Chateau Du Lac

The material list on this house reads like a furniture spec rather than a construction one. Limestone floors, custom mahogany French doors, maple paneling in the study, and cherry floors through the main living areas. Those are choices that cost more up front and look better in twenty years than they do on move-in day.

The site did as much work as the materials. The house sits back from the water behind a broad lawn, with the mature live oaks left in place rather than cleared for an easier footprint, and a private dock and covered boathouse at the shoreline.

Inside, the plan runs to formal rooms. The living room sits under an octagonal coffered ceiling with arched French doors opening toward the lake, the dining room takes a bay window on the front of the house, and the study is paneled and shelved on every wall around its own fireplace.