It has been a long time since I posted to this site. After two long years this project is complete (mostly). Instead of adding more photos to the blog I have added my YouTube video that shows the work as it progresses.

YouTube - Lake house_0001.wmv

Enjoy the movie!

November 23, 2008


Exterior update continues...


December 5
The paint crew is
working eventhough it is pretty cold here. Today a coat of white primer covered the remnants of the old house. Can hardly wait for the real color to go on.

December 28, 2008

Here is the latest view. We are slowly making progress. The paint color is not exactly green and the facia trim color is a deep rust. I have tried to stay within the colonial color palette. Still awaiting a new front door and shutters.

EXTERIOR MAKEOVER

Bob & Jo's Lake House

This is the original house we purchased in February 2008. Location is great, house, not so great.

The old entry was paved with a pea gravel aggregate with a "wheelchair ramp". The ramp was a sorry looking little mound in front of the entry door. My big question was why wheelchair accessible in a tri-level house?

Dec. 28, 2008
Above is the front entry today. The door will be replaced and new light fixtures will be installed where you see the dangling wires on each side of the door surround.

The Boat Dock

We purchased this property to have lakeside with a nice view. The ancient boathouse does little for the view, but the island and the golf green beyond, are nice. The crane on the dock comes by to visit occasionally.

Everyone wanted the boat dock done yesterday, but it took some time. The old boat house was demolished in favor of a new double deck, two slip boat dock. There will soon be furniture, lights, landscaping and of course, boats.

We're about to make a real mess!

This is a partial shot of the original living room windows. There were two sets of double windows, two single windows (of a different size) and one UGLY door all on the same wall!






The windows are gone! YEAH! We had a devil of a time figuring out how to put in the new windows and door to make them symmetrically spaced. I guess that gave the original builder a headache, too, but he didn't have Crouch blood. Stubbornness usually wins out!










Not the first, and probably one of many to come, weird things we've found. This is a water line that made a wrong turn and ended up in the spot where the new back door should be. Quick, call the plumber!









I rather liked the view with no windows,
but all things considered, this is going to be better than the original randomly spaced hodgepodge. I am pretty sure that whomever laid out the previous arrangement was absent the day they discussed window placement in design class.

Garage Addition

It only took a short while to realize the old garage

was going to need more than just cosmetic changes. Although, from the inside it looks spacious and it is, but the door size and door placement made it impossible to put in a second car and get out the first. By adding 4 feet to the front end of the garage, we gain more space for a wider door and more turning room.

The new wider garage door makes room for two cars to pull in and out with ease.

Stamped concrete has replaced the aggregate driveway and front porch. The porch now has a nice step to replace the "wheelchair bump".

The addition has given a new dimension to the otherwise sad old garage. Notice the round window has been removed. It moved the eye downward on an already low structure. Not a good thing.

Country Style Porch.


This is not the best photo. It is one that I scanned off the real estate flyer. The photo wasn't much of a recommendation for a quick sale.
In the distance you see the old boat house and in the foreground the unfinished steel frame grabs your attention. Not sure what style this is, maybe it is a transitional look of industrial and barn. Whatever. It's not working for me.






This photo shows the old steel posts and if you look closely there is about an eight inch step down from the back door.
I don't have any good pictures at this point to show, but the porch floor has been raised and replaced with Trex. It looks great!
I think new outdoor furniture is scheduled for some point in the near future.







This is a shot of the new beadboard in the porch ceiling. It is not "cost effective" which is a nice way of saying it was way too expensive but it is what was in the porch ceiling at the old Emerson farm house. I suppose we all want a piece of our childhood.

(I think that is an electrical wire for the new ceiling fan dangling from the top.)







The new beadboard ceiling is nearly done. Can hardly wait for the trim out to begin. I can just see that 'ole porch swing and hear the gentle creaking as we sit-n-swing and enjoy the view.

Front Facade

This pair of windows is being removed and replaced by two longer ones, which are being "recycled" from the living room. This change allows some symmetry in the front design and will improve the curb appeal.

The only way to center the upper windows over the lower was to eliminate one of them. It was impossible to shift them further to the left since there is an immovable object on the inside.

This is the last window that is being changed. The window was off to the right and did not relate to the entry door. It will look much different when new the porch cover is added.

It may be difficult for some to see what a change this will be when completed, but relocating the windows and adding nicer trim should make a huge difference in the "curb appeal".

Slowly, progress is being made. In the next photo the trim on the porch cover is being created, although it is far from finished. In the last few days, the garage door has been hung although it is not finished, it looks better than the gaping hole.

New stone work and shingles on the garage roof are certainly steps on the road to completion.

Rear Elevation




I am repeating the photo at the right so you can see the progress step by step.


Below, on the opposite end of the porch we extended the cover over the section that the previous owner left open. In this photo the porch has been raised to door level and the crew is removing the last of the old windows.




















Left are the new windows and the first step in trimming them out.









Below, on the other end of the porch you can see the new window and door trim
















Remember from earlier posts, the old metal rafters were showing. Now, the bead board ceiling is done and waiting for the painters and the electricians to come.


