Our lake house is not perfect, but it is perfect for us! You will see our messy house throughout renovation/construction. As Neal often says, “This is not the highlight reel, but the behind the scenes reel.”
Below are the before and after pictures of our lake house on the street side. It had such a quaint look and we fell in love with it the minute we pulled in the driveway! (We had looked at so many lake houses that looked good in pictures but were a real disappointment when we saw them in person.) This sweet house was perfect for us as a lake house and would eventually be our permanent home.
Special Note: If you want to see the entire renovation/construction process in detail, click here. However, if you just want to see an overview that includes links with more detail, continue viewing this blog post.
And here is another more recent picture after we made and installed cedar shutters. 
Here is another before and after photo from the corner of the house. Redoing our deck rail is on our future project list!
Since this porch picture, we renovated our porch. Here is an updated picture. 
In March 2011, we purchased our lake house and in 2013 (from March through November), we renovated and built on an addition. It took us so long because we did a lot of the work ourselves. It continues to be a labor of love as we make additional improvements. Neal and I enjoy doing projects together. We both enjoy working hard and seeing the transformational process. Neal has a lot of knowledge because we previously renovated two houses and built a home. If we don’t know something, we figure it out together (thank you Google and YouTube). Doing projects together is our thing!
We employed a contractor for the major part of this renovation/construction; however, Neal and I did all of the interior painting, hung all the doors, did all the trim work, etc. We will continue adding pictures because we have several more projects! Thanks for taking the time to check out our lake house renovation project and please check back to see additional updates.
Click here to see more details about Renovating the Exterior of Our Lake House.
Building on to Our Lake House
The addition includes a new front entrance, an office, a master bedroom and bath upstairs, and two additional bedrooms and bathrooms downstairs. 
Click here to see more details about Building on to Our Lake House.
Front Porch on the Streetside
Click here to see more details about the Construction of the New Front Porch (and other related projects).
Patio Porch on the Lakeside
Click here to see more details about Renovating/Updating our Patio Porch.
Click here to see our outdoor fireplace project.
Renovating the Existing Interior (main living area)
Click here to see more details about the Interior Renovations.
Updating our Fireplace
Click here to see more details about Updating our Fireplace.
Below are more after pictures of the living room area.
This is our sitting area. This is where Neal and I sit and “soak” in the mornings. The expression “soaking” reminds us of Neal’s grandmother (Norene) who talked about her “soaking” time in the morning. It is my favorite time of the day! I have to have my “Neal time”!
Here is a picture during Christmas. 
Kitchen Renovation
Below is a before closeup picture (but with the new window) and an after picture. 
Below are more after pictures of the kitchen.
Click here to see more details about Renovating our Kitchen.
Flooring
We added heart pine flooring throughout the main areas of our house.
Click here to see more details about Installing our Heart Pine Floors.
After Pictures of the Main Living Area
This area includes the kitchen, dining area, living room area, and sitting area. (The windows appear to be curved in the picture because I took a panoramic photo.) These pictures were during our first Thanksgiving after renovation/construction.
Here is a more recent picture on a bright summer day. 
This is an after picture from the loft (Suzanne’s office/guest bedroom and craft room) on a snowy day before Christmas.
Below is a picture of the railing around the steps to the basement. 
This is Grampy’s room when he visits. 
This is another guest bedroom on the main level.
Loft
Below is a before and after picture of my craft room in the loft. 
Don’t judge us on how messy this small area is! We had to cram many things in small spaces during the renovation.
Click here to see more details about Renovating the Loft.
New Addition Interior Pictures
New Master Bedroom
Here is a final picture of our master bedroom. 
Here is our view of the lake. We feel like we live in a treehouse! 
New Master Bathroom
Below are pictures of our master bathroom after construction.
You can see the lake when in the bathtub, which is so relaxing.
And while taking a shower.
New Foyer
Here is the new foyer after drywall. The new foyer is where the new construction is connected to the existing house.
After
Click here to see more details about Interior Construction of our New Addition.
