This home is a custom Timber Block home. While Timber Block has dozens of photos in 4 different series, all of which can be modified - we are proud to have the ability to build full custom as well. This home owner had ideas, and together with our design team, came up with this absolute dream. More at www.timberblock.com

After moving into a luxurious home in Ashburn, Virginia, the homeowners decided the master bathroom needed to be revamped. The existing whirlpool tub was far too big, the shower too small and the make-up area poorly designed. From a functional standpoint, they wanted lots of storage, his and her separate vanities with a large make-up area, better lighting, a large steam shower and a vaulted ceiling. Aesthetics were also important, however, and the lady of the house had always dreamed of having a Venetian style spa. Taking some space from an adjacent closet has allowed for a much larger shower stall with an arched transom window letting plenty of natural light into the space. Using various sizes of tumbled limestone to build its walls, it includes a rain shower head, a hand shower and body sprayers. A seating bench and storage niches make it easier to use. New plumbing was put in place to add a large vanity with upper glass cabinets for the man of the house, while one corner of the space was used to create a make-up desk complete with a seamless mirror and embedded sconce lights A free standing Neapolitan-style soaking tub with fluted columns and arched header is the real focal point of this space. Set among large corner windows, under a stylish chandelier, this elegant design sets this bathroom apart from any bathroom in its category.

Wolf 24" Coffee System EC24/S - Stainless Available at Universal Appliance and Kitchen Center | uakc.com Striking stainless steel design. Strikingly delicious drinks — espresso, cappuccino, latte, macchiato, long or short coffee, even hot water for tea. Simply touch a couple of buttons and in seconds you’ll be enjoying a professional-quality coffee drink, made your way. On top of that, the Wolf coffee system lets you easily customize the details of your drink, from temperature to strength to level of foam, to meet your personal definition of the “perfect cup.” You’ll also enjoy how hassle-free the Wolf coffee system is to own. It needs no plumbing connections, and it steam-cleans the milk nozzle with one push of a button; milk never enters the system’s internal mechanisms. The 24” coffee system in stainless can be installed with a 24" cup warming drawer to create an ultimate in-home coffee station, and coordinates beautifully with Wolf convection steam and microwave ovens of the same size. For ideal pairing with 30” Wolf ovens, the 24” coffee system in black (EC24/B) should be purchased and customized with any of five accessory trim kits. DESIGN AND PERFORMANCE FEATURES Make all your favorite coffee beverages: What's your pleasure? Make long or short coffee, espresso, cappuccino, latte, or a macchiato in seconds. Even steam or froth milk for, say, a chai latte or the kids' hot chocolate. Coffee, made to size: Select the size you want from four pushbutton presets, everything from a one-ounce espresso shot to a 12-ounce coffee. Unique sizes (up to 7 oz.) can be programmed and saved using the customizable "My Coffee" setting. Strength, to your taste: When brewing from whole bean coffee, five strength settings from extra-mild to extra-strong give you precisely the flavor you prefer at any selected size. No plumbing needed: Unlike units that must be connected to a water line, the Wolf coffee system can be installed anywhere without additional plumbing. The easily accessible water reservoir holds 60.9 fluid oz. (1.8 liters), enough for several drinks between refills. Easy to clean: Unlike coffee systems that pipe milk through the internal mechanism, the Wolf system cleans with pushbutton ease. Rinse the brew head, or clean the milk spout with a jet of steam. It's all done in seconds. The milk carafe is dishwasher safe, too. Uses whole-bean and pre-ground coffee: The machine holds a generous supply of whole-bean coffee — about half a pound — and grinds it automatically to make your drink. It can brew single-cups from pre-ground coffee, too, so you can have your breakfast blend even when the bean reservoir is full of espresso roast. Adjustable built-in stainless steel burr grinder: Thirteen grind settings allow you to customize your whole-bean coffee for the taste and body you prefer. Make it a double: For two identical coffees, just press the Double Coffee button and position a cup under each of the two spouts. Or select Double Coffee and place your mug under the spouts to make a double-size coffee for one. Removable milk carafe for freshness and convenience: The dishwasher-safe carafe plugs into the machine to make milk drinks, then can go right in the refrigerator to keep milk fresh. Milk is steamed and frothed without passing through the system's internal components. That makes cleaning infinitely easier. Hot water on demand — tea, anyone? Tea, hot chocolate, oatmeal, you name it. The system can deliver up to 14 ounces of hot water with the push of a button. How hot? That's up to you. The temperature is adjustable. Push-button control panel: Brewing the drink you want at the size and with the taste you want is as easy as pressing a few buttons. The bright LCD control panel provides clear information. Programmable start time and auto off: Program a time for the system to turn on and warm up automatically, it will be ready to brew when you're ready to enjoy. For safety and energy efficiency, the system powers down after a set period of inactivity. More enjoying, less cleaning: After the system prepares a coffee drink, it ejects the compressed grounds into a container, then lets you know when the container is ready to be emptied. Meanwhile, a removable drip tray catches excess water from brewing and rinsing. Simply rinse it out just as you would your coffee cup. Built into cabinetry, works like a drawer: Designed to be built seamlessly into your kitchen cabinetry, the Wolf coffee system has an ingenious feature: glide rails that enable you to slide the unit out from the wall for easy access to the whole-bean and ground coffee reservoirs. It's like opening a drawer. Supplies are in reach but out of sight: Pull the unit out on its glide rails to access handy integrated storage trays where you can keep bottles of flavored syrup, sugars and other supplies at the ready. Auto-descale reminders: Minerals from water naturally build up on heating surfaces and reduce efficiency. The Wolf coffee system is engineered to monitor this and let you know when to descale the system. Result: Your drinks always come out at the temperature you expect. TECHNICAL FEATURES: - Electrical Requirements: 120 V AC, 60 Hz, 15-amp dedicated circuit, grounded - Shipping Weight (lbs): 60 - Water reservoir (fl oz): 60.9 (1.8 L) - Whole Bean Reservoir (oz): 8.8 (~1/2 lb) - Removable milk carafe holds just over 3 cups

