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Multiple renovations! Newly finished basement is a perfect kids space/entertainment area that includes a home gym, bathroom, luxury vinyl flooring, dry bar, and storage spaces throughout. 2-Story addition expands first floor to create a bright and open living-dining area. Custom bar for display and storage, beautiful trim work, double entry staircase, new home office. Updated fireplace with stone surround and new mantle. First floor includes updated bathroom and mudroom/laundry with custom built-in storage. Second floor, children's bedrooms were expanded to include custom closet addition. Exterior updates include new siding, trim, doors, windows, and roofing. Interior 2-car garage finished with charging stations, durable epoxy flooring, custom storage and bench.

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.

2015 Home Tour Participant
Looking to add more living space for this growing family, Homeowners of this 1923 St Paul home made the decision to finish their basement. A full new floor plan was designed to include a long list of must haves. The new space included: a new bedroom, family room for the kids to play, an additional room for guests and/or study, new 3/4 bath, easy access for bicycle storage in laundry, low pile carpet that is comfortable for the kids to play, and warmth for the MN winters! A great floor plan was designed that integrated the family room and guest bed/study that also creates wonderful sight lines and a great flow. The basement was updated with all new windows including two egress windows. Beautiful rainglass pocket doors were installed to the bath and laundry to continue the flow of natural light from room to room. Custom natural oak millwork and beautiful door knobs by Rejuvenation Hardware were installed throughout. To match the charm of the home, subway tile and hex tile floors were installed in the new bath and shower. The bath was finished with a stock vanity, mirror, lighting, and Kohler plumbing fixtures. Modern features were also integrated throughout including Hudson Reed wall mount radiators and a NEST thermostat. One of our favorite features of this project, is the original support header and column that we decided to keep exposed. The homeowners took it upon themselves to sand the aged wood down to its natural color and it truly creates a unique piece of art. Castle and the Homeowners couldn’t be happier with the finished product.
Photographer: Lisa Brunnel
Find the right local pro for your project

This Pondless Waterfall project in York, PA includes a 65′ long waterfall and stream and a 35′ side stream and waterfall that will intersect the main stream. This pondless waterfall includes LED lighting throughout the feature and a land bridge about 6′ wide for the lawn mower to cross the water feature. The pondless waterfall will include driftwood and native rock to resemble PA native streams. The feature will vary in width for a natural look as well.
This Project also includes a small flagstone patio area above the retaining wall near the water feature with natural stone steps that lead to a larger natural flagstone patio. The upper patio is complete with a pergola as well as a natural stone gas fed fire pit, as well as landscaping around the water feature and landscape lighting for night time viewing.

This Pondless Waterfall project in York, PA includes a 65′ long waterfall and stream and a 35′ side stream and waterfall that will intersect the main stream. This pondless waterfall includes LED lighting throughout the feature and a land bridge about 6′ wide for the lawn mower to cross the water feature. The pondless waterfall will include driftwood and native rock to resemble PA native streams. The feature will vary in width for a natural look as well.
This Project also includes a small flagstone patio area above the retaining wall near the water feature with natural stone steps that lead to a larger natural flagstone patio. The upper patio is complete with a pergola as well as a natural stone gas fed fire pit, as well as landscaping around the water feature and landscape lighting for night time viewing.

679 Meadowlark Lane in Josephine, is the Dallas Builders Association home of the week, built by Robbie Hale Homes.
Robbie Hale has been building versatile custom designs for more than 40 years in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and nearly 25 years in Rockwall, Royse City and the Josephine areas. Josephine schools, and the proximity to Lake Ray Hubbard, Lake Lavon and Dallas make it one of the fastest-growing areas in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex.
This 2,000 sq-ft, air conditioned home features a stone-and-brick exterior, four bedrooms, two baths, a three-car garage, a huge covered patio all situated on a half acre lot. The kitchen includes custom cabinets, a kitchen island, granite countertops, a farmhouse kitchen sink, stainless steel appliances and wood looking tile flooring.
The primary bath includes a jetted tub, a separate shower, a walk-in closet, a vanity with dual sinks, and ceramic tile flooring.
The exterior includes full sod for the front yard with a perimeter around the sides and the back of the home, full sprinkler system for the front yard with a perimeter around the sides and the back of the home.
Amenities include a 16-SEER high efficiency air conditioner with heat pump, R-15 wall insulation, R-38 ceiling insulation, radiant barrier roof decking, and insulated LOW-E dual paned windows.
The residence located at 679 Meadowlark Lane is priced at $439,900 and will be held open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday May 14th.
To visit the home, take I-30 east from Dallas/Mesquite and exit 73 towards Fate FM 551. Turn left at the stop light onto Crawford Ave. Continue on Crawford Avenue until you come to FM 1138. Turn left onto FM 1138 and follow this until you come to Highway 6. Take a right onto Highway 6 and continue until you come to County Road 640 on your left. Turn left onto County Road 640 and continue until you come to High Meadow Lane on your left. Take a left onto High Meadow Lane and then another left onto Meadowview Lane. Meadowview Lane will turn into Meadowbrook Lane to your right. Turn right onto Meadowbrook Lane and the home will be on your right side at the corner of Meadowbrook Lane and Meadowlark Lane, 679 Meadowlark Lane.
For additional information, contact Chase Gryziecki at 214-632-9347, email chase@robbiehalehomes.com or visit the website at www.robbiehalehomes.com.
This Home of the Week is presented by the Dallas Builders Association. For information on the Association please visit www.dallasbuilders.com.

This Pondless Waterfall project in York, PA includes a 65′ long waterfall and stream and a 35′ side stream and waterfall that will intersect the main stream. This pondless waterfall includes LED lighting throughout the feature and a land bridge about 6′ wide for the lawn mower to cross the water feature. The pondless waterfall will include driftwood and native rock to resemble PA native streams. The feature will vary in width for a natural look as well.
This Project also includes a small flagstone patio area above the retaining wall near the water feature with natural stone steps that lead to a larger natural flagstone patio. The upper patio is complete with a pergola as well as a natural stone gas fed fire pit, as well as landscaping around the water feature and landscape lighting for night time viewing.

Sponsored
Delaware, OH
Buckeye Basements, Inc.
Central Ohio's Basement Finishing ExpertsBest Of Houzz '13-'21

We get it. Everyone deserves to enjoy the benefits of good design in their home—and now everyone can. Meet Mitzi. Inspired by the founder of Hudson Valley Lighting’s grandmother, a painter and master antique-finder, Mitzi mixes classic with contemporary, sacrificing no quality along the way. Designed with thoughtful simplicity, each fixture embodies form and function in perfect harmony. Less clutter and more creativity, Mitzi is attainable high design.
Limited by the size of your room or finding yourself longing for a statement piece? No worries, Mitzi chandeliers are a lighter and breezier option that allow you to hang beautiful fixtures without overwhelming the space. You don’t need to sway from the idea of a chandelier—treat yourself!
Features:
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Specifications:
Included shade measures as 7.5""Diameter x 7"" High
Included canopy measures as 5.5"" Diameter
3in, 6in, 12in (2) 18in of stem included
Voltage - 120
Requires 6 x 60-watt A19 shape E26 Medium base Incandescent bulbs (Not Included)

This Pondless Waterfall project in York, PA includes a 65′ long waterfall and stream and a 35′ side stream and waterfall that will intersect the main stream. This pondless waterfall includes LED lighting throughout the feature and a land bridge about 6′ wide for the lawn mower to cross the water feature. The pondless waterfall will include driftwood and native rock to resemble PA native streams. The feature will vary in width for a natural look as well.
This Project also includes a small flagstone patio area above the retaining wall near the water feature with natural stone steps that lead to a larger natural flagstone patio. The upper patio is complete with a pergola as well as a natural stone gas fed fire pit, as well as landscaping around the water feature and landscape lighting for night time viewing.

This 1938 South Minneapolis Tudor was ready for a Kitchen remodel that not only improved the aesthetics, but also the function. Luckily, the home was asking for a larger kitchen. By removing what was originally a breakfast room or informal dining, we were able to expand the kitchen for new potential. A new archway was designed to open the new kitchen to the formal dining and living room. We had a small list of “must haves” including a large pantry wall, double oven, and custom bench seating. All new custom cabinetry was designed with practical storage including a lazy susan corner, trash/recycle pull-out, sink tip-out, full extension drawers, shelf pull-outs, silverware organizers, tray tip-up, pocket door appliance garage, a space in the pantry for their vacuum, and a messaging corner. To complement the homes dark woodwork and stone front facade, new porcelain slate tile floors, rich cherry stained cabinets, and natural slate tile backsplash were paired with a neutral Cambria quartz countertop. Fun details were included across the room including a new Kohler cast iron sink, Delta Touch-less faucet, pewter knobs and pulls, bronze lighting, and a rich wall color by Benjamin Moore. The homeowner’s couldn’t be happier and are enjoying the new kitchen with family and friends.

