ZACHARY NEUMANN: I never would have
imagined this place meaning so much
and being as beautiful as it is.
Everyone wants that serenity and just
ease of being at the beach.
It kind of was a perfect spot.
WORTH TURNER: I think our lives are so busy,
our jobs are so demanding, to escape to this beach
cottage is so relaxing.
So it's a great place to just come and escape the world.
OK good boy.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: I'm Zachary Newman,
I originally came from Illinois, moved down
to Jacksonville, Florida five--
it was actually six years ago now.
WORTH TURNER: My name is Worth Turner.
My great grandparents actually grew up on the bays here.
And so, I've been coming to this area since I was a kid.
And it truly, every time we come here, it feels like vacation.
Wah!
ZACHARY NEUMANN: Boba needs a treat too.
You want some treats?
So we're situated in the northeast
part of Florida, between Jacksonville and St. Augustine.
So you've got this beautiful ocean on one side.
And on the other side, you have this beautiful state
park that is so natural and old Florida natural.
WORTH TURNER: When Zach pitched the idea
to buy a house here years ago, I thought
it would be the perfect, perfect spot for us
to kind of set down roots.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: When we first found the house,
we were looking at all these homes along the way.
And, unfortunately, a hurricane had just come through and done
a lot of damage to the area.
We saw this one and it was just a very unassuming home,
very small, right on the beach.
It felt like it was ours right away.
And we looked at each other and kind of said,
this is where we want to raise a family,
eventually, and have those memories
together with our families.
WORTH TURNER: The house is 1,300 square feet,
so it is a small house, but it lives so much bigger than that.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: When we walked into the house,
it was clearly gonna need a lot of work.
WORTH TURNER: Two hurricanes had come through, year after year,
and it was just abandoned.
So I think there was also a scary factor to it,
that when our families finally heard,
OK, we're taking on this project, they were like,
we have to help them.
Like, what did they sign up for?
And so, the fact that we could all
come up here and work together to restore this house,
that's what I think of.
I think of being here with our two families
and just all those memories.
It almost is like time just stand still.
And that's what makes it so special.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: We knew it was a full-gut project rearranging
even where the kitchen was.
The kitchen was on the other side of the house.
And looking at the space, it was,
why not have this beautiful view while you're in the kitchen?
Let's move the kitchen to the front side of the ocean
where the beach is.
WORTH TURNER: So I think the first thing
that we brought into this space were these two brass pendants.
We had picked them up probably seven, eight years prior.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: The pendants were like that first, oh, those
are going in the cottage, that we're gonna build
out the space around those.
WORTH TURNER: The antique dealer said they were
off an old ship in England.
And I just wish I could go back in time
and, like, see them in place where they originally were.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: And the table was
from an old farm in Belgium.
WORTH TURNER: When they shipped this table from Belgium,
I think the leg on the end was broken.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: Yeah, had to fix the leg.
WORTH TURNER: And I was like, oh my God.
We were all like, oh my gosh, they
shipped this table from Belgium and the leg's broken.
But I love that it was broken.
And then we put it back together,
and it just, I don't know, it makes
it have a story and character.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: Every piece around the house
has a story behind it, that whether we know
the story or not, you can make it up,
if you don't know the story.
You're gonna look perfect right there too, buddy.
WORTH TURNER: We saw that this was a one-car garage.
And it really just had junk in it.
It was just storage.
They didn't really use it as part of a living space.
And we realized, this was the view from this room.
We thought, OK, we have to make this into the master suite.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: It was a little bit complicated,
but we figured it out.
I feel like it works really well.
And the biggest thing I said from the beginning
was, the bed's got to face the ocean.
You've got to wake up with that morning ocean view.
WORTH TURNER: The dresser was the first piece of furniture
that my parents had actually bought when they got married.
It was almost like a bamboo color.
And they had it in storage.
And I thought, oh, that'd be so cool if we lacquered it.
Local artist did this really fun blue lacquer on it.
And then we put back the original hardware.
So I think what we did really well
is we went and we took items from both sides of our family
that, at one point, had meant something to them,
but they just didn't know how to use it or have a space for it.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: And we created those, I feel like what
I would call, warm memories.
The hanging chair for Worth, because that was what
was in his grandparents' cottage.
And for me, it was the bunkbed room.
I grew up with bunk beds that my father had built.
And so, I called him up and I said, hey,
I want you to come help me build these bunk beds in a small room
to make it fun, make it fun for the nieces and nephews,
but also be livable for even a full family to fit into.
If you look closely, you can see, it just, it's not--
like I said, it's not perfect.
WORTH TURNER: So when they started in this space,
and I would come when I would check on the progress,
he'd be like, it's gonna look better, don't worry.
That's not m this isn't right.
And what I loved about it is I told him,
I was like, it doesn't have to be perfect.
Like, you want to see that these boards have this great texture
and, I don't know, undulation to them that you
can see someone built this.
It's funny because it's, like, the smallest room in the house,
but I think it also holds the most
heart and energy of the home, is this little room.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: We found out that my dad
had intestinal cancer that had spread.
And even worse was we lost my dad that April of 2020,
while we were still trying to finish up the cottage.
So one of the hardest parts for me
is that he never got to see the finished project,
the house done.
It's sad that I don't get to show dad what
it turned out to be in the end.
I wish he couldn't be here to see it.
But, you know, it--
WORTH TURNER: I feel like he does.
I feel like he is here.
I mean, I always feel that he's here
every time we're at the house.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: So I think I always walk into this room
and I'm just so proud.
I mean, dad always was the type that would do anything
that we kind of asked to.
It was just--
WORTH TURNER: He'd say it might be impossible,
but that'll just take a day longer.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: That's right.
Coming to this house, whether it were
to be this house or different house,
it is somewhat about the memories
that you make with the people that you're with.
Yeah, when you have the kitchen and the living room the way
we do where it's all one big open space, it makes
it flow so easily to where you can all be in one area
together.
So I think if we had a bigger house
and everyone was more spread out,
it just wouldn't be the same.
This feels like a true cottage that everyone's
kind of forced to be in the same area, in a way,
but comfortably so.
You've got a view right out to the patio,
where we often congregate, and hang out, and cook, and eat.
And it's like, it's a beautiful space even out
there to look that direction.
WORTH TURNER: Cheers! - Woo!
You're welcome.
Oh my gosh, I love it, so cool.
WORTH TURNER: To have family in the space
and to have that time together with them,
it makes this house a home for us.
ZACHARY NEUMANN: The renovation wasn't really meant
to be anything super special.
And what it transformed into is, I think, o hard to go back
and think that this would ever have
been what it would look like.
WORTH TURNER: Cane Cottage doesn't just feel like a home.
It feels like this beautiful, like,
time capsule of memories, of our family in the past,
and also all the family that's gonna come in the future.
As, you know, the house was finished
and we started furnishing things,
we also said we can't get upset if anything gets ruined.
Everything's replaceable.
And I think, when you lose a family
member through a process, you realize
material items have no value.
They can't leave with you.
So, yes, we wanted those items to be memorable stuff that we
built with our own hands, but we thought, OK, as it ages,
it's gonna add character.
If it gets broken, we will build it back together.
And I think that's the true story of King cottage,
is it's always evolving, it's always getting tweaked,
and we're always gonna work on it together as a family.