Stuart Wade, Envision Virtual Tours The second-largest and most developed of Georgia's barrier islands, St. Simons is approximately twelve miles long and nearly three miles wide at its widest stretch (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York). The island is located in Glynn County on Georgia's coast and lies east of Brunswick (the seat of Glynn County), south of Little St. Simons Island and the Hampton River, and north of Jekyll Island. The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River. Known for its oak tree canopies and historic landmarks, St. Simons is both a tourist destination and, according to the 2010 U.S. census, home to 12,743 residents. Early History The earliest St. Simons Island Village record of human habitation on the island dates to the Late Archaic Period, about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Remnants of shell rings left behind by Native Americans from this era survive on many of the barrier islands, including St. Simons. Centuries later, during the period known by historians as the chiefdom era, the Guale Indians established a chiefdom centered on St. Catherines Island and used St. Simons as their hunting and fishing grounds. By 1500 the Guale had established a permanent village of about 200 people on St. Simons, which they called Guadalquini. Beginning in 1568, the Spanish attempted to create missions along the Georgia coast. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida. In the 1600s St. Simons became home to two Spanish missions: San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, on the southern tip of the island, and Santo Domingo de Asao (or Asajo), on the northern tip. Located on the inland side of the island were the pagan refugee villages of San Simón, the island's namesake, and Ocotonico. In 1684 pirate raids left the missions and villages largely abandoned. Colonial History As Fort Frederica early as 1670, with Great Britain's establishment of the colony of Carolina and its expansion into Georgia territory, Spanish rule was threatened by the English. The Georgia coast was considered "debatable land" by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat. Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. By 1740 Frederica's population was 1,000. In 1736 the congregation of what would become Christ Church was organized within Fort Frederica as a mission of the Church of England. Charles Wesley led the first services. In 1742 Britain's decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, ended the Spanish threat to the Georgia coast. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and, except for a short time of prosperity during the 1760s and 1770s under the leadership of merchant James Spalding, never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel's tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service. Plantation Era By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was left largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army. Besides hosting a small Georgia naval victory on the Fort Frederica River, providing guns from its famous fort for use at Fort Morris in Sunbury, and serving as an arena for pillaging by privateers and British soldiers, the island played almost no role in the war. Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farm land and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides." Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between Ebos Landing the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. In 1803 a group of Ebo slaves who survived the Middle Passage and arrived on the west side of St. Simons staged a rebellion and drowned themselves. The sacred site is known today as Ebos Landing. One of the largest owners of land and slaves on St. Simons was Pierce Butler, master of Hampton Point Plantation, located on the northern end of the island. By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves, who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler's Island in the Altamaha River delta. Butler's grandson, Pierce Mease Butler, who at the age of sixteen inherited a share of his grandfather's estate in 1826, was responsible for the largest sale of human beings in the history of the United States: in 1859, to restore his squandered fortune, he sold 429 slaves in Savannah for more than $300,000. The British actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whose tumultuous marriage to Pierce ended in divorce in 1849, published an eyewitness account of the evils of slavery on St. Simons in her book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863). Another Retreat Plantation large owner of land and slaves on St. Simons was Major William Page, a friend and employee of Pierce Butler Sr. Before purchasing Retreat Plantation on the southwestern tip of the island in 1804, Page managed the Hampton plantation and Butler's Island. Upon Page's death in 1827, Thomas Butler King inherited the land together with his wife, Page's daughter, Anna Matilda Page King. King expanded his father-in-law's planting empire on St. Simons as well as on the mainland, and by 1835 Retreat Plantation alone was home to as many as 355 slaves. The center of life during the island's plantation era was Christ Church, Frederica. Organized in 1807 by a group of island planters, the Episcopal church is the second oldest in the Diocese of Georgia. Embargoes imposed by the War of 1812 (1812-15) prevented the parishioners from building a church structure, so they worshiped in the home of John Beck, which stood on the site of Oglethorpe's only St. Simons residence, Orange Hall. The first Christ Church building, finished on the present site in 1820, was ruined by occupying Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884 the Reverend Anson Dodge Jr. rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife, Ellen. The cruciform building with a trussed gothic roof and stained-glass windows remains active today as Christ Church. Civil War and Beyond The St. Simons Island Lighthouse outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves. By August 1862 more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons, including Susie King Taylor, who organized a school for freed slave children. But in November the ex-slaves were taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Fernandina, Florida, leaving the island abandoned. After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no slaves to work the fields. After Union general William T. Sherman's January 1865 Special Field Order No. 15 —a demand that former plantations be divided and distributed to former slaves—was overturned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson less than a year later, freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms that dotted the land previously occupied by the sprawling plantations. By St. Simons Lumber Mills 1870 real economic recovery began with the reestablishment of the timber industry. Norman Dodge and Titus G. Meigs of New York set up lumber mill operations at Gascoigne Bluff, formerly Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided welcome employment for both blacks and whites and also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new lighthouse in 1872, designed by architect Charles B. Cluskey, marked the beginning of St. Simons's tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park, which drew many visitors, as did the seemingly miraculous light that traveled from the top of the lighthouse tower to the bottom. The island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland, particularly from Baxley, Brunswick, and Waycross. The island's resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island and could be accessed by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island. Twentieth Century The St. Simons Island Pier and Village opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. St. Simons's beaches were now easily accessible to locals and tourists alike. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for convenient residential and resort development. In 1926 automotive pioneer Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s. The St. Simons Island outbreak of World War II (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah; and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers. The increased wartime population brought the island its first public school. With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats. In April 1942, just off the coast, the Texas Company oil tanker S. S. Oklahoma and the S. S. Esso Baton Rouge were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents. Due in large part to the military's improvement of the island's infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community. In 1950 the Methodist conference and retreat center Epworth by the Sea opened on Gascoigne Bluff. In 1961 novelist Eugenia Price visited St. Simons and began work on her first works of fiction, known as the St. Simons Trilogy. Inspired by real events on the island, Price's trilogy renewed interest in the history of Georgia's coast, and the novelist herself relocated to the island in 1965 and lived there for thirty-one years. St. Simons is also home to contemporary Georgia writer Tina McElroy Ansa. Since Epworth by the Sea 1980 St. Simons's population has doubled. The island's continued status as a vacation destination and its ongoing development boom have put historic landmarks and natural areas at risk. While such landmarks as the Fort Frederica ruins and the Battle of Bloody Marsh site are preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, and while the historic lighthouse is maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, historic Ebos Landing has been taken over by a sewage treatment plant. Several coastal organizations have formed in recent years to save natural areas on the island. The St. Simons Land Trust, for example, has received donations of large tracts of land and plans to protect property in the island's three traditional African American neighborhoods. Despite its rapid growth and development, St. Simons remains one of the most beautiful and important islands on the Georgia coast.

