§ 01 — THE PROGRESS
The Building Starts to Show Itself
A lot has changed since we were last here. The exterior is starting to come together — soffits and fascias going on, more detailing around the windows and overhangs. On the inside, the kitchen cabinets are in, the fireplace is being set, and the spaces that were just framed and open are starting to feel like rooms.
This is one of my favourite stages of a project. The floor plan is fully readable now. The lake view is visible from every room it’s supposed to be visible from. You can stand in the kitchen and understand what it’s going to feel like when the clients are in there making coffee, looking east across the water.
The fireplace is getting a custom steel surround. You can’t see much through the protective plastic right now, but the metalwork has started and it’s going to be a strong detail once it’s finished. One of those moments where the material choices start to make the space feel resolved rather than just built.
§ 02 — THE MASTER
His Side, Her Side, One Glass Door
In the master ensuite, we made a change from a more standard layout. Instead of a double sink on one wall, we put a vanity on each side of the room — one for each person. Keeps the morning routine from becoming a bottleneck. The shower is generous, there’s a water closet nook in the corner, and a tub location that looks out to the lake through the bedroom.
The door from the ensuite to the deck still gets me. It’s a glass door, and it opens to an outdoor shower we framed with three cedar posts. There’s nothing elaborate about the enclosure — the posts create a loose screen, the sky is above, the deck is underfoot, and the lake is in front. The kind of detail that sounds better in person than on paper.
The master bedroom itself has an exposed beam at the ceiling with a black finish above it. White walls, clean lines, and one dark ceiling plane up top. It anchors the room without being heavy.
§ 03 · THE TOUR
Watch the Full Walkthrough
We filmed this with Josh and his team at Vertex Custom Carpentry — mid-finishing at this stage, and close enough to done that you can really read the final version.
§ 04 — THE DETAILS
What the Contractor Got Right
There’s a venting detail on the soffit above the master bedroom deck that I want to call out. Most contractors set the vent flush with whatever surface it’s going through and call it done. Josh held this one back, recessed it into the underside of the wood soffit so it nearly disappears. Small thing. Completely unnecessary from a functional standpoint. Exactly the kind of care that makes a building look like it was thought through rather than assembled.
On the south side, there’s a metal bracket sticking out from the wall — a sign of things to come. We’re adding a metal canopy on that elevation to manage the afternoon sun coming into the main living area. It’s not about blocking rain. It’s about keeping that face from overheating while still letting the low winter sun come in. Passive solar thinking, executed with metal.
In the basement, the corner bedroom has a detail worth noting. The concrete floor was poured normally and then ground down to expose the aggregate — and that’s the finished surface. No tile, no hardwood, no additional cost. Just the slab, cleaned up to reveal what’s already in the concrete. Put a rug in and the room is done. It’s a genuinely good-looking floor and more people should consider it.
§ 05 — THE THROUGH-LINE
Light, on Every Floor
The thing that holds this building together is the way light moves through it. The eight-by-fourteen glass pane in the stairwell pulls light from the top floor down to grade. The high windows above the appliance wall wash the kitchen in diffused south light. The glass door in the master ensuite brings the morning lake light directly into the bathroom. Even the basement bedroom gets decent light — two windows, a ground-finished concrete floor that bounces what comes in.
We didn’t chase a single dramatic gesture on this project. We just made sure every room had access to light in a way that felt intentional. That’s the through-line.
