"I walked by it with my dogs and became intrigued with the possibilities," Jane remembers. Other passersby saw a dull-gray shack with a collapsed roof and jalousie windows that wouldn't close. Jane, the eternal optimist, liked the little porch and picket fence, so she bought the cottage and its freestanding garage just as they were.

"Make no mistake: The house did have great bones and more," she says. Lady Banks roses covered the facade, and Jane knew the enormous forsythia bush would be the first thing to bloom each spring. "Most people would never take such things into consideration, but what's growing around a derelict house matters."

Within weeks, Jane (who has rescued 10 cottages on Tybee and 13 in other places) had enlisted the help of carpenters Bruce McNall, Peter Dittmar, and Harry Allen, plus artist/carpenter Chris Roberts, to resuscitate the former fish camp.

She wanted to maximize existing spaces and add rooms without compromising the house's original feel, so Jane and her team connected the garage to the main building with a small breezeway that could double as an office. "I also decided an extra bedroom was more necessary than an 8- by 16-foot garage, so that space became the master bedroom," she says.

photography: Dana Gallagher Once a garage, the master bedroom is small but bright. Windows over the headboard look out onto the street, while French doors beside the foot of the bed open into the garden.

photography: Dana Gallagher "Paint cottage rooms white," Jane says. It opens up cramped spaces and makes colorful paintings and fabrics pop.