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!
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...
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.
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.
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.
“Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.” - Alex Noble We have embarked on another journey, another soon to be chapter in our lives. We are buying a little fishermen's cottage in Port Royal SC. If all goes well we will close on the property November 30th. We have had a satellite office in Beaufort for a couple of years. We leased some space in a mixed use flat in the Habersham community. Although we liked the area, we wanted a place of our own and Habersham was clearly out of our price range as second homes go. We also never really liked the planned community feel. Although Habersham's architecture seems to be period correct and Lowcountry inspired, the absence of the random shanty lends an aire of plastic uniformity that is difficult to ignore. After two years of searching for the perfect spot, we found the Port Royal cottage. Weighing in at a spry 860 sq-ft, we'll need to add on to the existing structure to get the footprint we need. The good news is that the house is solid and the lot is large.
Port Royal is a beautiful area steeped in history and tradition. Most people don't know that it is one on of the oldest continually used ports in the US. The first landing at Port Royal was made by Pedro de Salazar in the1500s. Spain sent other ships to this area in the 1520s and built the first fort in North America in 1525. Most men perished during that first winter. The Spanish, nevertheless, continued to use this area as a major anchorage in their explorations, and eventually made it the center of their North American empire.
In 1562, Capt. Jean Ribaut led a group French Huguenots to the New World. Three months later they sailed up a "mighty" river, the mouth of which they named Port Royal. Ribaut wrote that he had found ". . . no fairer or fitter place . . . the Port Royal." On what is now Parris Island, the French expedition built a fort they named Charles Fort in honor of King Charles IX. Ribaut returned to France for men and supplies and left 30 settlers on the island. When Ribaut did not return by July, the settlers feared the worst. With the help of the natives the stranded Frenchmen built a ship, the first ever known to have been built in the new world, and set sail for home. Although the ship floundered at sea, they were eventually picked up by English sailors and returned to France. In 1565 a Spanish squadron was sent by Philip II to destroy the fledgling French colony. After destroying the French fort, the Spanish carried off the pillar set up by founder Jean Ribaut as a symbol of French domination, and returned with it to Cuba. One year later, they returned to St. Elena (now known as St Helena) to establish their own military port. For twenty-one years, St. Elena was considered the capital of Spanish "Florida". In 1629 Charles I of England granted Sir Robert Heath the region comprising the two Carolinas, Georgia and much of Florida under the name Carolina, but no effort was made to colonize the area until 1663 when Capt. William Hilton sailed from Barbados on the ship Adventure and raised the first English flag over St. Helena Sound. Hilton Head Island was named in his honor. Seven years later Charles II of England gave the territory to eight of his friends in appreciation of their services in restoring him to the throne. The group was known as the Lord Proprietors. The Lord Proprietors began bestowing Land Grants in Port Royal. Union occupation during the Civil War spared the Town of Port Royal from destruction. Gen. Thomas Sherman was quite content to ride out the war comfortably on Hilton Head Island. As a result, with the exception of a few unsuccessful forays a few miles north of Beaufort to attempt to sever the vital Confederate railway from Savannah to Charleston, Port Royal remained a pleasant beachhead for the Union. In fact, it was considered so safe that many Officers' families moved down form the North. The only evidence of war were the wounded who were routinely treated in Beaufort. When the other - the fighting Sherman- came through the area some three years later burning and pillaging, he spared the little historic town, destroying instead neighboring Hardeeville and McPhersonville just to the north. As a result, many of the majestic homes that were built in Port Royal are still in existence and are listed as historic buildings. Two churches were built, both of which still stand; Port Royal Union Church on 11th Street and the Zion Baptist Church on 15th Street. Mercantile buildings were constructed (including the F.W. Scheper store which still stands), two drug stores; dry goods stores; a blacksmith shop; a bakery was located in the Masonic Lodge Building that is now the Last Chance Saloon; and no less than seventeen bars and taverns. Many newspaper articles from the era mentioned fist fights and brawls. Train arrivals and departures were so frequent and the population so dense in Port Royal that pedestrian accidents frequently occurred on the rails.
In 1891 Congressman Robert Smalls was instrumental in having a U.S. Naval coaling station built on nearby Parris Island, complete with a 120 x 150 ft dock. The naval yard brought several ships into Port Royal Harbor including the USS Texas, the USS Indiana, and the ill-fated Battleship, USS Maine. In 1959 the South Carolina State Ports Authority re-activated Port Royal and provided the necessary funding to dredge the ship-turning basin and build transit sheds and berthing spaces. The Port Authority leased the facilities to the Port Royal Clay Company which exported Kaolin, a raw material used in the manufacture of porcelain. Along with the demise of the Railroad, both the Navy Yard and much of the commercial Port business were eventually moved to Charleston. In the 1960 Census the population of Port Royal was registered at less than 750 people. Today the population is around 3000.
