Over the course of the summer and fall I painted every wall of the lake house, using a less stark-white color that matches the walls in the Verona house. It took several weeks, but I wrapped it up about a month ago.
Once that was done, it was time to bring in the flooring and let it acclimate. I went with a lifeproof vinyl in the basement, and a light colored bamboo hardwood upstairs.
The basement flooring was installed first. After removing the old red carpet, we made a crazy discovery that there used to be red and white tile underneath it!
In any case, the vinyl went in smoothly and looks awesome. It has a rustic feel that complement the trim and decor in the basement.
Next, the upstairs flooring went in. My goal with this was for it to resemble an antique teak deck on a yacht, while complementing the upstairs trim color and adding brightness to the rooms. I think the wood I picked out did that perfectly!
I also had several custom rugs made which tied everything together even more. I’m especially happy with the huge basket weave patterned rug that runs under all of the couches, it was the biggest rug I’ve ever ordered but fits the space really nicely.
After the floors, I turned my attention to the stairs. Sort of like the surprise red and white tile in the basement, there was a (this time much better) surprise underneath the carpet in the stairs: they were built using old growth pine from the 70’s that was perfect for staining; I didn’t need to replace them with oak given how hard the old pine was.
After sanding and staining the wood once the carpet was removed, the final look was excellent. It tied both the upstairs and basement flooring together, and fit the rustic feel of the house while also providing a link to the original construction.
The very final part of this round of lake house remodeling was dealing with the fireplaces. The house has two wood-burning fireplaces, and while I don’t have any interest in removing the ability to burn wood, I wanted to have an electric option thats gives the feel of a fireplace that can be turned on at the click of a button, since we don’t need to rely on the fires for heat in the winter now that the house has central heat and air. I purchased two electric log sets, that go into the existing fireplaces and provide a really classy look.
With that, the summer 2020 lake house renovations are done, and we’re ready for winter!
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