Atherton has many large substantial homes - our clients purchased an existing home on a one acre flag-shaped lot and asked us to design a new dream home for them. The result is a new 7,000 square foot four-building complex consisting of the main house, six-car garage with two car lifts, pool house with a full one bedroom residence inside, and a separate home office /work out gym studio building. A fifty-foot swimming pool was also created with fully landscaped yards. Given the rectangular shape of the lot, it was decided to angle the house to incoming visitors slightly so as to more dramatically present itself. The house became a classic u-shaped home but Feng Shui design principals were employed directing the placement of the pool house to better contain the energy flow on the site. The main house entry door is then aligned with a special Japanese red maple at the end of a long visual axis at the rear of the site. These angles and alignments set up everything else about the house design and layout, and views from various rooms allow you to see into virtually every space tracking movements of others in the home. The residence is simply divided into two wings of public use, kitchen and family room, and the other wing of bedrooms, connected by the living and dining great room. Function drove the exterior form of windows and solid walls with a line of clerestory windows which bring light into the middle of the large home. Extensive sun shadow studies with 3D tree modeling led to the unorthodox placement of the pool to the north of the home, but tree shadow tracking showed this to be the sunniest area during the entire year. Sustainable measures included a full 7.1kW solar photovoltaic array technically making the house off the grid, and arranged so that no panels are visible from the property. A large 16,000 gallon rainwater catchment system consisting of tanks buried below grade was installed. The home is California GreenPoint rated and also features sealed roof soffits and a sealed crawlspace without the usual venting. A whole house computer automation system with server room was installed as well. Heating and cooling utilize hot water radiant heated concrete and wood floors supplemented by heat pump generated heating and cooling. A compound of buildings created to form balanced relationships between each other, this home is about circulation, light and a balance of form and function. Photo by John Sutton Photography.

