"Before" Part One

Have you ever thought it would be fun to renovate a beach cottage? It is! It is so satisfying to see a cottage that is past its prime given a new lease on life. It's also very challenging to do it on a budget.

Let me show you our new little old cottage at Tybee Island.

Let's do a pretend walk-through so you can see the "Before" pictures. Then we can begin to get a feel for the cottage and begin imagining what we might want to do. Come on in!

Tiny Screened Porch leading to the Front Door

Living Room

The door on the left is the entry door from the screened porch. The door on the right which used to be the front door now leads to the dining area.

Dining Room

Kitchen


Notice the challenges in this room...there are many but two of the most obvious are the electrical panel over the countertop as well as the way the countertops end before the wall due to a window on one side and a closet door on the other.

This cottage also has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. I'll show you those rooms in the next post.

Foggy Photos Not To Be Mist--Ha!

I have been at Tybee for a couple of days checking on the house. Today I needed to drive into Savannah to do some errands and I was amazed at what I saw--and at what I could not see!  There was a dense fog over the river and marsh along Highway 80!

Typically I enjoy the expansive view of the Bull River snaking through the marsh but instead today this...

Eventually the sun burned it away. I wonder if having fog could have anything to do with a high temperature of 73 degrees in January? It has been so mild this week! I love Tybee Island in the off-season!

Lord Willing and the Creek Don't Rise!

My last post was July 31st! We had just closed on our new little old Tybee Island cottage.

 I knew I would need to wait a few weeks for my contracting company, Catskill Builders, to finish up their other projects and begin mine but that was okay. It's worth the wait to have people you have confidence in working on your renovation--especially when you 

live in a different town.

Finally, in late September my turn was drawing near to begin the work and I was eager to get started. I hoped to get the heavier work done before Christmas. At the same time a tropical storm named  Matthew was being followed with interest by the weather forecasters.  Then it turned into Hurricane Matthew, a category 5 storm in the eastern Caribbean. It impacted Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas before it took aim for the southeastern United States. 

When and where would it make landfall? Would it go to the Gulf coast or come up the eastern shore? Will my house make it through? Such are the nail-biter questions owners of coastal properties ask.

Matthew came very close to the eastern coast of Florida and hugged the coastline as it made its way up to Georgia. It reached our little beach town of Tybee Island in the early morning of September 8th. The island was pummeled with high winds and a record-setting storm surge! Henry and I wondered if there would be a cottage left to renovate 

when the storm ended.

The mayor had ordered a mandatory evacuation of Tybee Island before the storm came but there were some "hurricane holdouts" who sheltered in place and thanks to them posting videos on Facebook we were able to see that our cottages, including the one awaiting restoration, had survived!

A couple weeks later after the flooding had subsided and the utility crews had made things safe and restored services, I went for a firsthand look with my sister Crystal who was visiting me.

Full-time residents had been at work clearing debris from the yards and there were huge piles of yard trash, stacked logs from fallen trees, and in some cases, furniture which had been soaked and was no longer desirable.

Our completed cottage, Doc Holiday, is a raised cottage and did not suffer any lasting impact even though the lot was flooded several inches.

Our "new-to-us" cottage came through with flying colors! It had lots of fallen tree limbs and...

It also had one very beaten up screen door from the high winds. But I'm so grateful that that was the extent of the damage!

As you can imagine, the need for carpenters, electricians and other skilled workmen has been huge since the storm and I needed to go to the back of the line while they worked on homes that were people's primary residences. Our contractor, Anthony, was helping others and dealing with flooding as well as a missing dock and boat at his own riverside home. How could I complain when I was merely inconvenienced because my timetable 

had been interrupted?

Well...I'm happy to say that my turn has come back around and I am very excited to get down to business! Can't wait to share it all with you!

Meet Our Newest Cottage!

Hi again! Is anybody still out there? I know--it's been almost two years since my last post. That's how long since we finished working on our beach cottage, Doc Holiday. Blogging about the process of restoring our little Tybee beach cottages has been a great way for me to keep track of details like paint colors and sources for furnishings and accessories, etc. It's also encouraging to see the "before" and be able track the progress!

I have exciting news! We have just closed on a charming new (to us) little cottage built around 1940 at Tybee Island! It is on the same street as the Coral Cottage--close to the beach in a lovely residential area of the island.

This cottage has three bedrooms and two bathrooms. It is full of wonderful little touches...let me show you a few of my favorite goodies.

There is a sun porch across the front of the house! I think it used to be a screened porch.

Built-in nooks and crannies like these shelves add lots of character.

I'm crazy for the paneled walls and ceilings! And this fireplace. Love it and it works! Not sure how often we'll need a fireplace at the beach but it adds such a warm feeling to the room and there will be a place to hang Christmas stockings!

I hope that if you think it would be fun to redo a beach house you'll join me and follow along for the transformation of this cottage! I'll post as often as there's something new to share with you.

Doc Holiday Meets Erin From House of Turquoise!

