As a professional carpenter doing renovations in the Providence RI area I occasionally look for investment projects to either rent or turn over after renovating. When we approached this abused cottage on the market we instantly felt a relaxing vibe near the salt ponds of narragansett RI and felt it would be a great escape from the city only 40 minutes up the road. It was a small cottage with virtually no redeaming qualities other than its lot and secluded neighborhood, yet we realized its basic structure would allows us to transform it into an open and inviting multi seasonal getaway. Its small size of approx 850 square feet would remain the same as we wanted an intimate and managable vacation house. It started as a pho log cabin with dark interior ship lap walls, low ceilings, small and awkward bedrooms and little access to the exterior lot. We had a small budget of approx $50 thousand for materials to try and remedie the interior and exterior so i would become not only the carpenter, but designer, electrician, plumber and all other trades inbetween. The intent was to be small on space but high on detail and custom finishes
With the aid of my wife and a small band of family we began by tearing all interior walls away and the ceiling was cathedraled and the front breezway was removed and replaced with a similar sized additon. Large windows and a sliding glass door leading to the new wrap around deck would add an abundance of space connected to both the kitchen and dining area.
The interior ship lap was removed and re-purposed hung horizontally to create longer lines and a grander scale on the interior. Three uslessly small bedrooms were made into 2 rooms with a sleeping loft above. It was essential to have a completely usable, effective kitchen. Custom cabinetry made in my shop was incorperated with large storage centers and counters that extend out into the dinning area thus allowing for a completely open floor plan for entertaining and relaxing.
It was important at all phases to keep the budget at bay while being as mindfull of operating costs as possible so a tankless on-demand water heater and an efficient propane wall furnace with hydronic electric baseboard were choosen to satisfies the heating requirements. However with sprayed foam insulation on the ceilings and coastal rated windows the efficient yet small wood stove heats most of the house during even the coldest months while adding ambiance.
