Lake Houses - Hardcover

Visser, John; Ross, Judy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1550464833 ISBN 13: 9781550464832

Publisher: Boston Mills Press, 2008

Synopsis

The definitive book on "lake-house " style.

This richly illustrated book takes the reader deep into lake country to reveal the essence of lake house and summer cottage style. Spectacular photographs and insightful essays capture the best of 100 revered homes.

Lake Houses is a guided tour of gardens where bright impatiens grow among the roots of island trees, past hammocks hung from the weathered beams of a breezy wraparound veranda, into rustic turn-of-the-century cottage kitchens, and across the warm wood floors of sun-drenched sitting rooms on the bay.

This enchanting book is full of memories, but it also serves as an idea book. In these pages, lake house owners from several regions welcome visitors onto their properties and open the doors to their beloved summer residences.

Included are chapters on:

• Exteriors
• Living rooms
• Dining rooms
• Kitchens
• Boathouses
• Bedrooms
• Bathrooms
• Guest cabins and bunkies
• Decks, docks and gazebos
• Verandas and porches
• Wall works and fireplaces
• Gardens.

Whether designed by a famous architect or a pragmatic relative many generations ago, these lake houses represent the soul of summer.

About this title

About the Author

John de Visser's photographs have been collected in more than 60 books. His outstanding lake country pictorials include Boathouses, The Thousand Islands, Shelter at the Shore and Georgian Bay. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Judy Ross is the award-winning author of eight books, and her articles have appeared in such magazines as House and Home, Cottage Life, Canadian Gardening, Leisureways, Town and Country, and Travel and Leisure. She lives in Collingwood, Ontario.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction

Where the Heart Is

The lake house. The mere words evoke images of sun-dappled woods and sparkling waters, breezy screened verandas and the promise of lazy afternoons. Often our most treasured retreat, the lake house has become a metaphor for relaxation, escapism and family kinship. Above all, it's the place where we can cast off our city shoes and worries, sink into an old porch rocker and be ourselves. Perhaps when Henry James said that the most beautiful words in the English language were "summer afternoon," he was envisioning a lazy day at a lakeside home.

In many parts of North America, summers at the lake house are an enduring institution, a part of our natural gravitation to the outdoors. Whether it's to the seashore, the bay, the lake or the river, the common element of this summer migration is the need to be near water. A need that's perpetuated by the children who spend summers jumping off wooden docks, learning to mimic the call of the loons, and being lulled to sleep by water lapping on the shore.

Lake house communities began to evolve before the turn of the last century. The allure of pine-scented woods and crystal-clear lakes was discovered by men of leisure who ventured far from their city homes to hunt and fish, fell in love with the land and staked claims to shorefront properties and islands. Before long they built houses. Some were grand stone mansions with servant wings and wide staircases. Others were more modest cabins built of wood and shingles. Many of these still exist today, summer homes to the descendants of these adventurous pioneers.

At the heart of lake house living is the family experience. No matter how widely dispersed or fragmented our families become, the lake house is the homing point to which we all return. As the enduring family touchstone, it represents the way we wish life could always be. Held within its wooden walls are memories of childhood summers, starry nights, and the kind of companionable gatherings that only happen on lamplit screened porches in the cool of a summer evening. What we hope to capture in this book, as much as the architecture and interior design of a variety of summer homes, is that essential spirit of lake house life.

With this in mind, we visited homes on lakes and rivers, on islands and beaches. We found many people who are following the trend of retiring to their summer places, so the cabin of old is becoming a more sophisticated dwelling with all the amenities of urban life. We met families who spent vast amounts of money on their showcase places and ones who are proudly hanging on as the fifth generation to summer at the family lake house, determined that nothing will change. Although vastly different in style and dimension, the common elements of these houses are intriguing. They are all built on water and have glorious views; they are all treasured as retreats from other lives; and they are all owned by people who say, "My lake house is where my heart is."

About this edition

• Publisher: Boston Mills Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1550464833
• ISBN 13: 9781550464832
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224