After Kennedy’s great-grandmother passed, Frannie moved into the house. “She walked the beach every day right up until she was 95, and even went parasailing at 93, just so she could see what the island looks like from above,” Kennedy says.
But by the time Frannie left the cottage to move inland, years had worn on the house. The wood siding was weather-beaten, it had mold and asbestos, and though the family had added air-conditioning in the ’80s, the house was as leaky as a sieve. “In the bathroom, you could see the sand underneath the house around where the pipe connected,” Kennedy says. She hired architect Jody Beck of Tampa-based Traction Architecture to fix up the old house, but what began as a renovation quickly turned into a rebuild. “Strict storm codes made a rehab nearly impossible, and structurally, it needed a lot of work,” Beck says. “We decided to replace the house with something stronger, but similar.”
The midcentury-style sofa and ottoman in the great room are by Thrive Home Furnishings; Kennedy found the telephone table at a swap meet.
https://www.coastalliving.com/homes/tiny-florida-shack-makeover-anna-maria-island