Outdoor furniture from Restoration Hardware really made this Houston outdoor living space design project shine. “It really went well,” says Wayne Franks, owner of Outdoor Homescapes of Houston. “It's not a huge space, but moving the existing two columns about four feet and bringing the roof out only three feet made all the difference in the world.” “This particular client wanted a larger space to entertain,” says senior designer Lisha Maxey, who served as an outdoor furniture consultant while managing construction for the project. The original space, Lisha explains, had two oddly placed columns blocking a clear view of the beautiful pool area from inside the home. “We removed those columns and gave her three more feet of roof, which extended her living area while also giving her the view she wanted.” Since the client - a woman in her mid-50s with grown children who visit frequently - only wanted a small outdoor kitchen island with a 30-inch RCS grill Outdoor Homescapes closed up a French door that led from the master bedroom (which she never used) and created a new stucco wall for the kitchen. “I would definitely call the style of this space ‘transitional,” says Lisha. The client is a very eclectic world traveler and a collector of art, yet wanted her outdoor living space to feel like a warm, homey living room once we placed the furniture and décor. In the end, her finishes centered around rustic stone, detailed columns and furniture leaning towards the contemporary.” Much of the warmth in the space, she says, comes from the colors of the dry-stacked Sunset Canyon ledgestone. “It looks just like it sounds – like the sun setting in a deep canyon!” “The columns are unique – decorative and fluted,” adds Wayne. The client, who’d received five free hours of outdoor furniture consultation as part of an ongoing promotion, also wanted Lisha to help her select, buy and help place furnishings. “I believe that now - more than ever - consumers are looking for turn-key operations in any type of service industry - a ‘one-stop-shop,’ so to speak,” says Lisha. “It gives us a more personal touch with the client, as well as an edge in the industry in terms of selling our designs, as the client is reassured that we’ll work with them in every aspect to give them the outdoor living space of their dreams.” The client ended up choosing the Biscayne collection – including a chair that rocks and swivels - from Restoration Hardware. They also went with a lower, unique teak coffee table from the Belvedere collection. “We mixed wicker with teak for an equally soft and hard look and added pops of color to bring out the beautiful art collection inside,” says Lisha. “The neutral gray wicker, by the way, was the perfect match for the distressed teak coffee table and credenza. The grays of the Key West granite countertop also echoed this color palette.” For the fabric, Lisha helped keep it neutral with a Mocha linen and popped the color with royal blue throw pillows matching the area rug: “To make the space truly her own, we added some unique copper pots from her collection and a few items she's collected abroad.”

Kyle J. Caldwell Photography
Inspiration for a timeless gray wood exterior home remodel in Boston

Outdoor furniture from Restoration Hardware really made this Houston outdoor living space design project shine. “It really went well,” says Wayne Franks, owner of Outdoor Homescapes of Houston. “It's not a huge space, but moving the existing two columns about four feet and bringing the roof out only three feet made all the difference in the world.” “This particular client wanted a larger space to entertain,” says senior designer Lisha Maxey, who served as an outdoor furniture consultant while managing construction for the project. The original space, Lisha explains, had two oddly placed columns blocking a clear view of the beautiful pool area from inside the home. “We removed those columns and gave her three more feet of roof, which extended her living area while also giving her the view she wanted.” Since the client - a woman in her mid-50s with grown children who visit frequently - only wanted a small outdoor kitchen island with a 30-inch RCS grill Outdoor Homescapes closed up a French door that led from the master bedroom (which she never used) and created a new stucco wall for the kitchen. “I would definitely call the style of this space ‘transitional,” says Lisha. The client is a very eclectic world traveler and a collector of art, yet wanted her outdoor living space to feel like a warm, homey living room once we placed the furniture and décor. In the end, her finishes centered around rustic stone, detailed columns and furniture leaning towards the contemporary.” Much of the warmth in the space, she says, comes from the colors of the dry-stacked Sunset Canyon ledgestone. “It looks just like it sounds – like the sun setting in a deep canyon!” “The columns are unique – decorative and fluted,” adds Wayne. The client, who’d received five free hours of outdoor furniture consultation as part of an ongoing promotion, also wanted Lisha to help her select, buy and help place furnishings. “I believe that now - more than ever - consumers are looking for turn-key operations in any type of service industry - a ‘one-stop-shop,’ so to speak,” says Lisha. “It gives us a more personal touch with the client, as well as an edge in the industry in terms of selling our designs, as the client is reassured that we’ll work with them in every aspect to give them the outdoor living space of their dreams.” The client ended up choosing the Biscayne collection – including a chair that rocks and swivels - from Restoration Hardware. They also went with a lower, unique teak coffee table from the Belvedere collection. “We mixed wicker with teak for an equally soft and hard look and added pops of color to bring out the beautiful art collection inside,” says Lisha. “The neutral gray wicker, by the way, was the perfect match for the distressed teak coffee table and credenza. The grays of the Key West granite countertop also echoed this color palette.” For the fabric, Lisha helped keep it neutral with a Mocha linen and popped the color with royal blue throw pillows matching the area rug: “To make the space truly her own, we added some unique copper pots from her collection and a few items she's collected abroad.”

Example of a transitional home bar design in New York

Example of a large ornate multicolored three-story wood gable roof design in San Francisco

Inspiration for a transitional exterior home remodel in New York

Kyle J. Caldwell Photography
This is an example of a traditional porch design in Boston.

