Is This An Alternative For You?
By Ferne Hale

                Have you thought lately about buying a waterfront lot? Think there’s nothing left? You’ve joined the ranks of prospective Smith Mountain Lake homeowners frustrated by the shrinking availability of waterfront property. What to do?
                According to realtor Jane Sullivan Horne, “The market is changing tremendously. People are now looking to move from weekend homes to permanent ones. This is driving a new market: remodeling and tear-downs.” 
                Jane, who remodeled her own home, recommends additions or re-dos only if done on the right property: “One with a good lot, nice view and good slope, where there’s enough room to add on to a house with ‘good bones.’ The new part must ‘marry well’ with the existing structure. Don’t add a big, new family room to an old house without making other renovations to blend the two interiors and exteriors.”
                If you cruise the Blackwater River, you’ve probably noticed the change from caterpillar to butterfly at the Mueller home across from marker B-22. In 1995, the family could hardly get a realtor to show it to them. It had been on the market for 8 years! But the New Jersey couple ended up buying it for weekend use, never expecting to move here.
                By 2003, however, the draw of the Lake had become irresistible, and their family craved a place for large reunions. They said goodbye to Jersey, moved here, and spent a year deciding what to change. Their goals: one-floor living, maximized views across their 800 feet of shoreline, and a cottage style with light colors on the upper level over dark colors below to naturally blend the house into the hillside. They drew their own architectural plans, which builder Charles Lynch used to transform their 1967 A-frame. The Muellers rented a nearby house during the work, but they visited daily to track the progress and to do their own deck renovation, expanding the space and replacing the decking with weather-resistant Brazilian Ipe wood.
                 The family is thrilled with the final result of the project, which doubled the square footage and transformed an outdated A-frame look to a roomy, inviting “cottage at the lake” with remodeled kitchen, a new great room and master suite with game room below. Hickory floors and trim brighten the interior spaces, and lots of windows afford panoramic views of the Blackwater channel to the east, west and north.
                “Major remodeling is an art,” cautions Eric Noonkester of Smartworks™ Renovations. “While just about any experienced contractor can successfully build from scratch, a renovator has to deal with the complexities of tying into existing structure and architecture. You’ve got to thoroughly research the existing structure before adding loads, cutting holes or setting beams. Attention to detail is key to blending new and old — matching the pitch of roof sections, selecting window and door and trim styles that fit, marrying home systems. And if the old structure is out of square — which most are — there’s a whole new set of challenges!”
                Eric’s Lake renovations firm recently remodeled the Bratcher’s Mallard Point home on Gills Creek and doubled the size of the Fisher’s Roanoke River Lake home near R-8 — bringing them both into harmony with the valuable waterfront property on which they sit.
                “We were in the house most every weekend and really appreciated Eric’s effort to keep the work site clean and the kitchen and bathroom functional,” said homeowner Gary Fisher.
                “That doesn’t happen by chance,” Noonkester said. “Keeping the renovation experience as hassle-free as possible for the homeowner is part of the challenge.”
                It makes complete sense to renovate a summer cottage into a permanent home, says general contractor Mike Eades, who finds he’s doing more remodeling projects every year.
                “Empty waterfront lots have gotten so expensive — if you can find them,” Eades said. “Adding on isn’t cheap, and it takes lots of experience and patience to do it right. But if the lot is good, renovating can be an excellent investment while providing a great place to live and enjoy the Lake.”
                Experienced renovators know the techniques for keeping an addition from looking like an addition.
                “Matching the siding is just part of it,” said Eades, who added 1,800 square feet to the Backofen’s waterfront home, including a master suite with walk-in closets and luxury bathroom, a living room/sunroom, and a family room with fireplace on the lake level. “I make homeowners aware of the latest techniques, and together we select the approach that is right for each renovation.”
                Remodeling a Lake home doesn’t necessarily mean adding living space. Wanda and Gary Starnes updated their house on the Blackwater by ripping out the old wallpaper and having East Coast Decorative Painting’s Lynn Clayton, a makeover artist extraordinaire, enhance the walls with faux painting, textures, and surfaces she created from artist’s products to look like tiles, grout and sandstone on the kitchen walls. (Even a tile installer thought it was real, and that was after touching it!) But what to do with those old bathrooms?  Lynn painted over the old Formica to make it look like marble, and then she sealed it with a special water-resistant top coating for durability. You might have seen these techniques in the Starnes home, one of the SML Charity Home Tour stops in 2005.
               
Whether you are interested in doing a large-scale remodeling project or in just giving your Lake home a bit of a facelift, you can find a wealth of information in this special Home Builders’ Issue of the Laker Magazine