Home and Garden

Whether you are downsizing into retirement or decorating a vacation condo, these moves tend to mean more excitement and definitely less square footage. In order to maximize your available space, so that every area looks spacious and comfortable, there are certain design and decorating rules that you should follow:

Architect William Court knows a thing or two about transforming the ordinary and everyday into the extraordinary. To him, it’s all in the details.

The ordinary — an open floorplan for a home’s lower level — has been a Lowcountry staple for decades. To elevate that floorplan to extraordinary, Court brought striking architectural elements from the outside in, creating design individual living space niches.

To increase the comfort, beauty and enjoyment of a home, many owners turn to renovations. Sprucing up also adds value to a home by keeping it up to date. In this special section, we have before and after photos of real projects handled by businesses found right here in the Lowcountry. 

Coastal Signature Homes aids local family

The Coastal Signature Homes team recently organized a fundraiser in support of a local family welcoming their child born with Spina Bifida. With the help of the Bluffton community, the event raised over $11,000 for Luis and Mercedes Calderon and their new baby, Ellis, to help with ongoing expenses.

Employees of the local custom homebuilder wanted to lend a helping hand when they learned that Luis Calderon, an employee of Stromer Plumbing - one of the builder’s most trusted and valued trade partners - was facing a challenging personal difficulty.

When a Pennsylvania couple wanted to build a second home in Port Royal Plantation, the realtor who found a perfect half-acre-plus lot for them suggested they meet a certain architect—who in turn suggested they meet a certain interior designer.

Enter Kelly Caron, owner of Kelly Caron Designs and the 2016 LightHouse-award winner for “Best Interior Design,” bestowed by the Hilton Head Area Home Builders Association.

Whether you live in a one-bedroom apartment or a sprawling island estate, we all share a common concern in this paradise known as the Lowcountry. From acrobat ants to wolf spiders, the seemingly never-ending variety of insects and critters you can expect to encounter run the gamut.

While natives might try to pass that hard-shelled creepy crawler off as just an innocent Palmetto bug, it’s a cockroach, folks. And it’s just one of the many pests that are looking to infiltrate your fortress.

Lowcountry Realtors are waiting to help you buy or sell

When searching for a real estate professional, it’s helpful to start your search by talking with family or friends. People you know and trust who have used a real estate professional in the past often can provide recommendations. Once you’ve developed a list of possibilities, it’s a good idea to interview more than one real estate professional and get to know them by asking questions. You want to be confident you will have a good rapport with your Realtor.

H2 Builders helps NY couple build Lowcountry house of their dreams

Gary and Gail Neumen are “100 percent” certain they’ll be moving into their new home in Bluffton in January, leaving behind their main residence, careers and life on Long Island, New York.

They will be trading Long Island’s south shore for other bodies of water — the 28-acre lake at Hampton Hall, plus the kidney-shaped swimming pool in the backyard of their new home. After buying and selling one lot in the community in 2015, the couple is finally ready to settling into the home they’ve built on the .45-acre lakeside lot hugging the 10th hole fairway of Pete Dye’s signature course that they bought in 2009.

LOWCOUNTRY REAL ESTATE DELEGATION VISITS D.C.
Led by Daniel Moskowitz, president of Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors, a delegation representing the local real estate industry met with lawmakers in Washington the week of May 15. Moskowitz, four other Hilton Head Area Realtors, and Hilton Head Area Association of Realtors officials Jocelyn Staigar and Jean Beck met with Senator Tim Scott, Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Mark Sanford to discuss issues affecting homebuyers and consumers of commercial real estate.

The group stressed the need for a multi-year reauthorization of the National Flood Insurance Program, which expires Sept. 30. Additionally, the Realtors advocated for tax reform, responsible reform of the secondary mortgage market, prohibiting the use of guarantee fees for any purposes other than creditrisk management, and improving consumer protections for energyefficiency improvement loans. The real estate industry maintains that federal tax reform should not include elimination of the mortgage interest deduction.