This piling home includes 2 x 6 load bearing walls with 16” deep floor trusses and LVL beams to provide additional structural resistance to hurricane conditions. All interior doors that access bedrooms and walk-in closets are 36” wide in order to accommodate ADA requirements. The master shower includes backing for the addition of owner installed grab bars. The storage area has been pre-wired for a 30 AMP circuit for an owner installed elevator. LED can lights and large windows provide an well lighted living space. The large front porch provides open outdoor space for relaxing. The home includes a 2-10 Home Builder’s Warranty. Full ground level bathroom not included in square footage. Enjoy water views from back covered porch. Large bedrooms, energy efficient and stunning finishes!
Residence was designed and engineered by Eric Dickinson, P.E. Enfincia Engineering, PC and co designed with Annette McCleery Building Design. Photos and description provided by realtor, Brooke Rudd-Gaglie, Broker/REALTOR

Designer: Emily Blonigen
Home Style: Tudor
Design Style: Traditional
Project Completion Date: November 2016
This 1938 South Minneapolis Tudor was ready for a Kitchen remodel that not only improved the aesthetics, but also the function. Luckily, the home was asking for a larger kitchen. By removing what was originally a breakfast room or informal dining, we were able to expand the kitchen for new potential. A new archway was designed to open the new kitchen to the formal dining and living room. We had a small list of “must haves” including a large pantry wall, double oven, and custom bench seating. All new custom cabinetry was designed with practical storage including a lazy susan corner, trash/recycle pull-out, sink tip-out, full extension drawers, shelf pull-outs, silverware organizers, tray tip-up, pocket door appliance garage, a space in the pantry for their vacuum, and a messaging corner. To complement the homes dark woodwork and stone front facade, new porcelain slate tile floors, rich cherry stained cabinets, and natural slate tile backsplash were paired with a neutral Cambria quartz countertop. Fun details were included across the room including a new Kohler cast iron sink, Delta Touch-less faucet, pewter knobs and pulls, bronze lighting, and a rich wall color by Benjamin Moore. The homeowner’s couldn’t be happier and are enjoying the new kitchen with family and friends.

This Project consisted of a deck and patio design and renovation. The deck portion of the project included: removal of existing decking, railing and skirting boards. We then installed Timbertech decking boards, Timbertech skirting boards, vinyl sleeves over the existing deck posts and installed Timbertech railing. The steps to accommodate the entrance into the hot tub were custom made. Timbertech was also used for decking to all stairs, risers and treads. Vinyl decorative lattice work was installed around the underside of the deck. This project also included excavation and installation of a stone pad for the hot tub pad. New landscape plantings were installed around the newly reconstructed deck.
As for the patio portion of the project. An existing paver patio was removed to start. Prep work was then done to the base to accommodate the new flagstone patio area. A new flagstone patio was laid with additional patio area to include access to the hot tub.
Last but not least we installed some landscape lighting. The lighting included LED under cap lighting on the steps and landing areas for night time viewing and safety.

Our landscaping services include a range of professional activities and tasks related to the design, installation, maintenance and improvement of outdoor spaces. The main objective of our gardening services is to create and maintain aesthetically pleasing and functional outdoor environments. Some of our common landscaping services include:
1. Landscape design: This involves planning and creating a design for outdoor spaces, taking into account elements such as plants, trees, landscape elements (e.g. patios, paths) and other design elements to achieve a visually attractive and functional landscape .
2. Lawn Care: Lawn care services focus on maintaining healthy, attractive lawns. This includes activities, fertilizing, weed control, aerating and overseeding.
3. Garden Planting and Installation: Our landscaping professionals plant and install various types of plants, shrubs, trees and flowers to enhance the beauty and diversity of the landscape.
4. Landscaping: Our landscaping services involve the construction and installation of non-living elements in the landscape, such as retaining walls, pavers, decks, pergolas, and outdoor living spaces.
5. Irrigation systems: Installation and maintenance of irrigation systems to ensure adequate and efficient irrigation of plants and grass.
6. Tree Care: Tree care services include pruning, removal, and general maintenance of tree health.
7. Mulch: Applying mulch to garden beds helps retain moisture, control weeds, and improve soil health.
8. Seasonal Cleaning: Clear leaves, debris and other obstacles from the landscape during different seasons.
9. Landscape Lighting: Installation of exterior lighting to improve the appearance and safety of the landscape during the evening and night.
Our landscaping services can be tailored to the specific needs and preferences of homeowners, whether for residential, commercial or public spaces. Our services not only improve the overall aesthetics of the property but also contribute to the environmental sustainability and value of the property.

