February 17, 2008

Introduction to Grey Havens Cottage

It is overdue for me to give you an introduction to our cottage, Grey Havens. We built it as our dream home in 1992, and we moved into it in December of that year. It is a rambling southern cape style cottage, built from a Southern Living plan. We were fortunate to find 6 acres of old farmland in the county. It is remote enough for us to see the stars at night, but located just a few miles away from shopping conveniences.

Welcome to Grey Havens
Our cottage is delightfully graced with three porches on the front of the house. Three seasons of the year, we love to sit out on the main porch in old-fashioned, dark green aluminum chairs. Smaller porches are on the kitchen and master bedroom wings. Numerous windows line the back of our home, and we can easily keep track of the birds’ antics from the solarium.

We had a landscape architect draw up the original vision for the property, including the placement of the home. We did all of the landscaping ourselves over the years, and my sweet baboo has worn out two shovels. The cottage sits back almost 400 feet from the road. A windy gravel driveway teases you all the way in before you can see Grey Havens in the summertime, tucked in behind the large pin oak trees.

Buddy Says Hello

Grey Havens has given us much joy over the years. Our home is comfortable and beautiful, with a relaxed style. Our eclectic mix of antique furniture and folk art keepsakes fit right in. Visitors easily feel right at home. It has been fun to see how we have reshaped the land over time and how it has reshaped us. We remember the time that we planted 500 pine seedlings along the eastern perimeter one sunny Christmas day. It was not long after we moved here. For years, I asked those trees, “when are you going to grow?” Now they tower over us, and we wonder how they got so big in the blink of an eye.

It is hard for us to believe now that the property was bare pastureland just 15 years ago. A wonderful elderly couple next door sold us the property. They had inherited it from a relative and needed money to care for their disabled daughter. We were fortunate that they took an immediate shine to us, and thanked us on several occasions for creating some beauty for them to see outside their windows. We were grateful for their kind friendship and heartbroken when they both passed away several years ago.

Now that we are both retired and getting older, we want to travel more and be burdened less. It takes a lot of work to maintain this homestead. We plan to get a nice villa home that is smaller and where all of the yard work is done for us. So we have begun the process of downsizing by selling a few furnishings over the past year, and we put our lovely place up for sale in January 2007. It hasn’t sold yet, so it looks like we will be spending another spring and summer here. It will be a bit sad this year without our faithful dog, Buddy, who passed away last May.

Whenever we have to move, we will miss the original Grey Havens. However, the house sign and the magic will follow us to our next cottage. In the meantime, we are creating new memories to give the old ones company.

5 comments:

  1. Pictures are absolutely beautiful!!! If I could, I'd buy it in a heartbeat!! Good luck on selling it...and I understand about, Buddy...they're family.

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  2. I can feel your attachment to this lovely home and its memories...and yes..you will be leaving a part of yourself behind, just as the elderly couple did...you also will enjoy seeing this lovely piece of property develop and make others happy as well. Best wishes in your travels and new memories to come in a new home!

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  3. What a beautiful home! It must be a hard decision to leave it. I wish you success it selling it. A special person will come along that will love it as much as you, I'm sure :-) Rosie

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  4. Oh gosh, I'm reading this tracking back some and oh my heavens your home is beautiful and sounds perfect! I'm sorry to learn about Buddy too :( I lost my Maggie about a year and a half ago so I understand.

    Selling must be very difficult, dear and I know you both will miss the dream for that time of your life. Does sound like you both have a new vision that will make you happy in this stage. I will keep you in my prayers and hope your dreams come true ((hugs))

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  5. Thank you so much, Debbie! We built this place as our drea home and it has been wonderful to live here. But we know that it is time to move on. It will be sad, and I am getting some pangs lately, thinking that this year was the last year for a garden, beautiful flowers, etc. But everything has a season, and we were so very fortunate to live here as long as we did.

    I am so sorry about your Maggie. We keep looking for Buddy to come around a corner and wag his tale. He was a constant source of devotion.

    I appreciate your prayers in the days ahead. We hope to make it through this stressful time OK!

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