The owner of this home, located on Fagerness Point on Lake Minnetonka, was referred to us by a former client. They wanted us to completely redo their main level because although three sides of their home faced the lake, they couldn’t access views from all three sides. They wanted to change that.

The goals of this project included:

• Reconfiguring the main floor – the homeowners wanted lake views from all three sides of the home that face the lake, something that was lacking before.
• Updating the look – rather than knock the home down and build anew, the homeowners wanted to work with what they had and update the look.

What do you when three sides of your home face Lake Minnetonka but don’t offer views from all three sides? You completely start over.

That’s what we did with this home, but we didn’t tear it down. Rather, we demoed the entire first floor, right down to the studs and started with a clean slate.

The homeowners did not want additional square footage added to their home, so instead we came up with a design that completely changed the layout of the home. This opened everything up and provided a better flow as well as much better, sweeping lake views.

First, we changed the bearing wall, took out the rest of the walls, reconfigured the windows, and added patio doors.

In addition, we brought in a new HVAC and plumbing system which we designed to fit the new layout.

Of course, a complete demo of the main floor meant we had to rebuild what we took out, including a totally redone kitchen, bathroom and mudroom along with a fresh coat of paint throughout the home. There were a substantial number of extras – paint and carpet – in other parts of the home to blend the updated portion of the home with the existint portion.

The project also included painting the exterior of the home, and new landscaping.

All in all, the project took about four months from start to finish, and when the homeowners, who weren’t living in the home at the time, saw the finished project, their jaws dropped in awe. They could not believe the transformation and that it was in fact the same property. It’s those types of reactions that reinforce the love that we have for what we do.