Spend enough time around old houses and you develop a sort of X-ray vision—the ability to look past accretions of paint, wallpaper, and vinyl to the place's essential character. So it didn't take long for experienced renovators Scott Powell and Philip Scholl to spot the possibilities hiding in a forlorn seaside cottage that nobody else wanted. "It had a lot of its original charm, if you could see it through all the debris," Scott recalls.
Hidden under vinyl siding, the decorative shingles were remarkably intact, as were the porch details.
Grandel's Construction, Truro, MA; 508-487-9316Excavation: GFM Enterprises
, Truro, MAPlumbing: Flying Plumbers
, Provincetown, MA