I fully intend to restore the little cottage to its former glory. I'll chronicle the transformation on this blog. Photos coming after closing :-)
So, Here it is! It's finally finished...well, almost finished. We're enjoying it already though. I would love to take credit for the work, but this craftmenship is the handywork of my friend Smitty. It's all 6"x6" treated stock set in concrete, complete with picture framed decking and a awesome stainless steel wire rail system. We spent way more than we wanted on it, but the results were well worth it... and we don't owe a dime on it. We saved for a few months and paid for the bulk of the work in weekly installments. Smitty was awesome about the project from the begining, and we gave him creative control for the most part. I think we only had three change orders throughout the entire build. I'm most pleased with the beadboard ceiling. We still have to skirt around the bottom and waterseal the top decking, but it's complete enough to enjoy. In fact, I'm planning on having a halloween party back there this weekend!
So, the Carolina Bungalow seems to be slipping into the abyss, at least until this past week that is. I knew when we bought the place the she was listing starboard, but we figured it had settled all it was going to over the last hundred years or so. Our home inspector agreed. So, we set about restoring everything except the pitching floors. I put in wainscoting and crown moldings. I caulked all the joints tight. The next summer, the crown joints reopened, and some of the plaster cracks reappeared. I was concerned, but felt that with little or no insulation in the post and beam structure, changes in humidity probably caused the excessive expansion and contraction, exposing cracks as a result. During the Flowertown festival that spring, the granddaughter of a former resident stopped by to see how the renovation was coming along. When we asked her about the floor, she recollected that it was just as uneven in the 1950's, so it wasn't a recent phenomenon. I was relieved, and charged on under a new found sense of assurance. That summer, I had the windows replaced, and man what a difference that made. The house really seemed to come together with the operational and efficient windows.
This spring the weather was intoxicating, so I decided to open up the house and let the flowering Jasmine rejuvenate our home from the greyness of winter. I was shocked when I found my new windows binding. A sinking feeling swept over me as I struggled to open the double hungs on the westward side of the house. I knew something had to be done. I called Mt Valley Foundation Repair Services, and I feared the worst. I searched around the Internet in an effort to build a mental estimate. I needed to know what to expect. Quotes ranged from six thousand to more than twenty thousand. I needed to draw a line in the sand. What is the most I will spend to shore up the foundation without reaching the dreaded negative equity point? Mt Valley sent out a very experienced and knowledgeable inspector to assess the situation. He did a thorough inspection inside and out and felt confident that the root cause of the problem was a long since removed Cyprus tree, whose massive stump caused a sinkhole as it decayed over the years. He recommended two Drive-Right piers driven thirty feet into bedrock to stabilize two sinking brick foundation points. Total estimate: $2400. I was excited and thrilled that correcting this ongoing problem wasn't going to break me. I can't say enough about Mt. Valley Foundation Repair Services. They showed up when they said they would, they did the work they quoted, and they thoroughly cleaned up the job site when the were finished. Out of all the contractors I have dealt with in the past, Mount Valley Foundation Repair Services definitely stands a cut above. I would recommend them to anyone facing similar "keep you up at night" problems...and with the lifetime transferrable warranty you can rest assured that they'll stand behind the repair. Oh, and the windows? They open as smootlhy as the day they were installed.
My knees are killing me and my back aches, but I'm nearly finished. I still have to add the crown molding and install the shower components. I'm waiting on the latter since I have to order most of the pieces from clawfoot supply. Once the other components are in I'll enjoy a nice soak. So, the punch list is getting smaller...
Install marble threshold
Install doors (closet and bathroom)
Grout the shower wall
Install shower ring
Install the shower fixture
Plumb tub drain and trap
Wall paper the hall
Install the crown molding
Finish painting the wainscoting
Caulk the baseboards
Paint the ceiling
So, all in all not too bad. I managed to get most of it done without any major complications other than the perpetual lack of energy and time. We did have one problem as a result of the master bath rebuild...We had planned on taking advantage of the low interest rates with a refinance. I locked in at a nice 4.7 % fixed rate. I stood to save myself a few hundred dollars a month, but the appraiser showed up when the bathroom was down to the studs with a hole in the floor. He could only calculate our homes value based on one bathroom. He said the value would obviously go up when the area was completed, based on quality of course; but the blow was devastating. With only the one bathroom we were $25,000 to $30,000 dollars off target. We could expect an easy $40,000 dollar return when the project is completed, but the timing couldn't have been worse. So, that $300 dollars a month I was counting on just became a casualty of procrastination. I wish that I had completed the bathroom sooner, but maybe it was fate. Maybe rates will dip even further and I'll save $350 a month.
