Robert Janjigian's article this past week in Palm Beach Life details one couple's "shock and flattery" when they were surprised with the 2007 Polly Earl Award for historic preservation. Award winners receive $10,000, which must have been very helpful after the Phillipses has invested so much time and money on their very pretty 1,600 square foot bungalow. We need more awards for neighborhood- appropriate design and historic preservation in residential architecture and less of the pat-on-the-back professional ego-stroking awards given out by most design, architecture and remodeling associations!

The plan of the one-story, 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom house, currently under renovation, will remain relatively unchanged, although it will be completely updated with new bathrooms, kitchen, interior walls and ceilings, flooring and hurricane-resistant windows. A wood-burning fireplace is also being added in the living room.

"The location offset the obstacles of restoring the house," Phillips said.

The exterior will be cleaned up and restored in authentic fashion, with an enclosed porch across the house's front facade that will be built with the same look as the pre-existing enclosure added in 1958. The only change to the house's lines will be the addition of a chimney on the west wall.

The construction project is expected to be completed in late May to early June.

"This is one Polly would have loved," said John Mashek, Preservation Foundation president, who heads up the selection committee for the Earl Award.