The charming 1940s cottage was a worthwhile labor of love for owner and builder Tim Sites
With its sky-blue exterior, charming picket fence, and pink azaleas spilling over the front walk, this Riverland Terrace cottage looks like it was plucked from a postcard of mid-century Charleston. But five years ago, when Tim Sites first stepped inside, the scene was considerably less picturesque. “Quietly collapsing, but beautiful at the same time,” he recalls of the structure, which had suffered years of neglect and significant termite damage since being constructed in the 1940s. Most potential buyers might have ordered a wrecking ball; Sites reached for a pen and wrote the owner a letter.
The cofounder of Artis Construction, Sites honed his renovation skills over decades in Washington, DC. He first spotted the cottage in 2019, while working on a nearby project. When it came on the market two years later, a crowd gathered. “There had to be 75 people lined up to see the house,” he says. Higher offers followed, but Sites’s heartfelt promise to preserve the cottage won out. “Tim charmed him,” says interior designer Elysa Lazar, of Elysa Lazar Design.
Tim and his husband, Hal Creel, a retired maritime attorney and former commissioner of the US Federal Maritime Commission, had already established roots in the Lowcountry. Creel, originally from Florence, came to Charleston to teach at the law school; Sites, an Ohio native, launched his construction business here after a corporate marketing career in DC. The couple had renovated a house downtown on Colonial Street, but before moving in, a passerby asked to buy it. They relocated to a rental they owned on Folly Beach to regroup and ended up staying for a decade. “We love Folly and probably would have died there,” Sites says.
But the Riverland Terrace cottage had other plans for them. The neighborhood, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year, is bordered by Wappoo Creek, the Stono River, and the Charleston Municipal Golf Course. Unlike many planned communities, it resists architectural uniformity, with styles ranging from Colonial Revival to Craftsman bungalows. If there’s a defining image, it’s the modest cottage set on a generous lot beneath grand oaks—and this one captures a quintessential moment in Charleston’s architectural history.
Sites had envisioned a quick flip, but 18 months of weekend renovations—squeezed around his day job—shifted his thinking. “Getting your hands dirty, that’s how you connect to a house,” he says. About halfway through the project, he decided this would be their forever home. “I don’t think I told Hal about it until I’d bought it,” he adds with a hearty laugh.
The renovation was extensive. The interior was gutted; ceilings rebuilt; and new walls, windows, and flooring installed to address termite damage. Sites preserved the original staircase, both to meet code and to maintain the home’s scale.
He reworked the floor plan, removing walls and adding 200 square feet while keeping the cottage’s character intact. “We wanted to work with what we had and have it fit into the neighborhood,” he says. The result is a cozy yet luxurious home that feels remarkably spacious at just under 2,200 square feet—a testament to thoughtful design over sheer size. “You have to ask yourself, ‘How much space do you really need to live?’” says Lazar, a longtime friend and collaborator who helped shape the interiors.
The front door opens directly into a bright living room painted in Benjamin Moore “Weatherburn’s Blue.” Lazar chose the hue to capitalize on abundant light from four large windows. “The room gets so much light, you can use color and not have it feel claustrophobic,” she explains. A pair of William Douglas Petra sofas wrapped in “Omega Bisque” anchors the space, while the surrounding walls and built-ins showcase treasures collected over decades of travel.
And what treasures they are. A 200-year-old Vietnamese vase stands sentinel between the living room windows. A 600-year-old Chinese burial figure and a 10-pound turquoise crown from Delhi occupy the built-in shelving flanking the double-sided fireplace. Between the living room and kitchen, an emerald and diamond jewel from a ceremonial Indian necklace gleams inside a small frame. Spotted by Creel in a Delhi antiques store, the treasure was secretly purchased by Sites as a surprise birthday gift. “It’s my favorite piece in the house,” says Creel. “Not because it might have belonged to royalty, but because it reminds me that love sometimes works quietly in the background.”
Nearly every available wall holds art, from a charming oil painting of a cow they found in a flea market in Copenhagen to an abstract work by local artist and friend George Read (also Lazar’s husband) to an acrylic on canvas by Gildardo González Garea—the first painting the couple bought together. “Only nothing goes together!” Sites jokes. And that’s precisely the point. Lazar wove these personal artifacts together with new pieces, antiques, and carefully chosen finishes. “She edited us, but didn’t erase us,” he notes.
Beyond the living room, the open-plan kitchen continues the color palette, deepening the tone with rich blue cabinetry—salvaged, along with Sub-Zero appliances, from a high-end renovation on King Street—set against white subway tile. A large farmhouse sink and an oversized, marble-topped island provide ample workspace, while white oak floors connect the spaces. In the rear corner, a dining table is flanked on two sides by a leather banquette beneath picture windows that frame the garden beyond. The kitchen is Creel’s domain. “He’s the chef,” Sites confirms. “Well, I am retired,” Creel offers begrudgingly, as if that explains it all.
Architecturally, the double-sided fireplace and built-in shelving define the main level, creating separation without sacrificing openness. A pocket door leads to a laundry room that doubles as a butler’s pantry—a practical compromise after Lazar persuaded the couple not to place the washer and dryer in the dressing room.
Beyond, two bedrooms were combined to create a generous primary suite with a dressing room and en-suite bath. The bedroom has a masculine warmth: gray drapes, a leather bed frame, and Schumacher “Haiku Sisal” charcoal wall covering, which adds depth and highlights vintage side tables and an antique sideboard. In the dressing room, a 1930s brass pendant hangs above a large dressing table, while closet doors painted in Farrow & Ball “Mopboard Black” conceal their wardrobes.
Upstairs, the landing doubles as a gallery anchored by a ceramic sculpture of a woman’s bust surrounded by crocodiles by Mexican artist Sergio Bustamante. One former bedroom now serves as a den. “This is our main hang-out space,” Sites says. Across the hall, a guest room functions as a home office, its walls painted in Farrow & Ball “Olde White No. 4,” Lazar’s go-to off-white and a subtle backdrop for more art.
Creel gestures to a painting of a street scene in Hanoi, depicting brightly colored tarps stretching across the sky. “Artists were just starting to have more freedom there,” he recalls of his visit to Vietnam in 1995. “Everything was so gray except this painting. The colors caught my eye from across an impossibly busy street.”
Overall, the house reflects the couple who saved it: warm, layered, unpretentious, and full of stories. “It’s not a showcase,” says Lazar. “It’s them.” During the renovation, a woman who had grown up in the home when it was surrounded by farm land stopped by, delighted to see the cottage preserved. Today, Riverland Terrace is one of James Island’s most sought-after neighborhoods, where longtime residents and young families share oak-shaded streets and proximity to the water.
“We have a propensity for rescuing animals, houses, whatever it is,” Sites says. On Riverland Drive, the rescue worked both ways. The homeowners preserved a classic piece of Charleston history, and in return the cottage gave them something unexpected—rooms to hold the artifacts of well-traveled lives, spaces to grow older together, and a place that feels unmistakably like home.