This summer one of my favorite bloggers, Erin Moser, who writes the wildly popular 

House of Turquoise blog paid a call on our little Tybee cottage, Doc Holiday!

Erin and I are both big fans of the color turquoise and all of its variations so, with that in common plus a shared love for vintage things and old cottages, Erin and I had a great 

visit!  Lots of picture-taking ensued!

I'm excited to announce that today Doc Holiday is being featured by

House of Turquoise!  Erin has posted a bunch of those gorgeous pictures she took during her visit and you can click here to see them!

If you are dropping by as a visitor, I hope you will explore the archives.  My very first post was written on the day we moved Doc Holiday, our Tybee beach cottage, from it's original location to it's new lot down the street!

There are lots of before and after pictures and many in-betweens showing you stuff like how we got from here...

to here...

and ending up here...

  I've restored three old beach cottages with the help of Jane Coslick, a designer who specializes in historical preservation.  I didn't want to forget what an amazing experience I was having--or what the paint colors were--or where I bought the various items for the house--or how I diy-ed some of the furnishings and so on!  This blog shares that process and the ongoing journey of making a house a home.  Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll come back again!

Lighten Up!

When we first built our home in 1999 I loved my warm color scheme with it's 

reds, greens and golds.  

Then, after living with and loving it for twelve years, I began wanting to lighten things up.  I didn't exactly dislike what I had; I was just ready for a change.  Do you ever feel like that?

I decided to start the redo by looking for wallpaper for the formal dining room and when I came across this Farrow and Ball paper called Lotus on the pages of Better Homes and Gardens, it was love at first sight!

Source

My love affair with this paper made me think of the old torch song..."You made me love you.  I didn't wanna do it.  I didn't wanna do it.  You made me want you and all the time you knew it.  I guess you always knew it."

  It is normally only sold to the trade (professional designers) and was out of my price range.  I worked really hard to find another paper I liked as well--or even almost as well--but I couldn't.  

Then enter my hero.....I have the world's most generous and understanding husband who urged me to splurge.  I rarely "go crazy" like that but this time I did.  This one choice was going to impact all of my future choices for the house since my rooms are all 
open to one another.  But I still had a problem--I don't like to pay full price unless there is no other way.

   Thank goodness for Google--I found a company online called L.A. Design Concepts that gives their customers access to "trade only" home goods--and at a good discount!  
Still, it was a splurge for me....I'm so grateful that I only had to paper above the chair rail!

Here's how it turned out...

These pictures were taken with a little point and shoot camera and they seem a bit dark but I think they give you an idea of how the room looks.  I would like to update with a new chandelier but I'm waiting for just the right one to come along (and for the budget).

In upcoming posts I'm going to share some before and after shots of other rooms I remodeled at home in an effort to build up the resolve to redo our master bedroom.  I need some courage to tackle that project.  Living through a reno is not for sissies.

A Love Story

When I married my husband, I also got the best mother-in-law in the world!  She welcomed me into her heart and home completely and after 41 years of being married to her son, I cannot recall her ever criticizing me even though I am sure I have disappointed her at times.  She always chose to encourage, forgive, and love.

Last Thursday she went home to heaven and oh how she will be missed!

Let me tell you her story--it's a love story.

Hilda Gattmann Patton aka Mema was born to Fritz and Josephine Gattmann--the beloved baby girl in a family with five kids.

She grew up to be a beautiful young woman.

Hilda fell in love with Henry Murriel Patton, the boy next door.  As children they used to rendezvous and talk through the hole in the backyard fence.

  Right after high school graduation toward the end of World War II, Murriel enlisted in the U.S. Navy and was stationed across the country in California.  He flew home to take 

Hilda as his bride.

Hilda set up her first home in Navy housing, a quonset hut.  They were a happy couple.

After Murriel fulfilled his commitment to the Navy they went back home to settle in Savannah, Georgia.  Murriel began working for the telephone company and they started their family...

Henry, Jr., Eleanor, Jeffery...

and Anita and Dorothy...

Hilda and Murriel worked hard to provide for their family and theirs was a happy home.  The years passed and the kids grew up, married and then grandchildren began to arrive...

The heartbreak of Hilda's life came when her dear husband Murriel died.  She was a 

one-man woman and when asked if she would ever date again, she said that she didn't plan to...the only way she would consider dating again would be if she could date Murriel.

The family continued to grow and now there are 15 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren with 2 more due by the end of the year!

This picture of grands and great-grands was taken at Hilda's 80th birthday party in 2009.

The last few years Hilda has battled health problems.  Her family has been by her side through it all until last Thursday she left her earthly life for an everlasting one in heaven.  We trust that she received a joyful welcome from her parents, siblings, and especially from her beloved Murriel!  I feel sure she also heard "Well done, My good and faithful servant," from her God as her faith has now become sight.

We were blessed to have her for so long and we will, we do sorely miss her!  She lived a life of love--a great legacy.