Casa de Roo Manifesto

We began saving magazine tear sheets during the summer of 1998. House hunting followed more than a year later. The criteria were straightforward: a view attached to a habitable house not to exceed our stated budget (never mind what the bank says we can afford). Selecting 2007 as a good year to start planning the remodel, we moved into our humble lakeside home on June 30, 2000.

While our desires (mine, at least) were aesthetics-driven, reality soon took over. The previous owner was a do-it-yourself-wronger. The deck is decaying and the roof was bad to begin with. The 20 skylights? Don’t get me started! Of course, they leak. Now the bathroom ceiling does, too. Ahead of schedule, the remodel went from daydream to destiny.

Earlier this year we began sifting through the hundreds of pretty pictures of modern homes and culling the collection down to a more manageable pile. Our style remained consistent over the years and we scanned in our top picks to provide inspiration for the future. Then we analyzed the current state of the house, documenting it all in a photo book called, “Everywhere you look: Beauty!” A highlight is our new topographic survey. Lakeland Surveying made this first major investment in the addition as much fun as buying art (they are also the brains behind EvilHot brand Habanero Hot Sauce).

Countless drafts later, weighing in at 37 pages, the modern dream house “Manifesto” was to prove an excellent tool for articulating our needs and vision.