Customer Reviews

A Very Modest Cottage (Country Living)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Length:: 2:22 Mins

This is a story about a love affair with a cottage, it's past and now future. This book would make a great gift for a first time homebuyer or anyone who loves to remodel/restore. Not only will you love the story & photos but the author also writes in detail about restoring and decorating a 1920's cottage - all while being true to the cottage's roots.

Enjoy, it's a very sweet story!

When this book came along, I was thrilled. I loved the premise. It's always been a dream of mine to tackle the challenge of moving a building, especially an endangered one that could be renovated and restored. So I settled down to enjoy this memoir and vicariously share the experience of saving this cute little cottage.

Problem is, this isn't much of a book. Instead, it's a blog in tangible binding. It has the superficiality of a blog, and offers minimal content. As for that vicarious experience I was hoping for, or even some author insight ... well, consider this example: the owner has no direct involvement to share about the move. She was on a business trip in Prague that day, but LOOK! here's a picture of her brother, who did all that work for her. LOOK! here's the map of how far the cabin was moved from here to there.

Okay, I thought, she had to be away during the move, but the book will offer more on the reno and decorating end of things. Nope. She liked a color. She sketched a floor plan. She bought a curtain. LOOK! Here's a picture of her receipt.

Usually I can trust Country Living to publish books that are enjoyable and informative. This one is so shallow and bland that I've struggled to the halfway point. As a reader already very interested in the topic, I feel cheated. If I had wanted to look at someone's blog, then I would have scanned it online and clicked off.

But publishing it? What a waste of paper.

Did you ever have a favorite place when you were a kid? A place that was always there through the years, reassuring you that all was still right with the world as you grew from childhood to adolescence, to adulthood . . . Did you ever wish you could keep that place, just as you remembered it when you were a kid? This book is about how someone did just that.

First, in the interest of full disclosure, not only am I a coworker and friend of the author, I also contributed a very modest ingredient to this extremely palatable cornucopia of a book . . . and because of this I can attest to what a dedicated, focused worker the author is, making it no surprise that her sweat, toil and tenacity have produced such an appealing labor of love.

This is much more than just a handsomely presented coffee table book; it's also a love letter to a forgotten era, a warm and engaging scrapbook depicting the realization of a dream, and a lively, living journal documenting the adoption and rebirth of a charming roadside hotel cabin from Southern Illinois into an environment seemingly preordained for it in faraway Elkhorn, Wisconsin.

On top of the allure of the unique story, the author also possesses an inherent, professional flair for design that not only reveals itself in the absorbing visual presentation of the book (which she supervised), but also in the creatively chosen, period-appropriate accoutrements with which she has appointed both the cottage and its neighboring buildings in its new home, Camp Wandawega--well-represented in a copious array of rich photographs. She even gives us a vivid taste of what it's like to go along on one of her flea market flights of frugality by which she acquired some of the items that pepper these cordial surroundings. Her unassumingly witty writing style is equally engaging (this, I admit, was a pleasant surprise), perfectly complementing the arcadian images of Americana and intriguing antique tchotchkes which fill Modest Cottage's pages.

It's a feast for the senses and the imagination, with an accent on the visual, a book to keep on the proverbial coffee table for repeated browses as well as showing off to guests.

If you met Tereasa Surratt, you might see a camera attached to her like an extra appendage. So when you read her book, A Very Modest Cottage, you'll understand why her book is filled with amazing color photographs showing the rehabilitation of a 1920s-era motor court cottage that actually had four earlier lives before she picked it up (with the help of her brother's truck), hauled it across two states, and plunked it down in the middle of a camp on Lake Wandawega in Wisconsin.

This inspirational book for home improvement aficionados shows in a step-by-step photographic narrative how she moved, renovated, finished, and decorated the cabin that used to sit next door to her grandmother's house. A Very Modest Cottage also shows how shopping in thrift stores and flea markets helped Surratt to decorate it in its original 1930s style. Once a speakeasy, poker destination, hunting/fishing lodge, and business office, it now sits overlooking a lake with a wood stove making it a year-round vacation cottage.

After reading this book and enjoying the wonderful photographs, I believe that anything is possible when restoring an old building if you have the will, the friends to help, and a camera to record the process.

by Susan M. Andrus
for Story Circle Book Reviews
reviewing books by, for, and about women

If you love vintage, cottages, and spent your childhood in a cottage on a lake or in the woods you have to read this book. It is a labor of love. Tereasa and her husband and brother work so well together giving live back to this lovely old cottage. It is a love story from page one. I shared immediately with a kindred spirit, who also loved it. I recommend this book to anyone who dreams of reviving that little old cabin on the lake.

It's hard not to fall in love with this little cottage the owners lovingly relocate and refurbish!
The book itself is small and portable--perfect to enjoy over a leisurely weekend by the lake. If you dream of a cabin by the lapping waters, even if they are just in your imagination, this is the book for you.

I found this book to be an easy read & very enjoyable. I loved all the pictures, the layout of the book with a scrapbook feel to it. A charming little book that held my interest & I really liked finding out the history of the cabin towards the end.

This book is great - its a great advice weaved into a great storyline too. The pictures really bring it to life too - I want to go there! I loved it so much I bought a few other copies for my girlfriends because they'll steal my copy once they see it! Highly recommend buying it.

When I received this book, I thought, "How exciting! Renovation and reuse of an old cabin!"

However, it's more of a rehash of shallow details about a restoration of an old cabin. I read it in an afternoon. It seems more suited for the coffee table. There is not much substance, but it is well written for what it is. There are nice photos, but it is more like a scrapbook. Also, I think that most people who pick this book up and are initially interested in it already know how to thrift and bargain. They don't need a shallow description on how to do it.

My major problem with this book is that I thought it was going to be more about a renovation of an old cabin into a home, not a yuppie getaway (not that I don't enjoy those). The tone of the book seemed a bit out-of-touch. For example, Surratt touts the benefits of her Pantone swatch book in an almost *ad placement* manner. The price of a Pantone swatch collection is not within the average renovator's budget (and not in the average designers budget). If one is a professional designer, then I would understand the purchase. However, she includes it as if it's an average tool. I couldn't really take the book seriously then. Otherwise, it is a short interesting enjoyable read and a great picture book.

A Very Modest Cottage is much more than a story about a restoration project or a how-to manual. This is an uplifting and inspiring account of a journey to preserve a little piece of Americana, beloved childhood memories and a tribute to traditional Midwestern heritage.

I found this book to be so enjoyable because there are so many stories within the larger context of the book... you can literally read or peruse this book over and over and each time find new insight into how collectively ordinary people can bring enrichment and beautification to the world in which we live.