October 15, 2014

{the great room}

The back of the house is pretty much all windows and doors with views straight to the lake.  There’s a catwalk area above the first floor and the left end of it leads to a master bedroom and the right side (seen in pic below) will eventually lead to another bedroom.

{the view from the kitchen to the back of the house}

Most of the doors have issues being opened & closed (meaning, they don’t really work at all) so they’ll need to be replaced.  I haven’t decided yet on the exact style but I do think- though I like the doors that are currently in the house- that they’re not quite right for the more contemporary architecture of the house, so we’ll probably go with something a little more modern.  All mouldings throughout the house are being removed and replaced with pieces with straighter/ cleaner profiles.

{the living area}

I love the open floor plan of the house and cannot WAIT to hang there when it’s finished!!!  The three windows in the back of the house (pic below) will be replaced with windows of equal sizes.

The entire current kitchen is coming out and I’m having the angled wall to the right (see pic below) squared off to allow for the refrigerator to be moved over there and to add a closet in the foyer on the other side.  It will make the kitchen perfectly symmetrical which will feel so much better.

I’m not thrilled above the bay window wall in the back of the kitchen but have some ideas that I think will make it work.  Lighting is incredibly tricky in the kitchen/ great room because of the ceilings.  In the kitchen they’re all angled so I’ll be using mostly wall lighting and the ceilings are so high in the living room/ dining room area that it’s a challenge.

Here’s a view of the dining area & stairs:

The railing will be replaced with iron ones with a thinner profile.  All of the floors will be in random width wide plank reclaimed oak floor boards except the laundry room & bathrooms, which will be tiled.

The master bedroom on the main level has a fireplace, which my dad will really enjoy. (see pic below)  I’m going ot give it a little facelift because it feels a bit temporary to me now:

The upstairs master bedroom will be our bedroom and I really love it!!  Sadly, the chimney from the master bedroom below it blocks a good portion of the view out the back, but it has a pair of doors that lead out to a private balcony.

I’m really thinking about wallpaper in here…  I love the idea because it’s not an every-night-of-the-year-bedroom so it can be a little more out-there than my normal bedroom would be and it’s also fairly bland, architecturally-speaking.

We’re completely redoing the bathroom:

We’ll be adding windows for natural light.

Here’s the view off of the balcony towards the woods:

And here’s the view towards the lake:

My dad -who has incredibly traditional taste but is starting to trust me more- is giving me a massive amount of leeway in the decorating decisions, and I’m bringing in his favorite colors: blues & grays.  The house has a similar feeling to my own home in terms of a bit of a light & airy, natural, vintage/ 70s modern vibe, but the palette will be slightly fresher and whiter/ cooler to reflect the home’s surroundings.  I have to be really careful about how much midcentury makes its way into the house because my dad really is a rolly-scrolly type of guy.  BUT- We have a really cool retro (50s) coffee table with little white and black stones all over the top (scary-sounding, I know) that was my grandparents’ that I’m thinking of putting in the living room.  My dad loves it because it’s sentimental.  I remember it so vividly from their Chicago living room when I was a kid and looking at it just brings me back to that house.  (It was a big old bungalow with secret passageways in some of the closets!!!!

{Christian, a couple of weeks ago, loving the lake}

We’re stopping by the house today on our way down to High Point Market to check out progress at the house.  (Demo only…  they started Moday.)  I can’t wait to see!!!  I’l keep you posted and will be back soon to share kitchen plans.  I’m not quite sure what the timeline is on the project, but it’s possible that I’ll be able to include it in the book…  my fingers are so crossed!!!