The Lakeview Whole Home

A 1948 lake house taken down to what was worth keeping, then rebuilt around the water: one long sightline from the front door to the shoreline.

The brief

The Halvorsens bought the Lakeview house for the last hundred feet, the ones between the porch and the water. Inside, the 1948 floor plan gave the lake to one small room and kept everyone else in a hallway. Three generations use the house all summer. The brief was one sentence: every big room should know the lake is there.

The design

This was a whole-home reworking, not an addition. We opened the main floor into one long axis from the entry to the water, moved the kitchen to the lake side, and built a wall of deep spruce green shelving to give the living room a spine. Upstairs, four small bedrooms became three real ones plus a bunk room that sleeps five grandchildren. Every finish was chosen to age: white oak floors, plaster walls, unlacquered brass.

The build

Twenty-six weeks on site while the family stayed in town. A project this size moves in chapters, so we published the schedule in chapters: structure, envelope, systems, finish. The Halvorsens got a photographed update every Friday and a standing Tuesday walkthrough. Two change orders in six months, both initiated by the family, both priced and signed before the work shifted.