Lakefront living

When we first put an offer on this house in 1999, I described the domicile as a “roof and a deck.” The image (photo taken at 7:20 this morning; click to enlarge) shows how the lake side looks now and The Todd’s design for the renovation, which includes two decks.

There will be a screen porch off the dining area, the living area will be bumped out slightly and we’ll reduce by 18 the 20 skylights in the great room. In the master bedroom, we’ll replace the code violating, non-functioning bay window with a sliding glass door to give us access to the deck—a feature we’ve enjoyed at many a vacation spot.

The non-level concrete patio at the lower level will remain under a new, larger deck. The back door will no longer be below floor level (currently a tricky trip hazard). The hot tub will be placed nearby. “Hanging out” steps will provide a transition to the back yard and less obtrusive bracing will stabilize the upper deck.

We have rationalized the design from what it was about a year ago. It now focuses on what is important: the decks and the roof.

Full Frontal

We stepped away from our original architecture firm because they consistently failed to provide buildable, cost-effective plans (instead indulging every whacky idea I could dream up). It was a relief to end the nightmare by cutting our considerable losses and moving on. We met with the replacement architect, Todd Lendt (AKA “The Todd,” at least to me), on February 22 and hired him on March 1.

For those of you who say you like the house the way it is, you are in luck: We are no longer changing much. Especially now that I’ve embraced the ranch house vernacular—and lost some of my power to go deeply into debt thanks to the credit crisis.

The image (click to enlarge) shows our home in its current state (created via Photoshop® Photomerge™ panorama, hence the jagged edges). The hot tub waits under a blue tarp for construction to begin (kind of like my psyche). The drawing (from April 8) shows the new design for the front, which isn’t too different from the PowerPoint picture we cobbled together in September 2007 because we asked The Todd to execute our vision and to focus on practicality (even when I myself don’t, which is often).