The kitchen looks straight through to the dining area and front living and sitting rooms. Below, picturesque views from the ornamented windows.

Susan Bachini knows Prudence Island like the back of her hand.

She grew up on the 7-by-1½-mile island, which is part of Portsmouth, in the 1960s and 70s.

Her mother, Marcy Dunbar, grew up there too, and Dunbar is a well-known fixture on the island. She’s the postmaster, and she runs the convenience store and gas station at the ferry dock, which is considered the center of town.

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Walk through the House of the Week

“I have a lot of memories of Prudence Island,” says Bachini. “My uncle used to swim across to Bristol. He told me stories of children walking across the ice to go to school.”

Bachini’s two-bedroom cape at 14 Holbrook Ave. has been in her family for more than 75 years. Her mother grew up there, and Bachini took over the house about eight years ago, after her brother moved out.

Bachini immediately went to work restoring, updating and renovating the gable-roofed house, circa 1920. She has found that keeping up with two households (she lives in Warwick) has become overwhelming.

She is selling her Prudence Island digs for $589,900. Furniture and all appliances are included.

It sits on land measuring 7,500-square-feet. It is less than a block from the water.

“It’s so much easier to buy a place here that is furnished and completely renovated,” says Bachini. “Otherwise you are forced to bring it all over on the ferry, and it can take many trips.”

Fourteen Holbrook Ave. has a mooring, Bachini adds. “The mooring is on a pulley system, and it makes everything so easy. You can just walk down to the beach and jump right into the water or onto a boat.”

Much of the time Bachini spends on Prudence Island, she says, she’s either working in her yard or on her house. “I would love to hold onto both [houses] but it has become too difficult.”

The island has only about 450 houses, and Bachini’s dwelling is located on its east side, which has a view of the Mount Hope Bridge. You can get to and from the island via a ferry only, from Church Street Wharf on Thames Street in Bristol. It’s about a half-hour ride. Holbrook Avenue is walking distance from the landing on Prudence Island.

A quick drive around the tiny island reveals that stone piers hold up many of the buildings. About a year ago, Bachini decided to have the piers under her house removed, and she had a foundation dug out.

She created an industrial-loft looking open space of about 860 square feet. She put in new windows, a cement floor, a kitchen (the refrigerator has never been turned on) and a bathroom. The newly built bottom level has a stone patio, and it is entered via French doors.

“I think the apartment makes the house unique,” she says. “You could live here, and then rent the top floor for the summer.”

Walk out the bottom level’s glass doors, and you have a view of the water. A path along the side of the house leads to the front door of the house. You enter into the kitchen on the middle level.

The kitchen houses the laundry facilities. The middle level, about 900-square-feet, is covered with linoleum that looks like tile. It has white appliances and cabinets that have black drawer pulls. There’s a granite table.

“When I redid the kitchen,” Bachini says, “I was going for a Victorian look.”

The original hardwood floors exist throughout. There are two bedrooms, a full bathroom and family room that used to be a porch. Glass doors in the enclosed porch/family room lead to a giant deck, and a view of the bay.

Years ago, the third floor had two bedrooms and storage under the eaves. But Bachini had to remove the rooms because of water damage from a leaky roof. She fixed the roof, insulated the third floor, and has left it ready to be finished off.

The original wood floor and heating are still intact on the top level. There’s a picture window under where the roof comes to a peak. It has an unobstructed view of the water.

“I left the third floor open because. I was thinking of adding a dormer,” she said. “My mother had her bedroom there.”

Most of the work on the house, Bachini says, she did on her own out of necessity. “Living on the island presents challenges because of being isolated,” she adds. “You have to do a lot of the work yourself. There are not a lot of services.”

The two bedroom cape with an in-law apartment in the walk-out bottom level at 14 Holbrook Ave., Prudence Island, is for sale for $589,900. It has electric heat, 1,752 square feet of living space on a 7,500-square-foot lot. Taxes are $3,144. The listing’s real estate agent is John Chapski, of Coldwell Banker, (401) 885-7082; (401) 884-8050, ext. 400, or john.chapski@nemoves.com.How to submit a House of the Week

A different House of the Week appears each Saturday in the projoHomes section of The Providence Journal. The feature tells the story of the house and the people who have lived in it. If you would like us to consider a house for sale as a subject of this news feature, send a photo, information about the house and why it is of interest, to Faye Zuckerman, real estate writer,

75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com.

For more information,

call (401) 277-7333.

fzuckerm@projo.com