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islandpacket.com • beaufortgazette.com • Sunday, March 6, 2011

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This Lowcountry-style home in Belfair is one of the stops on the tour and was built by Jerry Davis Custom Homes.

A tour of beauty

Photos special to the Packet and GazetteThis home at Hampton Lake’s fractional ownership community The Sanctuary is one of the stops on the Parade of Homes Tour going on this weekend and next. The tour is sponsored by the Hilton Head Area Association of Home Builders. Furnishings are by Stasia Berk.

By CAROL WEIR • The Packet and Gazette

he Lowcountry’s come a long way, baby.

This will be obvious to tourgo-ers on the Parade of Homes tour

this weekend and next, when they visit hous-es ranging from a restored farmer’s shack on Hilton Head Island to lavish modern homes in Sea Pines, Belfair and Hampton Lake.

The Parade of Homes is sponsored by the Hilton Head Area Home Builders Associa-tion, in conjunction with the Home & Gar-den show going on this weekend at the Mall at Shelter Cove. The home tour continues March 11-13, too.

One stop on the tour reflects the Low-country’s humble roots.

Members of the Hilton Head Home Build-ers’ remodeler’s council recently restored The Gullah Museum’s “Little House” on Gumtree Road, where tourgoers can see the tiny structure that’s been in Louise Cohen’s family for 80 years. It’s part of Hilton Head’s native-islander culture, which is made up of the descendants of slaves brought from West Africa to South Carolina and Georgia. The Little House is the first building of the Hilton Head Gullah Museum, a project Cohen an-nounced in 2003.

he Lowcountry’s come a long way, baby.

This will be obvious to tourgo-ers on the Parade of Homes tour

this weekend and next, when they visit hous-T

Hilton Head, Bluffton homes

to be open for viewing

“The place was basically falling apart. It was termite rid-den and had a lot of rot,” said Don Lee, who headed up the project for the remodeling council.

Reclaimed materials including rough sawn cypress and pine were used for authenticity in the Little House, Lee said.

Cypress also was used to construct another house on the tour — an opulent oceanfront home in Sea Pines built by The Twelve Oaks Group.

On Beach Lagoon Road close to Marriott Beach Club, the seven-bedroom, eight-bathroom home incorporates 10-foot by 10-foot cypress beams.

“It’s really the old way of building. This a stronger con-struction for a beach side application,” said Brian Quinn of The Twelve Oaks Group. The home, which is for sale, has three master bedrooms, a pool, an outdoor kitchen and four outdoor fireplaces. It’s elegantly furnished by Timeless Interiors.

Other homes on the tour and for sale include two in Hilton Head Lakes North (formerly Tradition). One is the “HGTV Green Home,” and the other is a 1,912-square foot energy efficient home, said the owner of both, James Epley of Arbor Green Builders.

The Lowcountry cottage built by Home and Garden television was designed to be environmentally friendly, and received a gold certification stamp for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design from the U.S. Green Building Council.

It was given away in a national sweepstakes in 2008; Epley purchased it later and also has built seven homes in Tradition in the last three years.

In Belfair, another Lowcountry style house is one of the stops on the tour. Built by Jerry Davis Custom Homes for homeowners who live there now, the 4,600-square foot retreat has three porches with spectacular views of the marsh and the Colleton River.

OLDFIELDAlso overlooking the Colleton River, Oldfield’s el-

egant River House clubhouse is on the Parade of Homes tour. Built in 1972 in the style of the original plantation

residence from the mid-1700s, it includes some materials from the original building.

These were salvaged by Robin Carrier, who maintained Oldfield as her private horse farm and hunting preserve for nearly 20 years.

Ownership of Oldfield recently passed from Crescent Resources LLC to SF Capital, an Atlanta-based develop-ment company which is enhancing the property.

HAMPTON LAKENamed “America’s Best Community” by the National

Association of Home Builders, Hampton Lake is an ame-nity-rich, fun-for-the-whole-family private community where 15 model homes are part of the tour. The houses range from single-family homes priced below $300,000 to larger lakefront homes that cost about $650,000.

WANT TO GO?

What: Parade of Homes Tour of 25 houses on Hilton Head Island and in Bluffton.When: Today and March 11-13 Hours: noon to 4 p.m. today; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. March 11-12; noon to 4 p.m. March 13.Cost: Free and open to all. Tour maps and passes available at the Home Show from noon to 5 p.m. today at the Mall at Shelter Cove, and at grocery stores carrying Island Real Estate magazine.Sponsored by: Hilton Head Area Home Builders Association. For more information, go to www.hbahh.com