Averitts Favorite

This stucco road marker represents pure bliss. It means we have finally arrived at the beach. 

The sea oats are another welcome marker. Our first morning we woke up super early to watch the sunrise.

It rained even earlier our first morning. The rain stamped sand is just the prettiest.

The last time E and I took a two week vacation was nine years ago at Lake Michigan. With my mother. Ha!

This house is now twenty years old. As I said, my uncle designed it after hurricane Opal destroyed the first house.

My godmother did this wonderful sketch of the original house. It was a two bedroom beach shack. We were so little and crammed four adults and 5 kids back in the day. I never remember it feeling crowded because we were always at the beach. I learned to really fall in love with reading here, play gin rummy and learned to make the best salad dressing from my grandmother. It swayed in the breeze because it was up on stilts so it always felt like you were gently rocked to sleep by the house. Isn't that a romantic memory?

The hurricane truly knocked down the dunes. The only hint of what was left of them is in this photo off to the right. Again we were little, but ran up and down the dunes and jumped off of them for hours. Now there are signs everywhere that you have to stay off the dunes. I get it, but man those were the days.

Cooking was always front and center at the house. E's roommate from UNC joined us with his new bride for four nights during our break. We just celebrated with them at their wedding last fall in Jamaica. It was the first time I've ever been down to the beach with just friends. Felt a little weird without my brother and I did miss my grandparents like crazy.

The house is a rental for most of the year and we had fun sprucing the old girl up a bit. My aunt and I were on the phone constantly our first few days, creating Pinterest boards and disagreeing with my Daddy on the importance of a Lazy Boy vs a wing back chair/ottoman. First world problems at its best. I know he'll be super happy with our choices in the end. These stools add just the greatest pop of color and truly change the whole look of the space.

We moved the old stools to the deck with a great, new bar stool table.

The "All In the Family" chair will be history by the next visit. I found a fun new lamp with a tree trunk base and the sofa will be replaced with a much longer, slip covered, white sofa so more friends can lounge on rainy afternoons and watch movies and football. I'm really hoping to blow up one of my "beach chic" photos to go over the sofa. It would also look great to have a huge mirror reflect the ocean on that wall.

Any chance you get to see this view reflected in the house is a bonus in my opinion.

The neighbors to our west have a seriously huge mansion. Rumors on the road have it that the family are from Baton Rouge but we've never, ever seen them. Averitts Favorite feels like this little Martin House compared to it.

Mansion on the left. Averitts Favorite roof line on the right.

Tang-O-Mar hasn't changed that much but many houses have been updated in the last 20 years. Some have added pools too. I dream of a small dipping pool and covered patio under the house one day in the future.

We all feel so lucky that my grandparents found this little gem on the water 36 years ago.

Our dear family friend's home was also destroyed in Opal and they rebuilt this large duplex to the right. Sadly they sold so we don't get to see them at the beach anymore. It was the Craddock's who inspired my Granddaddy to buy back in 1978.

I added a mirror to reflect the light and coast in the master bedroom. Amazing what a mirror does to a room. 

Each bedroom has a view of the water the way my uncle designed the angles of the house. 

I took this photo before I hung a mirror in this bedroom as well. But again, it reflects the ocean perfectly on the back wall. I moved a mirror in the middle bedroom to do the same thing. Now all three of the bedrooms have mirrors reflecting the water.

We enjoyed our visit with the Haygood's so much. Granddaddy used to always tell a story about how he learned how to drink like a gentleman at UVA. Two drinks and done. 

We may have broken that rule with two drinks in the morning, and two in the evening. We tried new things. Spicy bourbon, peachy mimosas and local beers. I cooked things I've never cooked before, like biscuits with sausage gravy inspired by this recipe. I've made a million frittata's but this Nelly Frittata took the cake when I used the left over grill roasted potatoes from the Haygood's meal from the night before. It's really fun house to cook in. I feel like I fell in love with cooking all over again.

This French Toast Casserole was by far the most fun meal I made during the vacation. I am a little late on the Pioneer Woman craze but now I understand. Her recipes are so easy. They are also so decadent. It's insane how we ate, but with lots of activity we actually lost weight. Proves that living life and enjoying the food you eat makes a difference. I torched the top not knowing how hot our oven got at the beach house but it was still fantastic. Use sourdough bread. The Winn Dixie loaf was the perfect size.

When our buddies left we tried to take a few timed photo shots with my camera. This one makes me laugh as we took about ten to finally get the one below. I want to be this relaxed all the time.

Sunrise

Sunset

I'm looking forward to seeing how the house comes together with a few more updates. It's all I can think about now. Last week was a little tough re-entry but knowing it is there for a getaway makes work even easier. 

Best wishes for a productive week and for many beach dreams.