I've been asked several times why I don't do drywall. People will say "you guys do everything else, what is the problem with drywall?" My response is always the same...a mans got to know his limitations, and mine is drywall. Sure, it's relatively inexpensive at less than four dollars a sheet, but after many attempts, I'm convinced that finishing drywall is an art form perfected over time by skilled craftsman. For instance, when I got home Tuesday evening, I was puzzled by how the crew was able to hang the drywall, mud it, let it dry AND sand it...all in one day. Upon closer examination though, I found my answer. It had not been sanded. That's how unbelievably perfect they feathered the joints; it hadn't been sanded yet but it stilled looked better than my finished work, and they were in and out in two days. It would have taken me twice as long just to hang it. When considering the cost of time, hiring a pro to back you up just makes sense.
Well, my attempt to have the master bath completed before Christmas might actually happen. This has been a long time coming, and as you can see from the photos, it's quite the transformation. This has been without question the most challenging of all of our projects given that the floor was so ridiculously uneven. I did everything I could short of ripping out the entire sub floor and re-framing it. Because this was once a porch, it is pitched somewhat. Not terrible, but I wouldn't want to fumble around in there in the dark; or after a few drinks. Anthony is putting up the drywall today, so I expect to be trimming it out this week. Stay tuned.
We spent most of the weekend tiling the master bathroom. I used hardie-board as an underlayment and we laid down a classic basket weave mossaic tile. We are very pleased with the way it turned out, although we should have cleaned the grout haze a bit sooner. I ended up having to use a polisher to remove the residue. I didn't want to lay the tile before the dry wall was installed, but circumstances forced the order of precedence. In order to get the huge clawfoot tub into the new space, we needed to leave the area by the door unframed, which meant that the floor needed to be tiled first. Once the tub is in, I'll frame in the door and have the drywall finished. Of course, we'll use Anthony for the drywall work.
I got tired of the disgusting bathroom and ripped it out, thinking that the vast expanse of emptiness and the inconvenience of four people sharing one bathroom might help to motivate me. It has. So far I have entirely gutted the space, which included cutting out the fiberglass tub enclosure, removing the commode, and ripping out a horribly designed closet that cut the bathroom in half. I then had to level the floor, which essentially meant skinning it with 1/4 inch OSB. I then ripped out the really, really bad drywall job since I needed to reroute the plumbing and electrical anyway. I'll have Anthony come in and finish it off when I'm ready to close it up. We plan to tile a traditional black and white octagonal mosaic, with subway tile on the shower wall. This is going to be a traditional bathroom design, in keeping with the character of the house. I hope that it will go quickly once the drywall is completed. The large claw foot tub will be the center piece of the room, set on an angle. Exposed chrome fillers and drain piping will accent the installation. In the corner I have framed in a shower wall which will feature an exposed chrome shower fixture with a separate Victorian hand shower attachment. All of the fixtures will be the same victorian style chrome. As with past projects, we put together a spend plan and budget and try to adhere to it as best that we can. So far we have done pretty good sticking to the plan. Some of the fixtures are shown below...
My wife and I have a punch list a mile long. The remodel has taken its toll on us both physically as well as financially. The momentum has slowed over the winter, but with the mild weather we have experienced recently we thought we would refocus our efforts to the outdoor spaces. Our grounds are really nice, with mature indigenous plantings covering most of the lot. We have camellias, azaleas, hydrangeas, jasmine and honeysuckle growing everywhere. Wisteria covers the entire canopy. We also have the largest Sycamore tree in town, as well as several Live Oaks, a Bald Cyprus, and two huge Magnolia trees. And in keeping with the Carolina tradition, we have a nice Palmetto tree out back. Since we converted the garage into our office space, all of those things you might normally find in ones garage have resided on our screen porch… for two years.
The screen porch was one of the biggest attractions for us when we purchased the property, but with no real storage alternatives we have yet to enjoy it. Our lawn tools have been rusting under the eaves of the house and I kept a large galvanized tub over my mower. The kid’s bikes have long since been consumed by the elements. Our goal has been to create some storage and reclaim our screen porch. As soon as I had saved enough money I began researching shed plans, but my initial idea of building my own storage shed was overruled by my wife who argued that it would take me the entire summer to complete. She insisted we could have it finished in a weekend for just a few hundred dollars more if we opted to purchase it from one of the home centers. I feared that the campy barn designs would not fit the character of our home but was pleasantly surprised to find a nice boathouse design complete with a cupola and weather vane. Not custom built, but considerably more character than that of the ubiquitous Dutch barn.
