buyers over, but problems arise trying to find comparable
homes to gauge current value.
“There is nothing like it,” she added.
In spirit, Grant Farm Island real estate is more simpatico with
that ultimate arbiter of coastal shabby chic, Key West, than
with the manicured homes of Viera or Vero Beach. Every house
is different, but all seem in a continual state of evolution as
residents tinker with them.
The cottages run the gamut of the pastel palette and are as
eclectic as the people who inhabit them. Under the magic of
the island, half of a cast-off boat becomes a surprisingly coollooking
awning. A couple of old oars become a stair railing and
look mighty fine. Gates fashioned from old weathered wooden
signage assume unexpected gravitas.
Louisiana gal Lanny Davidson became a Grant Farm Islander
in 2007, after her brother, Mack, encouraged her to settle there
instead of in the French Quarter, where she was searching for
new digs.
“My girlfriends wondered what I was going to do there without
a Saks Fifth Avenue,” Davidson said.
She has coped remarkably with that particular hardship in the
little cottage she has adorned with the artwork collected by
her late brother. From her bed, she can engage in a spot of boat
watching as the yachts slide by.
Her garden beckons with an unlikely profusion of both
bougainvillea and roses. Daybeds in her screen porch are guest
magnets, so there are always plenty of friends to join her
and her canine sidekick, Willamae Doodle, on the huge deck
This is r Half an old boat becomes a unique awning, thanks to a clever islander. ush hour on Grant Farm Island’s Main Street.
SUMMER 2022: 65
>>
An islander since
2007, Lanny
Davidson, here
with canine gal pal
Willamae Doodle,
was introduced to
the island by her
late brother, Mack.