The Story of a 1926 Coral Gables Cottage
The city of Coral Gables is a beautiful place to live. Founded as a planned city by George Merrick in the 1920s, his vision was to create a city that, though new, elicited the beauty of Old Europe. Having grown up amidst its canopy of Banyan trees and coral rock entrances, I often dreamed of living in one of the original Old Spanish style homes. This dream came true for me in March of 2006 when we attended an estate sale at a house that looked like this:
Facade of Our 1926 Cottage the day we closed
A view of the Living and Dining Room
A view from the back of the house before renovations
The turquoise stove and ovens were still working!
The 1970s Wood Paneled Kitchen
After a bit of demolition…the kitchen looked like this:
Supervising demolition of the Kitchen
Luckily, eventually it turned out like this:
Our New Kitchen
Breakfast Area in Updated Kitchen
One day, the editor for the Miami Herald’s monthly magazine “Home & Design” came into our store. We hit it off and mentioned how we had been in the process of renovating an Old Spanish cottage nearby. She was intrigued, and the meeting resulted in our feature in the “before & after” edition of the magazine. Here is how it turned out:
