They were clear about what they wanted in a brand new home: It had to be easy to maintain, comfortable, full of natural light, and "traditional in the best sense of the word." The Fergusons were ready to give up unused space as long as they retained interior details like beaded board and fine moldings and a floor plan with plenty of walls for furniture placement. "Too many new houses we saw were all about the �great room' concept with one big open space and no walls. Tom and I wanted a house with good flow, but we also wanted distinct spaces," Kathy says.

To their surprise, the Fergusons found a piece of land for sale just 2 miles away from their old place in Covington, Louisiana. Foundation work was already under way on the site, but local designer Judy James agreed to rework her original blueprints for Kathy and Tom. "This couple wanted a traditional cottage with modern amenities," Judy remembers. "I tried to give them the conveniences they required without sacrificing the familiar elements they loved."

Everything about Tom and Kathy's new house shouts classic cottage. There's a white picket fence around the front yard, working louvered shutters, and a small porch accented with gingerbread trim. The front corners framing a broad bay window are trimmed with painted scrollwork, and the house is topped with a simple metal roof that's functional and durable. To make the interiors feel spacious, airy, and light, Kathy asked for transom lights and 10-foot ceilings.

Kathy also requested beaded board, so Judy used it as tall wainscoting inside the entryway from the back garden.

This house may have old-fashioned details, but it contains some surprises, like scored concrete floors that are stained "the color of a bomber jacket" and a low-maintenance lap siding made of cement, sand, and wood that's ideal for the climate because it resists mildew and termites. And though the cottage certainly looks like a typical New Orleans house built on raised piers, all but the porch stands on a concrete slab. "That gave the house more stability and did away with maintenance issues of raised houses," Judy says. Slab construction is also less expensive. Did she think about building over a basement? In a word, no. "If you dig a hole in the ground here, it fills up with water. A basement in Louisiana is a swimming pool."

Judy specified traditional double-hung wooden windows for the facade and aluminum windows elsewhere "because they're easy to operate and don't have to be painted." The shingles under the gable at the top of the house are a modern cement-fiber material that resembles cedar shake. "We went with traditional where it worked, like the attic vent and the black shutter dogs," Judy says, "but I wanted modern materials that were less trouble for the homeowners wherever we could use them."

Several years after throwing themselves into the building process and saying goodbye to their old home, the Fergusons have settled into their new cottage. "This house is easy," Kathy says. "Before, we walked through rooms we never used, but now we live in the whole house. That's exactly what we wanted."