Beautiful American Houses – Photos & Ideas | Houzz

This “snore box” is the same beautiful living room of the cottage they rent to visitors. However, as they lived there, it evolved. They added the bedroom, bathroom and kitchen and beautiful seaside patios. Today, aside from being impeccably kept, it is exactly the same as when it was first built. The galvanized pipes still hold up much of the roof. “When Phoebe and I had designed the cottage, I had drawn our plans carefully and they called for six and eight-foot side doors. I had seen the door design on a cottage by an American vacation homeowner. …The top half of this wide door was pulled up by ropes and blocks (pulleys) or simply pushed up and held there by sticks on either side. The bottom half of the door swung open in two halves hinging back against the cottage walls. …The design was very practical, for they were all wood, with nothing to import except hinges. They allowed the cooling breezes to flow through when open and when hooked closed became hurricane shutters without further ado.”

Brenda Olde Photography © 2012 Houzz