LUCKY ENOUGH
The Wayne and Carmen Holland Smith home
The Wayne and Carmen Smith home on the water.
Wayne and Carmen Holland Smith, Vinton High School sweethearts, called Sulphur home for many years. Once their three children were grown and on their own, the empty nesters considered a move.
“We wanted something different,” Carman said, “more land. We were thinking about building a house in Carlyss until we found this property. Nothing was here but trees. There wasn’t even a road.”
Living on the Calcasieu Ship Channel is the perfect place for the man whose favorite saying is, “If you’re lucky enough to live on the water, you’re lucky enough.”
“My husband likes to hunt,” Carmen said. “But he loves to fish. He grew up fishing with his grandmother.”
The Smiths named their boat after her: Osage Vidrine.
The Smiths used reclaimed lumber for flooring, for wainscoting and for an accent wall. They built their home to be a place where friends and family could visit, be comfortable and enjoy the natural beauty.
They bought the Hackberry property in 2013 and Wayne did much of the work bulkhead construction. Work started on the 3,700 square foot house in 2014. It was dried-in by Bear Martin. Wayne took it from there. The Smiths found a floor plan and tweaked it to fit their needs. Every room has a view of the water. An outside entrance to one of the bathrooms makes perfect sense.
“We wanted a functional house,” Carmen said. “My husband is pretty handy,” Carmen said. “He and my son-in-law installed the wood flooring. It was hard work.”
The Smiths knew they wanted salvaged wood flooring from the get-go and found a place in Iota that had plenty to choose from.
“We went to their warehouse to pick out the wood,” Carmen said. “The owner told us they travel and tear down barns for the Amish and other people mainly in the Midwest and haul the wood back to sell.”
The Smith’s wide wood plank flooring was cut from salvaged virgin pine beams.
The Smiths enjoy swimming, fishing and the beautiful view of their home on the Calcasieu Ship Channel.
The outside kitchen is the most recently completed project. Interior walls are reclaimed wood and screened-in windows. Antique boat motors, a Ducks Unlimited “working wall clock” and an oversized wall clock has an entrance from the outside.
Carmen gave her daughters the credit for helping with the decorating.
(Carmen is handy with milk paint.)
Art in the home was created by the Smith’s daughters, Hillary Robertson and was purchased from Galveston galleries.
A chandelier fashioned from capiz shells hangs over the dining room table.
Walls are painted the color of a sunset, sand and sky. The springboard for the colors is a painting that hangs in the living room. It is Surfside Pelicans by the Louisiana naturalist and artist Murrell Butler.
“In my other house, I was afraid of color,” Carmen said. “My kitchen was white. When I was picking out the colors for this house, it was hard to choose the wall paint because once you get it on the wall, it can look entirely different during different times of the day.”
This house has it all: The feel of an off-the-beaten path upscale fish camp, beach party house and tranquil retreat.
The Smiths wanted to create a home where they could extend warm hospitality in a one-of-a-kind setting. They wanted a place to live that was peaceful. They did just that – on the water.