Below is a shot from on top of the boat dock, showing the new improved version. When I began, I said I wanted an old country porch but think I may have upgraded that vision to "southern veranda".



The porch and steps will have hand rail much like what you see in the foreground which is on the boat dock. (I had to back all the way to the backside of the upper deck to get the whole house in the view finder).




This is the rear elevation, after the area under the porch deck was stuccoed. There is still some junk in the yard obstructing the view but we are making progress.









Below: This morning (Sept. 15, 2008) just as the sun lit the surface of the lake, saws buzzed above my head, cutting in the dormer for the bunkroom upstairs.


The frame for the dormer soon began to take shape. Two windows will fill the front face of the dormer for a great view of the lake below.










The new dormer is complete and below in the next photo is the result of the first day of painting. One of the more creative painters left a little 'love' on the dormer window. How cute.

This photo was taken late and is very shadowed so the color is not clear. It is a grayed, brown with a hint of green. I like the color but it is not exactly what I started out with!

INTERIOR RENOVATION

September-October
Progress has been ongoing in the interior as well as the exterior. It is difficult to shoot good interior photos because of sometimes close quarters and odd lighting. The inside of the house needed a lot of re-arranging which included a lot of plumbing and electrical. Walls have been added in places, and removed in others, so much of the house is now a chaotic mixture of dangling wires, exposed pipes, missing doors and all the trash that goes with such a massive undertaking. Camping out during this project has become a challenge, to say the very least, but I love to see the changes as they occur so I am putting up with a "little" inconvenience.

November-December
Progress is slowly moving forward. . There are several new photos mixed in with the old ones below.

This is one of the many odd configurations in the house. There is plenty of room for the W.C. to face the same direction as the vanity which will give about 18 inches more room for a longer vanity. Opposite the vanity wall is the doorway into the bathroom and a tub/shower.

Left is the old tub/shower.
I believe there is a nursery rhyme about a crooked little man who lived in a crooked little house... well, here is the crooked plumbing.

Left photo shows the original old lighting fixtures. A new vanity has been ordered and new lights and mirror are waiting to be installed.

The first photo above, shows what we found when we opened up the wall behind the kitchen sink. Now, I'm not a plumber (never mind, electrician), never played one on TV or even slept at a Holiday Inn Express, but I am pretty sure this is just plain wrong! The second photo is the same space with the sheet rock back in place, just waiting for the new kitchen cabinets which have been ordered and should be in production.

New kitchen cabinets have arrived but looking pretty unfinished.

We are closer to having a real kitchen again. Lights and appliances will soon be finished and then I can move back in to this space. No more microwave meals! YEAH!
In the kitchen photo above you catch a glimpse of the new beams. Below is the crew beginning to refurbish the old unsightly ones.

December 5

Today the old beams which had been encased in dry wall get a face lift with Knotty Alder. The beams are the one part of this house which nearly sunk the deal. When we first looked at this house I could not get past the beams. I really don't like beams since they just scream 1980's to me. I had to take them and my head back to a different period of time, colonial, the style of this house, to work past a fact over which I had little control. The beams were there, they were structrual and had to stay. There were only two big ones, unevenly spaced in the great room ceiling, so I thought adding more smaller opposing ones would make it look more like a design feature... we shall see, below we are getting close.

Upstairs in November. The insulators have come and gone. At left is the little dormer in the bunk room. With the insulation in place you can more clearly see the window seat.


The second picture is the same space with the sheet rock and mud completed. There will be a cosy seating area that will also double as a bed when we have lots of company.

The ladder is leaning against a raised headboard on the sleeping platform. At the opposite end, there will be a twin bunk over the foot of the lower (queen size) bed. Other than the two sleeping areas there is a large space in the bunk room for a den area with a sofa, chairs and of course, TV.

The reason for all the creative sleeping spaces is that this area was carved out of attic space and I had to accommodate duct work. I designed the bed platforms over the duct work to maximize usable area in the space.


This small alcove was another of the quirky little spaces I had to work with in this house. It will contain a daybed when finished. Hopefully it will live up the to picture in my head. Stay tuned for the finished product.

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I took advantage of the Black Friday sales to pick up lots of fabric and decorator items for this little nook so the design plan is taking on a definite 'shape'.

Below are the old stairs which have nothing to recommend them except they are some what safer than the next photo with the handrail removed. No handrail is somewhat unnerving to someone who is a little bit careless and a lot klutzy! New and improved version coming soon!

And at last new stairs. I was so happy to have a hand rail again and real treads that I can safely run up and down.

Above
Below are two shots of one of the upstairs bathrooms. On the left is the original strangely configured vanity. The cabinets were old and too low. Behind the sink is where the shower was built-in and across from the vanity is a toilet. It was a large space but made no sense from a design standpoint. A closet opened into the space and served the adjoining bedroom.

After all the old stuff has been ripped out we installed the Jacuzzi tub that was in the master bath.

Unfortunately, there was no room for this tub in the master bath and it had to be relocated. It will be a great thing to have in the house and fits nicely in this bath which is the guest bath for the upstairs. A cool new vanity is on order and will arrive soon. A spacious tile shower will be constructed to complete this bath. By some miracle we did not need to relocate the potty. YEAH!