The original structure at Yankee Point was a simple 1970s home with “good bones.” Unfortunately, it was also a case where less-than-poetic considerations threatened to eclipse design. Setbacks, height and footprint restrictions and other building regulations had boxed in the renovation to the point where there was literally nowhere left to build. Fortunately, the house sat 6' above grade on the ocean side. With some three-dimensional ingenuity, this ultimately provided ample space to add a new full height lower level without exceeding stringent lot coverage limitations. Today, upon entering the residence, you catch a quick glimpse of the ocean views and of the cascading roof lines designed to echo the motions of ocean waves beyond. The space opens up as you move toward the ocean to reveal a panoramic view.

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Stuart Wade, Envision Virtual Tours The second-largest and most developed of Georgia's barrier islands, St. Simons is approximately twelve miles long and nearly three miles wide at its widest stretch (roughly the size of Manhattan Island in New York). The island is located in Glynn County on Georgia's coast and lies east of Brunswick (the seat of Glynn County), south of Little St. Simons Island and the Hampton River, and north of Jekyll Island. The resort community of Sea Island is separated from St. Simons on the east by the Black Banks River. Known for its oak tree canopies and historic landmarks, St. Simons is both a tourist destination and, according to the 2010 U.S. census, home to 12,743 residents. Early History The earliest St. Simons Island Village record of human habitation on the island dates to the Late Archaic Period, about 5,000 to 3,000 years ago. Remnants of shell rings left behind by Native Americans from this era survive on many of the barrier islands, including St. Simons. Centuries later, during the period known by historians as the chiefdom era, the Guale Indians established a chiefdom centered on St. Catherines Island and used St. Simons as their hunting and fishing grounds. By 1500 the Guale had established a permanent village of about 200 people on St. Simons, which they called Guadalquini. Beginning in 1568, the Spanish attempted to create missions along the Georgia coast. Catholic missions were the primary means by which Georgia's indigenous Native American chiefdoms were assimilated into the Spanish colonial system along the northern frontier of greater Spanish Florida. In the 1600s St. Simons became home to two Spanish missions: San Buenaventura de Guadalquini, on the southern tip of the island, and Santo Domingo de Asao (or Asajo), on the northern tip. Located on the inland side of the island were the pagan refugee villages of San Simón, the island's namesake, and Ocotonico. In 1684 pirate raids left the missions and villages largely abandoned. Colonial History As Fort Frederica early as 1670, with Great Britain's establishment of the colony of Carolina and its expansion into Georgia territory, Spanish rule was threatened by the English. The Georgia coast was considered "debatable land" by England and Spain, even though Spain had fully retreated from St. Simons by 1702. Thirty-one years later General James Edward Oglethorpe founded the English settlement of Savannah. In 1736 he established Fort Frederica, named after the heir to the British throne, Frederick Louis, prince of Wales, on the west side of St. Simons Island to protect Savannah and the Carolinas from the Spanish threat. Between 1736 and 1749 Fort Frederica was the hub of British military operations along the Georgia frontier. A town of the same name grew up around the fort and was of great importance to the new colony. By 1740 Frederica's population was 1,000. In 1736 the congregation of what would become Christ Church was organized within Fort Frederica as a mission of the Church of England. Charles Wesley led the first services. In 1742 Britain's decisive victory over Spain in the Battle of Bloody Marsh, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, ended the Spanish threat to the Georgia coast. When the British regimen disbanded in 1749, most of the townspeople relocated to the mainland. Fort Frederica went into decline and, except for a short time of prosperity during the 1760s and 1770s under the leadership of merchant James Spalding, never fully recovered. Today the historic citadel's tabby ruins are maintained by the National Park Service. Plantation Era By the start of the American Revolution (1775-83), Fort Frederica was obsolete, and St. Simons was left largely uninhabited as most of its residents joined the patriot army. Besides hosting a small Georgia naval victory on the Fort Frederica River, providing guns from its famous fort for use at Fort Morris in Sunbury, and serving as an arena for pillaging by privateers and British soldiers, the island played almost no role in the war. Following the war, many of the townspeople, their businesses destroyed, turned to agriculture. The island was transformed into fourteen cotton plantations after acres of live oak trees were cleared for farm land and used for building American warships, including the famous USS Constitution, or "Old Ironsides." Although rice was the predominant crop along the neighboring Altamaha River, St. Simons was known for its production of long-staple cotton, which soon came to be known as Sea Island cotton. Between Ebos Landing the 1780s and the outbreak of the Civil War (1861-65), St. Simons's plantation culture flourished. The saline atmosphere and the availability of cheap slave labor proved an ideal combination for the cultivation of Sea Island cotton. In 1803 a group of Ebo slaves who survived the Middle Passage and arrived on the west side of St. Simons staged a rebellion and drowned themselves. The sacred site is known today as Ebos Landing. One of the largest owners of land and slaves on St. Simons was Pierce Butler, master of Hampton Point Plantation, located on the northern end of the island. By 1793 Butler owned more than 500 slaves, who cultivated 800 acres of cotton on St. Simons and 300 acres of rice on Butler's Island in the Altamaha River delta. Butler's grandson, Pierce Mease Butler, who at the age of sixteen inherited a share of his grandfather's estate in 1826, was responsible for the largest sale of human beings in the history of the United States: in 1859, to restore his squandered fortune, he sold 429 slaves in Savannah for more than $300,000. The British actress and writer Fanny Kemble, whose tumultuous marriage to Pierce ended in divorce in 1849, published an eyewitness account of the evils of slavery on St. Simons in her book Journal of a Residence on a Georgian Plantation in 1838-1839 (1863). Another Retreat Plantation large owner of land and slaves on St. Simons was Major William Page, a friend and employee of Pierce Butler Sr. Before purchasing Retreat Plantation on the southwestern tip of the island in 1804, Page managed the Hampton plantation and Butler's Island. Upon Page's death in 