She was right; they finished the shed in one day. We painted it to match the house, which incidentally, took longer than it did to build. I completely filled the 8’x12’ structure and still had more stuff on the porch, so I decided to build a small lean-to garden shed. I planned it to fit a 4’x 8’ footprint, so laying it out was simple. I framed and sheathed it in one day. We took Sunday off to attend the Blessing of the Fleet at Alhambra Hall, the annual Shrimp Season kickoff in Mt Pleasant. We met up with friends and had a great time. The weather was nice and the breeze coming in off the harbor kept the heat bearable. When we got home, I still had a few hours of daylight left, so I went ahead and shingled the roof. Although somewhat inebriated, I still managed to finish it up without falling off the structure or shooting a nail through any of my exposed digits.
Here is the finished porch we built for the office. This started out as replacing a glass paned raised panel entry door that had seen better days. It was a security problem more than anything else. There was no real door frame, it seemed the frame was built around the door, which was out of square. I actually ruined a good door blank trying to cut it down to fit the opening. I finaly relented and just rebuilt the rough opening correctly.
So, I've finally finished the bathroom. I hope you enjoy the pictures. Actually, this has been done for some time, I just havent gotten around to posting the finished product. As a testiment to to usefulness of this new layout, I didn't even tidy up before shooting these...I swear. I did move the clothes hamper though. The addition of the linen closet was the best thing we could have done, and converting the space into the Jack and Jill layout between the kids bedrooms was a stroke of genious if I do say so myself!
OK, I've been pretty lame about posting lately. We've just been so busy that I haven't had the time. In my own defense, I actually got back into the swing of things and began working on the house again. The project list has narrowed some as we were able to knock out most of those smaller efforts that have been lingering around. I've found that I have to ease myself back into home improvement projects; like maybe replacing that threshold before jumping head first into a bathroom remodel. They weren’t all straight off of the minor punch list though, some big projects got completed in the blog-hiatus as well. We had new Pella replacement windows installed throughout the house. The difference is remarkable, both in aesthetics as well as efficiency. I also added a porch to the side door of the office, oh, and I replaced the door and repainted too. That one little entry doesn’t do the porch effort any justice though, we had to replace a considerable amount of rotten siding and do a whole bunch of prep work to make that happen. The stairs were repainted and the railing was completely rebuilt. I also designed and built a custom lattice screen for under the stairs. I'll post after pictures soon; I didn't shoot any images of the work in progress. I also completed fiberglassing the pirogue, well, mostly. I still have a little finishing work to do on that. I installed recessed lights in the parlor, and began the Jack and Jill bath that I have been avoiding for six months. I will take before and after pictures of that effort since we have already purchased most of the materials and I feel pretty comfortable that we won't be winging the design. I'm glad to actually see progress again. I think the windows have inspired me. We have actually made a wants vs needs list, itemized and budgeted the remaining work. I think we can finish for 12 to 15k. That will include a storage shed out back for the lawn tools, and a nice double layer deck wich a nice gas grill and custom lighting on the skirt. The back forty will also be landscaped. I'm also going to install double interior French doors to separate the living room from the office. The old house is really starting to come together, finally. I'm going to go home and shoot some pictures, and I promise to be more diligent in my posting.
I took a couple of hours yesterday to put the finishing touches on the new office bathroom. I'm really very pleased with the results. It turned out far better than I had hoped for. Those nice corner sinks you see in the pictures were ordered from plumbingsupply.com, and I have no problems giving them a plug here. I have ordered a lot of stuff from them in the course of our remodel and have nothing but great things to say about their service as well as their prices. Overall, as a project goes I would give this one a difficulty factor of about 6 out of 10. Not overwhelming, but not for an amateur either. It took a wide array of skills to pull off - Framing, Plumbing, Electrical, Tilework, and Finish Carpentry...not to mention the architectural design, project planning and the demolition...both concrete and interior walls. The results look awesome, it is functional, and best of all, it meets the regulatory compliance we were lacking in the original bathroom. Enjoy the photos.
So after a marathon weekend roughing in the new bathroom in our office, we spent Tuesday and Wednesday evening putting the finishing touches on the new space. We installed the toilet which is always fun, the sinks, wall sconces, and all of the various bathroom accouterments. Ahhhhhh...there's nothing quite like a brand new bathroom. I guess I'll be christening the throne soon enough. Enjoy the photos.
A running diary of our experiences remodeling a 1908 Carolina Cottage.I use this blog for everything, so if you're just keeping up with the remodel, you may want to filterthe post.The HouseThe Family
