Home built around heritage

Editor's Note: The Post and Courier asked architects, home builders and others with shelter expertise for examples of good house design. The newspaper received 50 responses and from among those, an expert panel selected the houses most worthy of being featured in a monthly series. This house is the second in that series.

A cottage designed to look as though it evolved to accommodate a family's changing needs shines in Beresford Hall, a Berkeley County community. The residence, featuring a core living area and independent structures linked to it by a porch or vestibule, reflects a traditional building method.

That floor plan is key to maintaining a cozy cottage feel in the residence which is large enough to accommodate the activities of a large family. The plan also allows empty-nesters to close off parts of the house when children leave home and reopen them when they visit.

The two-story cottage is on a one-acre lot, 140 feet from the road, behind a 50-foot curtain of natural vegetation.

While it is larger than many of the houses chosen in The Post and Courier's architecture and design contest, it maintains a Lowcountry feel while giving owners plenty of flexibility in new construction.

All of the cottage's independent structures are one-room deep with windows placed to allow lots of cross ventilation and natural light. Those environmentally friendly features reduce the owner's energy consumption for heating and air conditioning.

The basic design of the home, which can be configured to accommodate a variety of lots, won the 2002 Coastal Living Magazine House of the Year, says Eric Moser of Moser Design Group, Beaufort. The house, he says, can grow in all four directions.

"This particular house is an example of the traditional Lowcountry heritage of architecture, not only in appearance but in operation," says Moser, who designed the structure. "By distributing the architecture, the size of the building is not overwhelming."

One particularly stunning feature is the screen porch with fireplace that leads to the guest cottage, which has a loft and mini-kitchen, says Warren Ostergard of Coldwell Banker United, who is selling the cottage for its builder.

Coe Brier of Brier Inc., who built the 3,464-square-foot, five-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath home, added a two-car garage with a covered patio for entertaining and living space suitable for playroom above.

It also has floors constructed of antique maple that was reclaimed from the Buffalo Cotton Mill in Union, Brier says. The small metal chasers that would fly off as the mill pulled the cotton away from the gin were left embedded in the wood. As floors were being refinished, a penny was found embedded in the wood and left in place.

One fireplace mantel is constructed of antique mahogany found in an Indonesian swamp, says Brier who obtained many reclaimed features for the cottage through Chris Bates, owner of Charleston Bay Co. The other is of oak, hand-hewn about 300 years ago.

There also are oak beams from an old candy factory in Ohio. In addition, oak from one of the earliest train stations in Tennessee is used to construct the countertop for the kitchen island and interior staircase.

"It's a really cool plan. While it's a speculative house, it's got all of the upscale appliances you would expect to find in a custom-built home.

"It's kind of a rustic house that's brand-new."

Reach Wevonneda Minis at 937-5705 or wminis@postandcourier.com.