Shingling the Cottage

In an ideal world, my whole cottage would be constructed of stone. But to keep costs down, and to make it more in keeping with everything else around it, we decided to only put stone on the turret and to shingle the rest of the walls. Both of the family houses nearby and our winery are shingled, so this seemed like a good choice. My sister Allie is a champ at putting up shingles. I got to put up the token first shingle, and Marcus put up the two highest rows on each wall, but Allie did the whole rest of the cottage.

Allie did a lot of the work when we shingled our beach house, and she shingled her whole house when they built it. It’s three stories on one side, so my little cottage was easy in comparison.

I did pick a complicated pattern because I wanted the shingles to have an offset look because it reminds me of a fairy tale house, and Allie had no problem with it. I’m so lucky to have her for my sister!