A full remodel and master suite addition on one of Georgia's most storied addresses.
Sea Island is a singular address — a private barrier island with one road in, one road out, and a standard of living that has drawn discerning homeowners for nearly a century. When the owners of Cottage 146 decided to remodel, they weren't making a cosmetic update. They were asking Shropshire Built to take apart a home on one of the most valuable residential streets in coastal Georgia and rebuild it to a higher standard.
The scope was comprehensive: a full whole home remodel, combined with a 700 square foot master suite addition built above the existing garage — new structural framing, a new roofline, and the vaulted bath that became the most striking room in the house.
The rear elevation tells the story of the addition. A two-story structure was framed behind the existing home: ground floor covered porch with square columns and ceiling fans opening through French doors to the interior; upper floor covered balcony with matching columns, cable rail, and gas lanterns; and above it, a cedar shake gable that rises against the live oak canopy and gives the rear elevation its architectural signature. The construction photograph taken from the pool during framing shows three crew members working the upper-floor structure — proof that this addition was built right, with principals on site every day.
Inside, the remodel produced two rooms that define the quality of the project. The primary bath — all 700 square feet of it — is a vaulted, travertine-floored sanctuary. The living room built-ins, fabricated and installed by Shropshire Built's own crew on site, are framed in pecky cypress: a wood species so rare and so distinctly of this region that its presence in a room makes an immediate argument for the builder who put it there.
Three crew members framing the upper floor of the two-story rear addition. Tyvek sheathing on the new gable structure. The existing home's ground floor visible below — the pool in the foreground unchanged. This is what a Sea Island addition under Shropshire Built supervision looks like mid-construction: organized, progressing, and with an owner on site.
White stucco, cable rail balcony, gas lanterns, cedar shake gable, covered porch at grade, pool and spa with aggregate coping. The addition reads as if it was always there — which is the highest compliment you can pay to a well-designed and well-built rear elevation.
The 700 SF addition above the garage was designed around this room. The vaulted ceiling — product of the cedar shake gable visible on the exterior — gives the bath a volume that no renovation can deliver without adding structure above. Travertine tile runs the full floor. The freestanding soaking tub sits beneath a roman shade window, flanked by woven basket wall art. To the right, a frameless glass shower with ceiling-mount rain head and body sprays in full travertine surround.
The vanity runs the full length of the right wall — reeded or fluted cabinet faces in warm linen oak, a continuous stone counter, undermount sinks, polished chrome hardware, and a large wood-framed mirror that reflects the room back on itself and doubles the sense of space. This is a bath designed by someone who understood the room they were creating, and built by a crew that executed it without compromise.
Pecky cypress is one of the rarest building materials native to the coastal Southeast — old-growth timber marked by the distinctive channels left by a fungus that no longer exists. Shropshire Built sourced it, milled it, and built the living room cabinetry and shelving on site at Cottage 146. What you see is not a product. It is a craft.
The center niche is backed in a single panel of pecky cypress — the wormhole channels running the full height, a decorative mirror leaned against it, a white oak beam overhead tying the piece to the room's architecture. The flanking open shelves carry the same pecky cypress back panels and floating shelf faces. The lower cabinetry is white painted — quiet, intentional contrast. Every piece was cut, fitted, and installed by Shropshire Built's own crew, in this room, for this house.
We build and renovate on Sea Island, St. Simons Island, and across the Golden Isles — with the care, the craftsmanship, and the accountability that properties at this level require. Consultations are private and complimentary.