Multiple renovations! Newly finished basement is a perfect kids space/entertainment area that includes a home gym, bathroom, luxury vinyl flooring, dry bar, and storage spaces throughout. 2-Story addition expands first floor to create a bright and open living-dining area. Custom bar for display and storage, beautiful trim work, double entry staircase, new home office. Updated fireplace with stone surround and new mantle. First floor includes updated bathroom and mudroom/laundry with custom built-in storage. Second floor, children's bedrooms were expanded to include custom closet addition. Exterior updates include new siding, trim, doors, windows, and roofing. Interior 2-car garage finished with charging stations, durable epoxy flooring, custom storage and bench.

2015 Home Tour Participant
Looking to add more living space for this growing family, Homeowners of this 1923 St Paul home made the decision to finish their basement. A full new floor plan was designed to include a long list of must haves. The new space included: a new bedroom, family room for the kids to play, an additional room for guests and/or study, new 3/4 bath, easy access for bicycle storage in laundry, low pile carpet that is comfortable for the kids to play, and warmth for the MN winters! A great floor plan was designed that integrated the family room and guest bed/study that also creates wonderful sight lines and a great flow. The basement was updated with all new windows including two egress windows. Beautiful rainglass pocket doors were installed to the bath and laundry to continue the flow of natural light from room to room. Custom natural oak millwork and beautiful door knobs by Rejuvenation Hardware were installed throughout. To match the charm of the home, subway tile and hex tile floors were installed in the new bath and shower. The bath was finished with a stock vanity, mirror, lighting, and Kohler plumbing fixtures. Modern features were also integrated throughout including Hudson Reed wall mount radiators and a NEST thermostat. One of our favorite features of this project, is the original support header and column that we decided to keep exposed. The homeowners took it upon themselves to sand the aged wood down to its natural color and it truly creates a unique piece of art. Castle and the Homeowners couldn’t be happier with the finished product.
Photographer: Lisa Brunnel

This Pondless Waterfall project in York, PA includes a 65′ long waterfall and stream and a 35′ side stream and waterfall that will intersect the main stream. This pondless waterfall includes LED lighting throughout the feature and a land bridge about 6′ wide for the lawn mower to cross the water feature. The pondless waterfall will include driftwood and native rock to resemble PA native streams. The feature will vary in width for a natural look as well.
This Project also includes a small flagstone patio area above the retaining wall near the water feature with natural stone steps that lead to a larger natural flagstone patio. The upper patio is complete with a pergola as well as a natural stone gas fed fire pit, as well as landscaping around the water feature and landscape lighting for night time viewing.

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.

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Our landscaping services include a range of professional activities and tasks related to the design, installation, maintenance and improvement of outdoor spaces. The main objective of our gardening services is to create and maintain aesthetically pleasing and functional outdoor environments. Some of our common landscaping services include:
1. Landscape design: This involves planning and creating a design for outdoor spaces, taking into account elements such as plants, trees, landscape elements (e.g. patios, paths) and other design elements to achieve a visually attractive and functional landscape .
2. Lawn Care: Lawn care services focus on maintaining healthy, attractive lawns. This includes activities, fertilizing, weed control, aerating and overseeding.
3. Garden Planting and Installation: Our landscaping professionals plant and install various types of plants, shrubs, trees and flowers to enhance the beauty and diversity of the landscape.
4. Landscaping: Our landscaping services involve the construction and installation of non-living elements in the landscape, such as retaining walls, pavers, decks, pergolas, and outdoor living spaces.
5. Irrigation systems: Installation and maintenance of irrigation systems to ensure adequate and efficient irrigation of plants and grass.
6. Tree Care: Tree care services include pruning, removal, and general maintenance of tree health.
7. Mulch: Applying mulch to garden beds helps retain moisture, control weeds, and improve soil health.
8. Seasonal Cleaning: Clear leaves, debris and other obstacles from the landscape during different seasons.
9. Landscape Lighting: Installation of exterior lighting to improve the appearance and safety of the landscape during the evening and night.
Our landscaping services can be tailored to the specific needs and preferences of homeowners, whether for residential, commercial or public spaces. Our services not only improve the overall aesthetics of the property but also contribute to the environmental sustainability and value of the property.
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