When our clients first brought us out to take a look at their new home, we were blown away... for a few reasons.  On the good side, the home was sort of a blank slate, and it also featured one of the prettiest lake views I'd seen in awhile. Although it was pretty small for this family of 5 and had more than a few quirks, we saw the potential right away and I couldn't wait to get started on the design.  By adding just a 10' deep by 30' long addition to this 1970s era cottage, we were able to transform the space from dark and cramped to light, bright and open - with 180 degree lake views as a bonus!  {Make sure you scroll to the bottom of this post - I included a guided walk through video!}

Let's start at the beginning - this is the view when you enter the home.  It's changed just a little bit!  What you can't see from the before photo below is that the stairway to the basement was totally closed in.  When you walked in the front door, you could barely see the lake and the entry was very cramped.  By removing a portion of that wall and replacing it with open handrail, it completely changed the feeling when you enter the home.

From this view, you can see where we opened up the wall to the basement as well as the big, bright new kitchen/dining room!  You can look at it, but only for a minute - don't get distracted, yet.  This great room area originally served as both the living AND dining rooms.  While it's a pretty good sized space, it isn't nearly large enough for both uses with a family of five moving in.  We knew right away we wanted to reclaim this space for living room use only.  And we also knew we'd want shiplap on that ceiling!  Hallelujah! 

We're inching closer to that kitchen, people!!!  Here's the view looking back into the house from the lake side.  On the right we also removed a closet, which might seem counter intuitive, but it opened the entry enough that the homeowners could have a little mudroom space.  This home only has one entrance so it's used by both guests and residents.  Having a little extra space there more than offsets the lost closet.

Ok, here's a better view of the entry.  We replaced the door with something a little more welcoming but also with a little more privacy.  Imagine that area by the door as about a 3' x 3' landing and you'll understand why getting rid of those walls was so critical.  This is a pretty good picture of the floor, too - COREtec's Blackstone Oak.  It's LVT, which stands for Luxury Vinyl Tile.  We LOVE this stuff - especially for young families or lake houses - it's fantastic.  Fully vinyl, it's impervious to water, pets, kids - you name it.  

You guys, this was the kitchen in the original house.  Let's just sit with that for a minute, shall we?  You may have some questions here - one might be, "How could you open the refrigerator and walk through the kitchen?" or maybe, "Why is there a ceiling fan in there?"  Let me help you out with some answers. This was a one person kitchen and even then it was tight! Also...  Heated.  Ceilings.  Yup.  Heated ceilings.  Bizarre.  So all the ceiling fans were to push the warm air down into the living space.  This one also made it impossible to open some of the upper cabinets...

And THIS is the kitchen now.  Well, kitchen AND dining room.  By adding 10' to the width of the kitchen above, we got this - 18 glorious feet of kitchen, with enough room to eat in.  Angels are weeping over its beauty as we speak.

You guys know I basically have a phobia of upper cabinets and this kitchen was no exception.  Why live on a lake if you can't see it!?  We'd originally planned for the five windows on the sink wall and then just the full light door going out to the deck.  But then during framing, it became clear that those two extra windows were CRITICAL!  I just couldn't imagine standing in that house and losing even an inch of lake view if we didn't need to.  So a couple extra windows got ordered and a wall got re-framed (sorry, Mark!)  But seriously - views > storage, amiright???

This is basically bragging at this point - I mean - who gets 180 degree lake views!?  It's obscene!  This house sits up off of the lake, too, so it's like living in a treehouse surrounded by gorgeous, sparkling water.  I may be a little jealous!  

Because of the limited square footage at this home, it was important for us to keep things as flexible as possible.  By utilizing a dining room table instead of a built in island, we kept the feeling of the home cozy, while allowing for multiple seating arrangements during large gatherings.  

Here's a pretty good look at how open the kitchen is to the living room.  I know at our house, everyone always ends up in the kitchen, but here it's nice to be able to have conversation flow between the rooms.  It gives the home, which is just around 1300 SF on the main level, a real feeling of spaciousness.

Our clients chose to have us custom build and finish these tall cabinets in our shop.  Because we replaced upper cabinets with windows, we needed to find more storage for them in the kitchen.  These cabinets are beautiful AND functional, serving as a pantry and place to hide the microwave!

Taking the subway tile backsplash just to a standard 18" on the window wall allowed for a splash of this beautiful wall color to be displayed, while taking it to the ceiling on the stove  wall gives the space a touch of cottage glam.  Because the beam in the living room had to stay (it's structural), we decided to run with it and bring in some warm tones, too.  This house is a great example of how you can really mix wood tones.  The flooring keeps its tone well with the paint colors and decor, which allows for a warmer accent tone to be brought in.  The custom made floating shelves are extra heavy duty.  We stained them and the range hood both to match the living room beam.

One more of the windows.  I can't help it - they're so pretty!  Fun fact:  We ordered the windows to all open the same direction - so they can catch the breeze off the lake in the summer and cool the house.

And now for something new... a video tour!  I probably wanted to say the word incorporate a few more times... cringe!  But here it is - it gives you a sense of how light and open the house really feels.

And there it is!  We also used some of the addition space to gain a walk in closet and bathroom to create a master suite for our clients - which was a huge bonus!  

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