Outdoor furniture from Restoration Hardware really made this Houston outdoor living space design project shine. “It really went well,” says Wayne Franks, owner of Outdoor Homescapes of Houston. “It's not a huge space, but moving the existing two columns about four feet and bringing the roof out only three feet made all the difference in the world.” “This particular client wanted a larger space to entertain,” says senior designer Lisha Maxey, who served as an outdoor furniture consultant while managing construction for the project. The original space, Lisha explains, had two oddly placed columns blocking a clear view of the beautiful pool area from inside the home. “We removed those columns and gave her three more feet of roof, which extended her living area while also giving her the view she wanted.” Since the client - a woman in her mid-50s with grown children who visit frequently - only wanted a small outdoor kitchen island with a 30-inch RCS grill Outdoor Homescapes closed up a French door that led from the master bedroom (which she never used) and created a new stucco wall for the kitchen. “I would definitely call the style of this space ‘transitional,” says Lisha. The client is a very eclectic world traveler and a collector of art, yet wanted her outdoor living space to feel like a warm, homey living room once we placed the furniture and décor. In the end, her finishes centered around rustic stone, detailed columns and furniture leaning towards the contemporary.” Much of the warmth in the space, she says, comes from the colors of the dry-stacked Sunset Canyon ledgestone. “It looks just like it sounds – like the sun setting in a deep canyon!” “The columns are unique – decorative and fluted,” adds Wayne. The client, who’d received five free hours of outdoor furniture consultation as part of an ongoing promotion, also wanted Lisha to help her select, buy and help place furnishings. “I believe that now - more than ever - consumers are looking for turn-key operations in any type of service industry - a ‘one-stop-shop,’ so to speak,” says Lisha. “It gives us a more personal touch with the client, as well as an edge in the industry in terms of selling our designs, as the client is reassured that we’ll work with them in every aspect to give them the outdoor living space of their dreams.” The client ended up choosing the Biscayne collection – including a chair that rocks and swivels - from Restoration Hardware. They also went with a lower, unique teak coffee table from the Belvedere collection. “We mixed wicker with teak for an equally soft and hard look and added pops of color to bring out the beautiful art collection inside,” says Lisha. “The neutral gray wicker, by the way, was the perfect match for the distressed teak coffee table and credenza. The grays of the Key West granite countertop also echoed this color palette.” For the fabric, Lisha helped keep it neutral with a Mocha linen and popped the color with royal blue throw pillows matching the area rug: “To make the space truly her own, we added some unique copper pots from her collection and a few items she's collected abroad.”

Example of a transitional kitchen design in New York

Kyle j. Caldwell Photography
Large traditional gray two-story wood exterior home idea in Boston

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.

Kyle j. Caldwell Photography
Inspiration for a large timeless gray two-story wood gable roof remodel in Boston

Unlike many similar houses of the era, this 1870s Shingle Style house was built without a cap on the turret. Because neighboring houses of a similar style did have a cap, its owners asked if we could construct something period-appropriate. In addition, asphalt shingles were replaced with faux slate, which is indistinguishable from natural slate but far more long-lasting. Historically correct wood-turned spandrels were introduced to a railing and the exterior was painted in period-appropriate colors. The turret's original curved bay windows, which no longer operated properly, were restored and made functional again. Photo by Shelly Harrison.

Transitional kitchen photo in New York

Shelly Harrison
Living room - traditional open concept dark wood floor living room idea in Boston with white walls, a standard fireplace, a tile fireplace and no tv

Closet - transitional closet idea in New York

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.

MCM Construction Inc. did a total remodel to the back and front yard of this lakefront property. We designed and built a new boathouse, dock and patio hardscapes with landscaping, where there was originally only a small yard with no boat slip or dock. Some of the challenges to construct this project were, excavating hundreds of yards of material including bedrock and large boulders that were blasted for removal. A new seawall was needed so a coffer dam was erected in order to pour the 100’ new concrete seawall and boathouse foundation. The dock was built with epoxy coated driven pin pile and Ipe decking. Stainless steel recessed cleats, mooring whips, bumpers and recessed LED lights in the decking were added to this beautiful and very functional dock. The stone walled boathouse was designed and built to match the home even down to the hand carved corbels and the octagon shaped window above the garage door. Inside the boathouse, lots of light is provided to operate the Hewitt boatlift with custom made divided light bypass wood doors, recessed lighting and recessed LED lights in the decking to highlight the owners beautifully restored mahogany Chris Craft ski boat. Underground storage below the upper patio is accessible through the inside of the boathouse and also through matching custom aluminum French doors under the patio above. At the upper patio, behind the boathouse, is a custom attic door built on site to access a full length storage attic above the boat. Small details like an outdoor shower head and hose bib finish off this wonderful boathouse. The backyard hardscapes are constructed with matching stone on the retaining walls and high grade Bluestone for the patios with ellipses being the base design element seen throughout. All new curved iron railings beautifully frame the upper patio. The grand staircase flows to the lower level with a small curved lawn and lounging area by the water front. The plantings were carefully selected with the owner to help soften up the stone terraced walls. The side of the home has more Bluestone but to add variety the selection was made to have these done with a tumbled bluestone sand set instead of the mortar set angular stone used in the back. This gives the curved pathway a very soft elegant feel. New cedar fencing, custom gates and plantings invites guests to the back yard. The front yard continues with the ellipse pattern in the lawn and path. New Bluestone was added to the front porch as well as modifying it from a rectangle to a radius design. The existing arbor was taken down and restored due to dry rot and other issues. A new sand finish driveway caps off the amazing front yard.

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