2011 - Best Luxury Home - $500,000 to $1,000,000

This project gave us the opportunity to build our customer’s dream home on a beautiful and hard to come by lakefront lot located in the south end of Burlington, Vermont.

Please click here to see photos of this home.

Please click here to read a testimonial from these homeowners.

Site:

The house was sited to take advantage of the spectacular views of Shelburne Bay to the south, Juniper Island and the Adirondacks to the west, and Burlington Bay to the north.  The house sits back from the lake 75 feet to preserve the beauty of the redstone shoreline.

This lot had redstone outcroppings that made the sitework a challenge.  We had to blast in order to excavate the foundation, which in the middle of Burlington is very tricky.  We conducted pre-blast and post-blast surveys of 17 neighboring houses and hired a blast inspector to monitor the entire process.  The end result was a great supply of beautiful redstone which we used to create walls to transition grades on the site and we used the redstone to build the fireplace in the great room and for the chimney above the roof.

Design:

With its shingle-clad exterior, this house would fit just as naturally on the shores of Nantucket Island as it does on the shore of Lake Champlain.

The exterior driftwood gray sawn shingles and the white contrasting trim are both made from cedar to give the house natural longevity.  The first floor terraces and patios are clad with bluestone and the second floor deck has an Ipe floor.

This house was designed to reflect the homeowners love for life and family.  At the main entry you are greeted with a covered porch with a copper-clad eyebrow roof over the front steps.  This porch also features a custom handmade cherry entry door, sidelights, arched transom and storm door.  The quality of this beautiful door unit sets the standard for the rest of the house.  Coming in from the garage you are greeted with a very functional mudroom with warm Mexican tile floors.  The highlight of the first floor is a chef’s kitchen with Wood-Mode cabinets, custom stainless steel and butcher block countertops and professional-grade appliances.  The house has a very open plan that connects the kitchen, dining, great room and entry foyer, giving them all great flow and amazing views.  Sixteen feet of glass connects the great room to the first floor covered terrace, which expands the living space to the lakeside.  There is also a wonderful screened in porch off the kitchen and dining areas that allow the comfort of the outdoors without being bothered by bugs! There is also a very functional laundry room and pantry on this first floor, both of which take advantage of the natural sunlight by being located on an exterior wall with a window.  Beyond the quaint powder room is an exquisite first floor master suite that has been designed with “aging-in-place” in mind.  Finishes on the first floor include beautiful cherry hardwood floors throughout the main living areas and master bedroom; marble floors and walls in the master bathroom, and well proportioned painted wood trim.

The second floor of this house includes two bedrooms, an office and a spectacular family room/library.  The library is located off an open second floor balcony that overlooks the stairwell and entry foyer.  Ten foot wide, French pocket doors lead you into the library and allow natural light from the west to flood into the foyer area.  On the lake side of the library there is twelve feet of glass doors and sidelights that lead you out to a balcony overlooking the lake with breathtaking views.  The second floor also includes an unfinished bonus room over the garage that has endless possibilities for expansion.


This house was built to very efficient energy standards and features the following mechanical systems:

§    In-floor radiant heat fired by a highly efficient boiler.
§    Heat-recovering central ventilation system that provides this tightly built house with a source of fresh air.

Although this house looks like it could have been built at the turn of the century because of its natural timeless finishes and the way that the house and the driveway were carefully fit into the natural surroundings, it also takes advantage of this rare Burlington lakefront lot by being built right to the setback lines on the south, west and north sides of the property.

The homeowners could not be happier with their new home by the lake, which makes us very proud of our work.