CURB APPEAL

See how this historic home retained its original charm while conforming to new city codes.

“It was a real diamond in the rough,

but it looked like the earth was about to swallow the property,” says Jeff Mathis of the original state of this circa 1830s cottage on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. “Trees were growing in the house, rodents large and small were all in there.” His company and architect Beau Clowney were tasked with truly resurrecting the cottage from the dead.

“Our first objective was to get it so workers could walk into it safely,” Jeff recalls. The owners were two families—one of whom had already had a great experience working with Jeff’s team. The old house was intended to become a shared vacation home for the two couples with a total of seven children.

“It’s a historic property, so we had to retain the original character, and we were not allowed to demolish it nor did we want to. The new homeowners wanted to keep the same style so we repurposed the original windows,” Jeff says. “We fixed them so they all worked properly, replaced broken panes with the same antique wavy glass.” Jeff’s team also managed to reuse as much of the original siding as they could by hand scraping and refurbishing it. In addition, they were able to reuse the original front porch rafters and replicated the original cedar shake roof of the house.

The property also had a guest house in the backyard, which Jeff and Beau were able to build back and use as an extension of the house—all made to look more seamless through smartly placed landscaping. “Everything you see from the street is original historic structure,” Jeff says.

The one peculiar hurdle? According to a contemporary local ordinance, the house needed to be raised above the flood line. So Jeff and Beau did all the aforementioned rescue and renovation while also lifting the structure up about 10 feet, or the height of a single story. Thanks to smart landscaping and all their salvage and reuse efforts, they had success, and the project passed review by the Charleston Board of Architectural Review.

Landscaping was key to keeping the newer portions of the build inconspicuous. “The designers added the elevated lawn (with the beautiful brick retaining wall) to make the home appear to be not as tall from the street,” Jeff says. “The critically important live oak tree that leans over the driveway hides the new additions from the road. The structure on the left is actually an exact replica of the guest house that used to be in the back yard.”