A Coastal Granmother Cottage

A Dream in the Making

We had vacationed at the Outer Banks of North Carolina for many years. We rented various houses, but always stayed in the South Nags Head area. My son and I talked for years about finding a “fixed upper” at the beach and redoing it. Since he is a contractor, it made sense that he could put in the “sweat equity”. It was a dream that always seemed to end up on the back burner.

A number of years ago, I had taken my grandson to the Orthodontist and was waiting for him in the reception area. I picked up a magazine, Coastal Living, and was thumbing through it. I stopped on an article about a retired teacher who had saved up over the years and bought a very small beach cottage. It featured photos of the cozy little coastal home she had created. I was mesmerized. My dream was reignited that very day.

Never give up on a Dream

I picked up my other grandchildren at school, and on the way home, I told them, “don’t ever give up on your dreams, no matter how long it takes to see them come true”. My youngest grandson, Landen, asked, “Nana, what is your dream?”. I told him that I had always wanted a beach cottage. As innocent children always do, he said, “well, why don’t you just buy one?”. I told him it was not that simple. It seemed sort of selfish to think about buying a house at the beach when you already had a nice house to live in. He is a “thinker”, so he studied on that explanation all the way home. When we pulled up to their house, he said, “Nana, I know how you can have your beach house”. I had to smile when he said, “well, if me and my family ever get poor, we could live there”.

Hubby not on Board

I probably should have preempted this whole story by saying that my husband was not a “beach” person. Even though he had been a lifeguard in Ocean City, MD, during summers in college, I think that was more about getting girls and being the “hero” by having to swim out and save people. He loved being on the water and was a sailing enthusiast, but he wanted no part of the beach,the sand and the rest of it. Over the years we were married, he had had three different sailboats. I rarely got to go sailing with him on weekends, because I had retail businesses, and those were our busiest days.

Put some action to the Dream

Shortly after the day at the Orthodontist, I pulled up a list of foreclosures on the Outer Banks. I told my husband I would like to ride down that weekend and just check out the houses on the list. He was less than enthusiastic to put it mildly, but he agreed to go. After looking at all the houses on my list, it was still early in the day. As we looked for a place to have lunch, I saw a realty office marquee that read, “free list of foreclosures”. I stopped to inquire about the list. The agent on duty gave me the list, but warned that you had to have cash and there was a lot of competition with contractors who just wanted to flip them. He told us about a house that his company had listed that needed a lot of work.

After lunch, I convinced my husband to ride down to South Nags Head and look at the house the realtor had told us about. He did not even get out of the car. I went around back and peered in the small kitchen window, and it was evident the house indeed needed a lot of work. My husband was very quiet on the way home, and I figured the subject was closed. When we got home, he said to me, “you know we can’t afford that house”. I had done some research, and had figures on what the houses in that area rented for. I explained to him that if we rented it during the good months, it should cover the mortgage. Again, he said very little, so I just dropped the conversation.

Love conquers all

My husband came in a few days later and handed me a sizable check. Of course, I asked what it was for. He told me it was for a down payment on my beach house. He had cashed in one of his IRA’s. Did I feel guilty, yes, for about 30 seconds. I began to rationalize that we had somehow found the money for three different sailboats (each one larger than the last) and, now it was my turn!

We went down one more time to look at the house. I walked around it seven times, claiming it. Seven is a significant number in the Bible, and I had certainly prayed a lot about it. I’m sure the neighbors thought, “oh no, a “looney tunes” is looking at the house for sale”.

It has taken ten years

There were a lot of extenuating circumstances, and we were not able to make an offer on the beach house for almost four months. I just had to believe if it was meant to be, it would still be there. It was, and after some negotiating, our offer was accepted. It has been a “labor of love”, and has taken ten years to completely remodel, but those years have produced a lot of wonderful memories.

My son and I take a break during the remodel.

We never ended up having to rent the house, and it is now valued at over three times what we paid for it, so it has turned out to be one of the best investments we ever made. It was never my husband’s “thing”, but I think it gave him a lot of pleasure to know that he had made my dream come true.