Schutts might like the community. That endorsement was enough to persuade the pair to fly across the country to take a look. A few months later, the Schutts were back, ready to purchase the lot their home sits on today.
“[The community] was really different then,” Hilah says. “There was a lot that was still conceptual.”
Still, the couple found themselves drawn to Kiawah River’s vision—and to a homesite that would put them in the thick of its wild beauty. Mornings might begin with a walk beneath the long- legged shadow of a wood stork, afternoons with a swim at The Spring House, and evenings with a wander down to the River Watch Deep water Dock as the marsh turns gold. The Dunlin, Auberge Collection hotel is an easy stroll away for visiting guests, while more than twenty miles of trails stretch beneath live oaks and alongside winding creeks. And everywhere, the Lowcountry makes itself known. Otters ripple through the water, blue crabs scuttle through the pluff mud, and painted buntings provide improbable flashes of color among the grasses. White-tailed deer step quietly from the trees. Nature isn’t an amenity here. It’s a neighbor.
“We liked the idea that we could really enjoy ourselves without ever having to get in our car,” Hilah says of their proximity to everything. Many residents use a golf cart to get around Kiawah River, but the couple prefers to tootle through the development in a dark blue 1976 Fiat, an anniversary present Jake surprised Hilah with one year.
Building a house from 3,000 miles away might intimidate most, but the Schutts credit their incredible team for making the entire process seamless and easy. Architect Beau Clowney, luxury custom home builder Structures | Alair, landscape firm Wertimer + Cline, and interior design firm McLaurin Parker worked with the pair to bring their vision, a comfortable spot for casual entertaining that wasn’t “too precious,” to life.
“All of them are pros and made this a fun project,” Jake says. “Our team all worked well together and came in under budget, and from the day we moved in, it felt better than we could have imagined.”
The Schutts moved into their house mid-2025 and have wasted no time jumping into the community. Most mornings find them aboard their flats boat, casting lines and exploring the winding tidal creeks. Passionate bird-watchers, they’ve already been rewarded with sightings of some of the Lowcountry’s most iconic and elusive coastal birds, roseate spoonbills blushing pink in the marsh light, bald eagles, ospreys, and countless other species—hardly surprising in a place that supports hundreds of kinds of birds. And it’s not just beings overhead that put on a show. Dolphins regularly surface alongside the boat, too.
One of their favorite elements is the belvedere that crowns the home, offering sweeping views of the river, a spot where they can slowly savor a cup of coffee in the morning and watch the birds each evening while the sun sets. It also gives the Schutts a breathtaking view of the Kiawah River, and they often find themselves watching the ebb and flow of the marsh and listening to wildlife while they’re on their perch.
“The marshes here are so spectacular,” Jake says. “There’s just so much green and wildlife that you can access from the Kiawah River.”
Evenings call for packing a cooler with a sundowner or two and crabbing off one of the docks; biking to the farm stand for fresh, local produce to use for dinner; or joining one of the regular happy hours and events Kiawah River puts on.
“It’s a chosen community, so there’s a lot of goodwill and camaraderie with everybody that we meet,” Hilah says. “It’s beautiful and it’s easy and we feel lucky to be there when we’re there.”
Find your Kiawah River home at KiawahRiver.com