1827, Thomas Butler King inherited the land together with his wife, Page's daughter, Anna Matilda Page King. King expanded his father-in-law's planting empire on St. Simons as well as on the mainland, and by 1835 Retreat Plantation alone was home to as many as 355 slaves. The center of life during the island's plantation era was Christ Church, Frederica. Organized in 1807 by a group of island planters, the Episcopal church is the second oldest in the Diocese of Georgia. Embargoes imposed by the War of 1812 (1812-15) prevented the parishioners from building a church structure, so they worshiped in the home of John Beck, which stood on the site of Oglethorpe's only St. Simons residence, Orange Hall. The first Christ Church building, finished on the present site in 1820, was ruined by occupying Union troops during the Civil War. In 1884 the Reverend Anson Dodge Jr. rebuilt the church as a memorial to his first wife, Ellen. The cruciform building with a trussed gothic roof and stained-glass windows remains active today as Christ Church. Civil War and Beyond The St. Simons Island Lighthouse outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 put a sudden end to St. Simons's lucrative plantation era. In January of that year, Confederate troops were stationed at the south end of the island to guard the entrance to Brunswick Harbor. Slaves from Retreat Plantation, owned by Thomas Butler King, built earthworks and batteries. Plantation residents were scattered—the men joined the Confederate army and their families moved to the mainland. Cannon fire was heard on the island in December 1861, and Confederate troops retreated in February 1862, after dynamiting the lighthouse to keep its beacon from aiding Union troops. Soon thereafter, Union troops occupied the island, which was used as a camp for freed slaves. By August 1862 more than 500 former slaves lived on St. Simons, including Susie King Taylor, who organized a school for freed slave children. But in November the ex-slaves were taken to Hilton Head, South Carolina, and Fernandina, Florida, leaving the island abandoned. After the Civil War the island never returned to its status as an agricultural community. The plantations lay dormant because there were no slaves to work the fields. After Union general William T. Sherman's January 1865 Special Field Order No. 15 —a demand that former plantations be divided and distributed to former slaves—was overturned by U.S. president Andrew Johnson less than a year later, freedmen and women were forced to work as sharecroppers on the small farms that dotted the land previously occupied by the sprawling plantations. By St. Simons Lumber Mills 1870 real economic recovery began with the reestablishment of the timber industry. Norman Dodge and Titus G. Meigs of New York set up lumber mill operations at Gascoigne Bluff, formerly Hamilton Plantation. The lumber mills provided welcome employment for both blacks and whites and also provided mail and passenger boats to the mainland. Such water traffic, together with the construction of a new lighthouse in 1872, designed by architect Charles B. Cluskey, marked the beginning of St. Simons's tourism industry. The keeper of the lighthouse created a small amusement park, which drew many visitors, as did the seemingly miraculous light that traveled from the top of the lighthouse tower to the bottom. The island became a summer retreat for families from the mainland, particularly from Baxley, Brunswick, and Waycross. The island's resort industry was thriving by the 1880s. Beachfront structures, such as a new pier and grand hotel, were built on the southeastern end of the island and could be accessed by ferry. Around this time wealthy northerners began vacationing on the island. Twentieth Century The St. Simons Island Pier and Village opening in 1924 of the Brunswick–St. Simons Highway, today known as the Torras Causeway, was a milestone in the development of resorts in the area. St. Simons's beaches were now easily accessible to locals and tourists alike. More than 5,000 automobiles took the short drive from Brunswick to St. Simons via the causeway on its opening day, paving the way for convenient residential and resort development. In 1926 automotive pioneer Howard Coffin of Detroit, Michigan, bought large tracts of land on St. Simons, including the former Retreat Plantation, and constructed a golf course, yacht club, paved roads, and a residential subdivision. Although the causeway had brought large numbers of summer people to the island, St. Simons remained a small community with only a few hundred permanent residents until the 1940s. The St. Simons Island outbreak of World War II (1941-45) brought more visitors and residents to St. Simons. Troops stationed at Jacksonville, Florida; Savannah; and nearby Camp Stewart took weekend vacations on the island, and a new naval air base and radar school became home to even more officers and soldiers. The increased wartime population brought the island its first public school. With a major shipyard for the production of Liberty ships in nearby Brunswick, the waters of St. Simons became active with German U-boats. In April 1942, just off the coast, the Texas Company oil tanker S. S. Oklahoma and the S. S. Esso Baton Rouge were torpedoed by the Germans, bringing the war very close to home for island residents. Due in large part to the military's improvement of the island's infrastructure during the war, development on the island boomed in the 1950s and 1960s. More permanent homes and subdivisions were built, and the island was no longer just a summer resort but also a thriving community. In 1950 the Methodist conference and retreat center Epworth by the Sea opened on Gascoigne Bluff. In 1961 novelist Eugenia Price visited St. Simons and began work on her first works of fiction, known as the St. Simons Trilogy. Inspired by real events on the island, Price's trilogy renewed interest in the history of Georgia's coast, and the novelist herself relocated to the island in 1965 and lived there for thirty-one years. St. Simons is also home to contemporary Georgia writer Tina McElroy Ansa. Since Epworth by the Sea 1980 St. Simons's population has doubled. The island's continued status as a vacation destination and its ongoing development boom have put historic landmarks and natural areas at risk. While such landmarks as the Fort Frederica ruins and the Battle of Bloody Marsh site are preserved and maintained by the National Park Service, and while the historic lighthouse is maintained by the Coastal Georgia Historical Society, historic Ebos Landing has been taken over by a sewage treatment plant. Several coastal organizations have formed in recent years to save natural areas on the island. The St. Simons Land Trust, for example, has received donations of large tracts of land and plans to protect property in the island's three traditional African American neighborhoods. Despite its rapid growth and development, St. Simons remains one of the most beautiful and important islands on the Georgia coast.

