I have lived in my current cottage since 2007 when my husband and I moved here from Northwest Florida, where we had lived in a 55+ year old cottage on a bayou, a small older cottage with all the quirks, age and mature trees that made it charming and quaint. At our stage of life, we decided that a new cottage, without plumbing and electrical needs, would be ideal. Our new cottage was built in 2005, and has been described as a "Gothic" cottage because of the wrought iron spear shutters, the dark stained wood trim, both inside and out, the unraked mortar, the wooden front door, and the unique hanging lantern style light fixtures, both inside and out. In my opinion new cottages lack charm and history that comes with age. Folks with new cottages have to be patient, to put it mildly, and wait and work to achieve the landscaping (and hardscaping - like stone walkways) that gives an older cottage its sense of place.My front door is a favorite feature, because it has a "speak-easy" door within the larger door to open and greet unknown arrivals. I also had a small removable screen built for the speakeasy door, and use it for ventilation.
I think all cottages should have a meaningful personal name, so I have named my cottage "Lakeview Cottage" because Lake LBJ can be seen from the front porch, driveway and front yard. Lake LBJ is a "constant" level lake, one of the chain of six lakes, known as the Highland Lakes in the Texas Hill Country, west of Austin, Texas.
I love lots of greenery around cottages, to create a sense of privacy but this, being a very new cottage, had very little landscaping. To further complicate my desire for appropriate cottage landscaping, this part of Texas is prone to periods of drought, followed by very wet periods. Purple vitex bushes grow well here and quickly have given me some privacy for the front porch. There are also two of the three oak trees we planted, between the vitex and the house. Unfortunately of the 38 various trees and bushes my husband planted our first summer, only a few remain. There is an arched wooden bridge in the front yard which I walk across to the mailbox. Shortly after we moved in, there was water flowing under the bridge. The water runs to the lake at the end of the street during infrequent downpours.
The backyard has been a work in progress since we arrived.
The gazebo was already there when we arrived, but the Garden Room was added this summer, with surrounding landscaping and hardscaping for privacy in place, but a lot of growing has to be done before privacy can been attained. To help, a lattice privacy screen with metal roof was added behind the swing last month. Sitting in the swing while it is raining is a thrill - hearing the rain fall on the metal roof and feeling cool mist on my skin -a rare treat after our 105 degree weather this summer. My swing brings back memories of sitting in my grandmother's swing under her grape arbor, back in my childhood.
There is much more to share about my own little cottage, but it is time to focus on other cottages, both mine from the past, as well as those older cottages where history and charm abound. Such is hard to achieve in a new "cottage", but doesn't every cottage start out one day as a new cottage?
