Sugar Hill Cottage: Inside a Georgia Couple’s Stunning Hilltop Home Renovation

Text by Bethany Adams

Beth Roper fell for her Perry, Georgia, cottage long before it was hers. “We had ridden by that house forever and noticed it up on the hill,” she says, noting the previous owner had turned down multiple offers in the past, instead letting it sit empty and wear down over time. While its condition had her friends questioning her judgment, Beth was undaunted. “I don’t know why,” she says. “I could just see the potential in it.”

After convincing the owner to sell, she and her husband, Buddy, got to work. True to her friends’ words, the renovation was no small undertaking—but armed with Beth’s can-do attitude and Buddy’s contracting license, her vision soon became a reality.

“The house was built in 1942, and it was built to be the Baptist church’s parsonage,” Beth says. During the renovation, she and Buddy uncovered a trove of handmade pottery, some of which bore the inscription, “Praise the Lord,” leading Beth to believe they were made by a member of the pastor’s family. “That was a treasure,” she says. “And that was the only treasure we found.”

The rest of the home held less pleasant surprises, but the need for a full renovation gave the Ropers the opportunity to adjust the floor plan to their tastes. “We know every square inch of that house down on our hands and knees,” says Beth, noting she and Buddy did much of the work in refinishing the floors and completing the screened-in porch off the dining room.

Although the kitchen required extensive work—from the removal of the linoleum and installation of new cabinetry to the rewiring of the electrical system—the all-white space remains rich in vintage charm, partly thanks to Beth’s insistence that the nails and imperfections in the wood floors be left intact.

Her eye for design shines in details like the bright green paint she selected for both the built-ins in the dining room and the floor in the back entry. “It makes me happy every time I walk in the back door,” she says. Formerly the location of the washer and dryer, the makeshift mudroom now serves as a welcoming sight complete with a bookshelf Beth painted herself.

While Beth admits that life in a small cottage may not be for everyone, for her and Buddy, it’s a dream come true. By widening the back hall and adding onto the primary bedroom, they made the space fit them perfectly, and every additional detail further proved the match was meant to be. Along the way, the home took on a new moniker: Sugar Hill Cottage, inspired by the name Beth’s grandkids call her.

Despite the amount of work that went into the interiors, the transformation managed to spill outside as well, and a back porch, stone path, and set of custom window boxes are just a few of the projects Beth and Buddy tackled.

A creative solution for entertaining, Beth transformed a rustic barn into an enchanting open-air dining room that’s a favorite spot for card night, as well as convenient overflow for larger gatherings. Knowing the Southern humidity would be too harsh on anything precious, she sourced hand-me-down furniture, a thrift-store rug, and secondhand wall art that came in at under $10 each.

These days, the Ropers’ friends admit their concerns were ill-founded, as the couple’s cottage is a popular venue for get-togethers, game nights, and the occasional evening spent on the porch. “It’s a good place to have a glass of wine or a cocktail,” Beth says, noting they often receive visits from neighbors. And while she and Buddy have plenty of plans left—from transforming the screened-in porch into a sunroom to creating a shade garden in the backyard—they’ve already turned their little cottage on the hill into the perfect place to grow old together.