To create a luxurious showering experience and as though you were being bathed by rain from the clouds high above, a large 16 inch rain shower was set up inside the skylight well. Photography by Paul Linnebach

At Hisway Painting, we’ve worked hard over the last three decades to build our reputation as one of the Nashville area’s most trusted painting companies. Check out over 100 five star reviews on our Houzz profile. We work with meticulous detail to make sure the job gets done the right way, the first time. We operate from a wide range of expertise in home renovation, and also work with several color consultants and interior designers that will help you make design decisions that will increase the value of your home. We offer interior and exterior painting, pressure washing and deck staining and painting. Hisway Painting has served the businesses and homes of customers in the greater Nashville area for almost thirty years, and would be honored to serve you. This Franklin, TN home had a beautiful worn-out wooden door that needed to be freshened up with Sikkins wood varnish. We repainted all trim and accent stucco work surrounding each of the windows and dormers.

Photography: Cate Blake Interior Design: Karen Menge- Pulliam Morris Interiors
Open concept kitchen - large traditional galley brown floor and dark wood floor open concept kitchen idea in Houston with a farmhouse sink, white cabinets, quartzite countertops, gray backsplash, marble backsplash, stainless steel appliances, an island, white countertops and shaker cabinets

Here's what our clients from this project had to say: We LOVE coming home to our newly remodeled and beautiful 41 West designed and built home! It was such a pleasure working with BJ Barone and especially Paul Widhalm and the entire 41 West team. Everyone in the organization is incredibly professional and extremely responsive. Personal service and strong attention to the client and details are hallmarks of the 41 West construction experience. Paul was with us every step of the way as was Ed Jordon (Gary David Designs), a 41 West highly recommended designer. When we were looking to build our dream home, we needed a builder who listened and understood how to bring our ideas and dreams to life. They succeeded this with the utmost honesty, integrity and quality! 41 West has exceeded our expectations every step of the way, and we have been overwhelmingly impressed in all aspects of the project. It has been an absolute pleasure working with such devoted, conscientious, professionals with expertise in their specific fields. Paul sets the tone for excellence and this level of dedication carries through the project. We so appreciated their commitment to perfection...So much so that we also hired them for two more remodeling projects. We love our home and would highly recommend 41 West to anyone considering building or remodeling a home.

