Vive Gave Us Everything We Hoped For.
“The style points we were looking for were stone and wood, in a craftsman-esque look, but with a touch of modern. Vive knew exactly what we were talking about, and how to get us there in the most efficient manner while maintaining top-quality work and materials. We started with a dump and Vive changed it to a dream!”
Our clients’ story told in their own words:
Shape of the house when we first took ownership.
This was our diamond-in-the-rough.
We purchased it because of its great location, on a lake. The potential was astounding, but you couldn’t hardly see any of it.
In fact, it was so rough — in layout and usability, not condition — that we never moved in before the transformation. We had to have home renovations done to fit our needs.
I called Vive. They’ve done some work for us before, so I knew how they worked and the kind of quality I could expect, which was the best. My wife also loved the way they paid such close attention to her style requests.
The house was built in 1975. It was probably quite stylish back then, but it hadn’t aged well. On the plus side, we didn’t have to even think about keeping anything, unless we wanted to open a disco or something.
I gave Vive a list of things we wanted so they could start their planning:
A multi-purpose, multi-use, multi-season outdoor living space.
We used the space above the new basement entry for a covered porch/deck with retractable screens. This gave us a gorgeous multi-purpose outdoor living area.
A convenient basement entry for lake access. There were going to be a lot of kids and grandkids swimming, boating and fishing, so this was a necessity.
This required excavating the foundation and cutting in a door and windows, which created a basement entry that also provided additional outdoor living space.
Better entries and access. The old house only had two doors in inconvenient spots.
A covered main entry was added, which provided direct entry to the home, plus a basement walk-out with direct access to the lake.
More garage space for cars, scooters, boats, water toys, etc.
To expand the garage, we used a portion of the existing garage for storage, then added a 2-car garage addition.
The style points my wife emphasized were stone and wood, in a craftsman-esque look, but with a touch of modern. Vive gave us everything we hoped for.
The exterior stone accents added texture, a rich appearance and nice contrast to the smooth surface of the walls.
The exterior colors on the trim and siding pulled color from the stone to unify our home’s appearance.
The back side of the original home.
The previous siding didn’t add much
appeal to the house.
This basement entry was added
for easier access to the lake.
Back face after home renovations.
Stone accents were used to add texture
and contrast to the exterior.
Our updated garage.
A view of the interior once construction started.
Before the staircase was updated.
A transformation this big required a lot of ingenuity.
A trick the designer used in the interior was replacing the existing spindle rail system (on stairway to the second floor) with a more current stainless steel cable system that also didn’t obstruct any of the views. These guys are good!
We needed room for children, grandchildren and guests to stay with some degree of privacy (separate from us).
Two separate suites on the second floor were created, with a common loft in the center, featuring a commanding view.
A large, first-floor master suite with a bathroom and walk-in closet. We intend to be there for a while, so I wanted easy access that would accommodate us as we get older.
Vive used a portion of the existing garage for the first-floor master suite with wider doorways and a walk-in shower to make this happen. Brilliant!
The kitchen is now an open space that allows for visiting and taking in lake views.
Grandkids playing hard at a lake will be hungry kids – the kitchen needed to have a lot of space and functionality. Vive went out of their way to ensure our new kitchen would be fully-functional for our lifestyle.
This award winning transformation was extensive. Take a look through a few more highlights:
Vive even updated the fireplace
for our living space.
View from the loft into our living area.
The new colors and textures were a definite
departure from the homes’ previous 70s vibe.
The new loft area and kitchen.
Generous windows bring in light and
great views from the lake.
The kitchen was updated with various
textures and decorations.
We are absolutely giddy with how our home turned out. We grin every time we come home. Vive truly transformed the house to our dream home, and it’s a good thing we added so many bedrooms and suites because our kids and grandkids also love it so much, they’re here all the time.
We couldn’t be happier!
