Andrew Spindlier, an antiques dealer with a well established shop in nearby Essex, has definite opinions about everything in his granite house on Cape Ann.

“There are no curtains in this house. I do not need or care for curtains,” Mr. Spindler, 47, announced, opening all three sets of French doors in his 42-foot-long living room to the terrace and the ocean beyond. “Especially with the views and light here.”

Set upon massive lichen covered boulders and surrounded by an undulating landscape that slopes down to the sea, the home is anything but a standard-issue New England clapboard house, and little about it reflects the vernacular style of this coastal region.

The one-and-a-half-acre property has labyrinthine paths that pass under tunnels of juniper to a 200-square-foot garden folly, like a miniature version of the house, that appears to be growing out of the rock, and there are Japanese-style gardens with interconnected ponds. Inside, the 4,500-square-foot two-story house is a diverse tapestry of periods and styles that bump up against each other in unpredictable ways.

The house was built as a hybrid of Arts and Crafts and Art Deco styles, in 1937, and it has been decorated in such a way as to offer interested visitors lessons in history, design, color, pattern and texture.

But “I hope it’s not a pedantic lesson,” said Mr. Spindler, a loquacious, cerebral man who is passionate about his home and his work. He doesn’t mean it to be.

His store, Andrew Spindler Antiques, is known for its eclectic, but closely edited, collection of objects from the 17th century to the 1970s. “I cast a wide net,” he said.

At home, the furnishings are equally diverse, though there is a preponderance of Arts and Crafts pieces. “The natural materials of the house and the connection to nature made that period stand out for us,” Mr. Spindler said.

The “us” he referred to was Alexander Roesle, his former partner, a Swiss architect who bought the house in 1988, for $535,000, and with whom he lived for six years. Mr. Roesle died in 1996, at 49. “It was a wreck when Alex purchased it,” Mr. Spindler said. “He bought it for the site and the view — although it was so overgrown, there was no view.”

The house had asbestos siding, leaky metal casement windows and, worst of all, he said, “there was no indoor-outdoor relationship” with the spectacular site.

Over the course of several years, 36 custom windows, more appropriate to a house on the ocean, replaced the metal windows, and a new bank of dormers was put in. Then came the teak balcony, the widow’s walk, the Japanese garden, the new kitchen and dining room and the three sets of French doors to the new terrace. The asbestos siding was replaced with larch shingles imported from Switzerland, installed in an overlapping semicircular style common on Swiss farmhouses. Four craftsmen came from Switzerland one summer to do the job.

The total cost of the renovation was about $900,000, Mr. Spindler said. “Essentially the house has been redone from top to bottom.”

When Mr. Roesle died, Mr. Spindler inherited the house and continued renovating.

“I lived in the house in a different way and began to reclaim and reinvent spaces,” he said. Since 2005, he has shared the house with Hiram Butler, 59, a contemporary art dealer based in Houston; they have a commuting relationship.

Recently, Mr. Spindler repaired the fireplace, and now he eats dinner at a Frank Lloyd Wright table nearby.

“I have always had to pay attention to what this house wanted,” Mr. Spindler said. “At first you notice all the big pieces of furniture. Then, as you keep looking, when your eye settles down, you start to notice the more delicate pieces.” They include a wisp of coral on the mantel, rare birds’ eggs, shells collected on the beach here and a bell from a Buddhist temple.

He continually tweaks things and admits to being a shopaholic.

“Pieces cycle through my home and shop somewhat fluidly,” Mr. Spindler said. “I am happy to be the temporary custodian of beautiful objects.”

Before buying a home for the first time, preparation and research is very important. Besides saving a lot of time, research will help you decide if it’s really ready to own a home.

When you first buy a home, here are five steps you need to take before making a bid:

1. Determine the initial qualification
Before buying your first home, first understand your credit situation and reputation of the lender. You also need to count all the additional costs when owning a house.

For example, if you are looking for an apartment, consider the cost to owners who will have an impact on your monthly spending. Do a little research how much house can you buy to avoid disappointment later.

2. Hiring an agent
Besides knowing initial qualifications, you can use the services of a real estate agent to help buy a home. This agent will work for you and will always give the best consideration of selecting your home.

Agents property buyers researching with information such as home loans, mortgages last compared to the houses in the neighborhood and how long the property has been sold and the profits in the future.

3. Recognize the Environment
When searching the first house, it is important to know and understand the environment. Target rounds at different times throughout the day or week to observe what happens in the home environment you want to buy. Often traveling at night and on weekends around the house to make your targets more know the level of activity in that environment.

Note the location of the house that you buy it, because the decisions you make now will have a major impact when selling property. Location near major roads could hamper when you try to sell the house in the future.

4. Prepare yourself to compete in the bidding
Buyers want to make money with low prices, so that not infrequently make it more competitive bidding. Before bidding, you must understand how the value of the property.

5. Checking House
Before actually make choices, do the inspection on the house you want to buy. From there you can figure out how much it will cost you spend to repair.