Metamorphosis!
Remember the the 4 stages of butterfly development? Egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Andy and Beth’s home started out as a tiny beach cottage, developed into a larger home, then hurricane Ivan triggered a total transformation. Just as the butterfly emerges from its chrysalis, the Sloan’s new home emerged from it’s old shell cottage as the beautiful beach home it is today. (spoken in the voice of Marlin Perkins of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom TV show)
BTW, If you’re ever traveling near Atlanta the butterfly conservatory at Callaway Gardens is worth a visit. Great birds of prey show, too.
Scroll through the story and see how this little beach cottage transformed into the beautiful home it is today.
“Les did a fantastic job creating our beautiful home out of the disaster we had with hurricane Ivan. Thanks for helping us get our life back.”
~ Andy & Beth Sloan
Hurricane Ivan washed out the block and brick columns of the original cottage in 2004. You can see how the entire original structure is hanging off of its connections to the addition I built in 2001. Wow!
Lt. Sloan bought this beach cottage 1976 for $42, 000 while he was in flight training at NAS Pensacola. It was 1050 sf and built in 1969. You can see the east end beach ball water tower in the upper left corner with its original plain white paint job.
The larva: The original cottage on the right side was remodeled in 1977 then I built the 3 story addition onto the left side with a 4 story observation tower in 2001.
We cut away the straps that were connecting the hurricane damaged old section to the first addition then demolished the old structure.
Joe, the demo contractor, wanted to keep the refrigerator in the upper left corner which was full of shrimp from before the storm. I didn't have the nerve to open the door. When he got it home he admitted it was a bad idea.
The first addition was inhabitable while we built the second addition.
Andy salvaged the kitchen sink from the destroyed kitchen and rigged it up on the back porch so they could live in the addition. The rest of their “kitchen” consisted of a hot plate, microwave, small refrigerator, and a salvaged piece of counter top set up in a corner of the living room. Beth said her custom sink worked a lot better than washing dishes in the bathroom sink. A real luxury at the time!
I rebuilt the original section but it was made 3 story this time. It was a tricky task to line up the finished floors and decks precisely on both ends and both levels. The first addition had to be aligned to the original cottage which wasn't perfect to begin with so now we had to align the second addition to the first addition thus preserving the original imperfections. You can't tell it though.
Ivan damage repairs completed in 2007.
Note the tongue and groove wood ceiling.
Living room in the first addition