Port Royal Cottage Progress

Its been almost a year since my last post on our cottage project. I wish that I could report that it is complete and we are using it every weekend, but unfortunately that is not the case. Work and life compete for our time. We have had some bumps along the way, but overall, it is moving in the right direction. We lost our general contractor as he struggled through a nasty divorce, and the project stalled as a result. I spent a few solid weeks down there this winter just trying to ensure that we completed front facade. The natives were getting restless while the house remained in a perpetual state of disrepair. As you can see from the attached photos, it really does look great. All of the appliances have been purchased as well as the base cabinetry and kitchen pennensula. They are being installed in the next two weeks. The tub surround will also be in during that same time. From this point forward, the only remaining big-ticket items will be completing the AC install (we're using a window unit right now), and interior trim and hardware. Everything else is done.

The central AC work...

This 1/4 ceiling use to support 12x12 tiles. Landon pulled every one of those staples out by hand.

The cupola before siding

The cupola before siding

Front porch under construction

Metal roof installed.

Tub installed

Washer and Dryer hook up and rough plumbing complete

Columns in

Windows trimmed

Drywall going in

Furring the exterior block walls

Hardie-Plank siding and first coat of paint

Drywall finished, electrical going in

New cottage toy, this may help get me down there more often!

The reason we're here...

Bee Bee's Birthday Present...

Bee loves her hens. So, for her birthday this year, I got her these Japanese Silkie Bantams. I also built this Taj Mahal coop. I spent three weekends on this, and Bee actually got to help. I gave her a hammer and let her go. She stayed out back with me the entire day, in the heat, with no complaints. Lucy and Ethel have settled their differences and are roosting together again, and Lucy is laying eggs again. I have grown rather fond of the hens. It's a real treat to see them greeting me in the morning before work. I know it sounds strange, but I have my coffee with them while they feed on scratch grains first thing in the morning.

Port Royal Progress

So the metal roof is finally up. The porch is completely framed too. Oyster shell concrete is going in this week for the porch and outdoor shower. The windows are in, the soaker tub has been delivered, and the AC is being roughed in over the next few days. Rough plumbing is all that keeps us from getting the drywall up. On the exterior we are going to fir out the block and side the lower half with Hardie-plank lap siding and the upper half in a board-and-baton style. It will look very nice when it's all said and done, but the dream of being able to use the place by Memorial day has came and went. We're now shooting for the Fourth of July. Keep your fingers crossed...

She's all but gutted...

The work at the Port Royal cottage is moving along quickly. As you can see, its mostly gutted. Most of the work to date has been focused on the infrastructure...running new water and power supplies. We had the services buried so the beautiful oak would be unobstructed. That took some work. We also ran a new water service from the city main and completely gutted the interior space. The guys still have to remove the drop ceiling so we can rewire. We are planning to pour three inches of new concrete on top of the existing slab. That will give us the blank slate we were looking for. We have found (from experience) that it's often cheaper to gut the space as opposed to trying to preserve something not worth saving. I'ts still hard to get excited the project just yet. I have a vision of what I want it to look like in the end, but I get nervous trying to manage the project remotely. I've got a great builder, but when you don't get to see the progress as it's happening, it's just not the same. I've found that i'm spending quite a bit of time lately focusing on completing the cottage. I'm daydreaming at work. Surfing the web for the right outdoor shower , etc..I'm absolutely in love with the area and spend most weekends there as it is - never-mind the two hour drive and the eighty dollars in gas. Bee and I went down this morning. I just couldn't go a week without seeing the progress first hand. It's coming together...both in my mind and in person. I made subtle changes to my vision of the end product, so it wasn't a fruitless visit. We also visited downtown Beaufort for breakfast. I took a few shots of the waterfront park. Spring is definitely in the air.

Sing Louder!

The Cottage Project

This is really something to get excited about. It's a shame this hasn't caught on. Municipalities haven't made live-work projects easy. In the Cottage Square project, 19 single family homes are set on a single 2 acre plot. Less really is more, and in a walking community like Ocean Springs this kind of initiative goes a long way to revive economically challenged areas. Would love to see some developer incentives in place to spark some interest in this form of affordable housing in South Carolina.

Port Royal Cottage

Well, we've finally come to an agreement. We're closing today at 2:30. We ended up with an owner financing option for the balance of the asking price, although we will probably only finance it over five years. Bank of America was just too difficult to work with. They insisted we make a multitude of repairs prior to closing that I only intended to rip out anyway. They wanted me to repair broken floor tiles even though I planned to remove the floor in the process of renovation. When they insisted we have a licensed inspector evaluate a roof system that we also intended to replace, we knew we had to seek other alternatives. The owner finance option is not for everyone, but it worked well for us. Find below a photo of the currently scary cottage as well as a rendering of what we think it will look like after we get to work.

The Top Ten Coolest Small Towns...(You'll be surprised!)