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Arts and crafts kitchen photo in New York with an undermount sink, shaker cabinets, medium tone wood cabinets, marble countertops, stone tile backsplash and stainless steel appliances

This early 20th century Poppleton Park home was originally 2548 sq ft. with a small kitchen, nook, powder room and dining room on the first floor. The second floor included a single full bath and 3 bedrooms. The client expressed a need for about 1500 additional square feet added to the basement, first floor and second floor. In order to create a fluid addition that seamlessly attached to this home, we tore down the original one car garage, nook and powder room. The addition was added off the northern portion of the home, which allowed for a side entry garage. Plus, a small addition on the Eastern portion of the home enlarged the kitchen, nook and added an exterior covered porch. Special features of the interior first floor include a beautiful new custom kitchen with island seating, stone countertops, commercial appliances, large nook/gathering with French doors to the covered porch, mud and powder room off of the new four car garage. Most of the 2nd floor was allocated to the master suite. This beautiful new area has views of the park and includes a luxurious master bath with free standing tub and walk-in shower, along with a 2nd floor custom laundry room! Attention to detail on the exterior was essential to keeping the charm and character of the home. The brick façade from the front view was mimicked along the garage elevation. A small copper cap above the garage doors and 6” half-round copper gutters finish the look. KateBenjamin Photography

This "perfect-sized" laundry room is just off the mudroom and can be closed off from the rest of the house. The large window makes the space feel large and open. A custom designed wall of shelving and specialty cabinets accommodates everything necessary for day-to-day laundry needs. This custom home was designed and built by Meadowlark Design+Build in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Photography by Joshua Caldwell.

This modern green home offers both a vacation destination on Cape Cod near local family members and an opportunity for rental income. FAMILY ROOTS. A West Coast couple living in the San Francisco Bay Area sought a permanent East Coast vacation home near family members living on Cape Cod. As academic professionals focused on sustainability, they sought a green, energy efficient home that was well-aligned with their values. With no green homes available for sale on Cape Cod, they decided to purchase land near their family and build their own. SLOPED SITE. Comprised of a 3/4 acre lot nestled in the pines, the steeply sloping terrain called for a plan that embraced and took advantage of the slope. Of equal priority was optimizing solar exposure, preserving privacy from abutters, and creating outdoor living space. The design accomplished these goals with a simple, rectilinear form, offering living space on the both entry and lower/basement levels. The stepped foundation allows for a walk-out basement level with light-filled living space on the down-hill side of the home. The traditional basement on the eastern, up-hill side houses mechanical equipment and a home gym. The house welcomes natural light throughout, captures views of the forest, and delivers entertainment space that connects indoor living space to outdoor deck and dining patio. MODERN VISION. The clean building form and uncomplicated finishes pay homage to the modern architectural legacy on the outer Cape. Durable and economical fiber cement panels, fixed with aluminum channels, clad the primary form. Cedar clapboards provide a visual accent at the south-facing living room, which extends a single roof plane to cover the entry porch. SMART USE OF SPACE. On the entry level, the “L”-shaped living, dining, and kitchen space connects to the exterior living, dining, and grilling spaces to effectively double the home’s summertime entertainment area. Placed at the western end of the entry level (where it can retain privacy but still claim expansive downhill views) is the master suite with a built-in study. The lower level has two guest bedrooms, a second full bathroom, and laundry. The flexibility of the space—crucial in a house with a modest footprint—emerges in one of the guest bedrooms, which doubles as home office by opening the barn-style double doors to connect it to the bright, airy open stair leading up to the entry level. Thoughtful design, generous ceiling heights and large windows transform the modest 1,100 sf* footprint into a well-lit, spacious home. *(total finished space is 1800 sf) RENTAL INCOME. The property works for its owners by netting rental income when the owners are home in San Francisco. The house especially caters to vacationers bound for nearby Mayo Beach and includes an outdoor shower adjacent to the lower level entry door. In contrast to the bare bones cottages that are typically available on the Cape, this home offers prospective tenants a modern aesthetic, paired with luxurious and green features. Durable finishes inside and out will ensure longevity with the heavier use that comes with a rental property. COMFORT YEAR-ROUND. The home is super-insulated and air-tight, with mechanical ventilation to provide continuous fresh air from the outside. High performance triple-paned windows complement the building enclosure and maximize passive solar gain while ensuring a warm, draft-free winter, even when sitting close to the glass. A properly sized air source heat pump offers efficient heating & cooling, and includes a carefully designed the duct distribution system to provide even comfort throughout the house. The super-insulated envelope allows us to significantly reduce the equipment capacity, duct size, and airflow quantities, while maintaining unparalleled thermal comfort. ENERGY EFFICIENT. The building’s shell and mechanical systems play instrumental roles in the home’s exceptional performance. The building enclosure reduces the most significant energy glutton: heating. Continuous super-insulation, thorough air sealing, triple-pane windows, and passive solar gain work together to yield a miniscule heating load. All active energy consumers are extremely efficient: an air source heat pump for heating and cooling, a heat pump hot water heater, LED lighting, energy recovery ventilation (ERV), and high efficiency appliances. The result is a home that uses 70% less energy than a similar new home built to code requirements. OVERALL. The home embodies the owners’ goals and values while comprehensively enabling thermal comfort, energy efficiency, a vacation respite, and supplementary income. PROJECT TEAM ZeroEnergy Design - Architect & Mechanical Designer A.F. Hultin & Co. - Contractor Pamet Valley Landscape Design - Landscape & Masonry Lisa Finch - Original Artwork European Architectural Supply - Windows Eric Roth Photography - Photography

