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.

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.

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.