Boat House/Dock
Neal extended the original dock and added the steps when we first purchased the house; you can tell the difference because the wood looks newer in the before picture.
Click here to see more details about Building our Boat House/Dock.
Click here to see how we built a barn door for our dock closet.
We still have many more projects . . . such as finishing the patio porch floor, installing new deck railing, adding more landscaping, finishing the basement flooring, etc. Stay tuned for future blog posts!
Click here to see some beautiful sunsets at Logan Martin Lake.
This doesn’t look like the same house! I like the changes you made.
Thanks, Andrea! It was a lot of work, but we really enjoy our home. Stay tuned to see more updates!
Your house looks so cozy!
Nice posts! 🙂
___
Sanny
Whats up very nice web site!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing .. I’ll bookmark your blog and take the feeds also…I’m glad to search out so many useful information right here within the put up, we’d like work out extra techniques on this regard, thanks for sharing.
Absolutely love what you did with everything! My husband and I are mostly DIYer’s ourselves, and while the skill and enthusiasm is there, we keep running into one important hurdle – design! How did you come to make your design decisions as you went along. Did you start with the full design in mind and work project by project towards it? If so, how did you make the decision to pull the pin and stick with one “style”. It all looks so cohesive, and we so frequently have our projects look pieced together because we can’t seem to achieve a common look. Any advice that way?
Can we book your design services 🙂
Thanks, Michelle for asking your question!
We lived in our house (as a part-time lake house/cabin) for several years before we renovated and built the addition. We really thought about how we used each space. Neal is also a real estate appraiser so he has seen MANY houses (some well designed and other not so much). We have also renovated two houses previously. Looking at magazines and Pinterest also helped us to get ideas.
In the existing part of our house, we knew we wanted an open living area and the existing layout of the house allowed that. We literally laid out spaces and studies them for months. Originally, we were going to put the dining area where our sitting area is. We are glad we changed this. When you are renovating, you have to plan/design within the existing space except for maybe moving a wall/columns or adding/replacing windows. Neal does have a real eye for seeing the potential and having completed two major renovations in the past also helped. Once we had things laid out, we took our ideas to a draftsman to draw the plans.
When planning/designing the addition, we knew some things we wanted. We wanted long windows on the lakeside and when possible using odd numbers (3, 5 or 9) on things like windows, although we do have double windows in several places. We wanted neutral colors (cabinets, paint, etc.). We wanted each adult child to have their own bathroom. We wanted a large walk-in closet so we could keep all of our clothes in one place and have less furniture in our bedroom. We also wanted everything to look as timeless as possible. The draftsman put all of these ideas on paper too.
However, once we completed the renovation, there were several areas/spaces we wanted to redo or further renovation. We did not like our paint colors in the basement, so we finally changed them a few years later. In other words, now that we have lived in our house for several years, we study an area (our porch, the loft, the basement ceiling, the basement floor, our deck, etc.) and then look at pictures on Pinterest. We also really think about how we use this space and the ultimate look we want to accomplish. I must admit that Neal has a real gift in designing spaces and over the years, I am better at decorating (still not great, but getting better thanks to Pinterest). Sometimes, we have planned a project for a year or more.
We still have SEVERAL projects. For example, I don’t like our granite countertops anymore. I wish we had taken more time to select them; they are too busy. Replacing them will not happen any time soon. I also want to replace or recover what we call our “flowery chairs” in our sitting area because they are worn and the fabric is TOTALLY outdated. We are also in the process of replacing our deck rail.
All this to say, our goal is to create a timeless look. We do not want to be too trendy and have to change things often. We also want our home to represent our family memories. We want it to be us.
So my advice would be to decide the look and feel you want by looking at Pinterest and other sources. Then, really study your spaces to see what is possible. Think about colors, layout, and any extra design features you want to add. Then, create a plan to slowly transform these spaces.
I hope this helps. Feel free to share more about your project ideas. I would love to see what you are considering.
Be blessed,
Suzanne