Many people can’t see beyond the current aesthetics when looking to buy a house, but this innovative couple recognized the good bones of their mid-century style home in Golden’s Applewood neighborhood and were determined to make the necessary updates to create the perfect space for their family. In order to turn this older residence into a modern home that would meet the family’s current lifestyle, we replaced all the original windows with new, wood-clad black windows. The design of window is a nod to the home’s mid-century roots with modern efficiency and a polished appearance. We also wanted the interior of the home to feel connected to the awe-inspiring outside, so we opened up the main living area with a vaulted ceiling. To add a contemporary but sleek look to the fireplace, we crafted the mantle out of cold rolled steel. The texture of the cold rolled steel conveys a natural aesthetic and pairs nicely with the walnut mantle we built to cap the steel, uniting the design in the kitchen and the built-in entryway. Everyone at Factor developed rich relationships with this beautiful family while collaborating through the design and build of their freshly renovated, contemporary home. We’re grateful to have the opportunity to work with such amazing people, creating inspired spaces that enhance the quality of their lives.

Here in Florida, we’re blessed with great weather year-round. So it’s no surprise that outdoor entertaining areas are an extremely popular way to enhance outdoor living. When our clients requested an update to their existing outdoor kitchen while they were away on vacation, we were ready to hit the ground running. While their beautiful 2-story home on a golf course had a pool and covered lanai area, the existing outdoor kitchen just didn’t function well for their needs. Mainly, they craved additional counter space and more seating. And, as avid football fans, with a son playing on a renown Division 1 college team, they also wanted a large screen TV to watch games. After all, what better way to share game day excitement than at a barbecue with family and friends? A Bigger, Better Kitchen Layout Our brilliant design team came up with a much larger, u-shaped outdoor kitchen layout for increased functionality. The extra base cabinets provided plenty of storage as well as a foundation for additional countertop space. Adjacent to the sink, we added a 24” outdoor refrigerator to keep food and beverages chilled, and the high top bar allowed for more seating around the perimeter. For cooking, our clients selected a much larger Lynx grill and side burner to replace the original grill. While the kitchen was already set up for a grilling area, it required a hood, so we built and installed a custom hood for proper ventilation. Then, we added a large screen TV above the hood for easy viewing. Finishing Touches To softly illuminate the entire space at night, we installed additional recessed light fixtures into the ceiling and under the grill hood. We also tied the Cypress wood ceiling and the crown molding together into the design with a luxurious cabinet stain. Along with these finishing touches, we added a decorative travertine stone backsplash behind the grill and homogenized the front face of the bar for a polished, matching look. Ventilation Challenges With the outdoor kitchen lanai located directly under a second-floor living area, we had expected to tuck away ventilation ductwork between the second-level floor joists and the exterior wall running parallel to the grill hood. However, upon further investigation, we discovered the second floor joist system, in fact, ran perpendicular to the grill hood. In short, we needed a new way to hide the venting without compromising the original design. Our team came up with an inspired solution: Construction of a false wall behind the outdoor kitchen allowed us to run ductwork without creating a visible chase for the vent, thus maintaining a symmetrical look on both sides of the grill and decorative hood. Exceeding Expectations In the end, we didn’t just meet our clients’ needs for a beautiful outdoor kitchen update – we exceeded them. As planned, we completed the new outdoor kitchen while they were out of town. But when our clients returned from vacation, they were so impressed with the results (and the stress-free design/build experience) that they promptly hired us for another extensive remodel – a stunning home addition!

Mathew and his team at Cummings Architects have a knack for being able to see the perfect vision for a property. They specialize in identifying a building’s missing elements and crafting designs that simultaneously encompass the large scale, master plan and the myriad details that make a home special. For this Winchester home, the vision included a variety of complementary projects that all came together into a single architectural composition. Starting with the exterior, the single-lane driveway was extended and a new carriage garage that was designed to blend with the overall context of the existing home. In addition to covered parking, this building also provides valuable new storage areas accessible via large, double doors that lead into a connected work area. For the interior of the house, new moldings on bay windows, window seats, and two paneled fireplaces with mantles dress up previously nondescript rooms. The family room was extended to the rear of the house and opened up with the addition of generously sized, wall-to-wall windows that served to brighten the space and blur the boundary between interior and exterior. The family room, with its intimate sitting area, cozy fireplace, and charming breakfast table (the best spot to enjoy a sunlit start to the day) has become one of the family’s favorite rooms, offering comfort and light throughout the day. In the kitchen, the layout was simplified and changes were made to allow more light into the rear of the home via a connected deck with elongated steps that lead to the yard and a blue-stone patio that’s perfect for entertaining smaller, more intimate groups. From driveway to family room and back out into the yard, each detail in this beautiful design complements all the other concepts and details so that the entire plan comes together into a unified vision for a spectacular home. Photos By: Eric Roth