I visited a village in Europe when my family traveled there on vacation as a child. I really liked the old style of cottages by the sea that had orange county shutters on the outside of the windows. They were not those fake ones you see on homes in the suburbs that do not do anything. As I got older, I always wanted to be able to buy a cottage by the lake that is close to the apartment we lived in for years. We saved up a down payment, and we bought some lake property that had an old cottage on it. We restored it ourselves from top to bottom. We removed the old storm panels on the outside that were used to board up the place when people only used the cottages as vacation homes. Now people lived around the lake year round. The old storm panels were just planks nailed together that were on hinges to cover the window and lock with padlocks when you left.
Our restored cottage needed something on the windows, and we found shutters that actually go on the inside. They are made of wood, and they have louvers to control the light. You can swing them inward out of the way for full light. They are great for privacy and light control. We are living there year round, so we did not need anything to lock the place up over the off-season. Plus, having them on the inside makes them easy to open and close, and they really do look great from the road that runs behind our house. When you live at the lake, you kind of view the lakeside part of your home as the front even though the other side that faces the road is technically the front. I am glad to have fulfilled the dream of living in a cottage by the water.
