The House Was in Bad Shape. But It Was On a Lake in Seattle.

Discovering a house that feels proper isn’t simple. Generally, as Jeremy and Jen Lewis found whereas looking for a spot in Seattle, it may take years.

The couple, who had been working in finance in New York, moved to the West Coast in 2006 with their youngsters — Ben, now 24, Sarah, 22, and Margaret, 19 — after Ms. Lewis left her job and Mr. Lewis accepted a proposal to assist construct a Seattle-based video-game firm.

“We needed to go and discover a brand new a part of the world with our household,” Mr. Lewis, 53, stated.

At first, they moved to Bainbridge Island, drawn by its lush magnificence and brief ferry experience to Seattle. The surroundings was breathtaking, however Mr. Lewis shortly found that commuting to work was extra time-consuming than anticipated. After a few years, they started renting houses within the metropolis and on the lookout for a spot there to purchase.

It was simpler stated than finished. After 4 years of renting, “we have been nonetheless looking out for a particular residence and property that may be extra everlasting and provides us a way of place,” Ms. Lewis, 53, stated.

When their lease was about to run out, the couple determined to purchase a home in close by Bellevue as a stopgap. “It was the only option on the time,” Ms. Lewis stated.

It wasn’t till 2016 that they discovered a spot that captured their creativeness: a 5,400-square-foot home on an extra-wide lot within the Laurelhurst neighborhood of Seattle. The home, which confronted Lake Washington, had been inbuilt 1950 and partially up to date through the years, nevertheless it nonetheless wanted an entire overhaul.

“It hadn’t been renovated for a few years. It had knob-and-tube electrical; it had a chopped-up ground plan,” Ms. Lewis stated.

Nevertheless it additionally had good bones price preserving and options they hadn’t discovered elsewhere. “The view is expansive,” she stated. “You’ll be able to see Mount Rainier.”

The property additionally had direct entry to the water, and the Lewises weren’t the one ones who noticed the attraction of that. With an inventory worth of $4.75 million, the property drew a number of affords. The couple in the end gained the bidding battle with an bid of $5.8 million, and closed in July 2016.

Then they referred to as Prentis Hale, a highschool pal of Mr. Lewis’s and the principal architect of the Seattle-based agency Shed, who shared their enthusiasm for the positioning. “It’s a fantastic piece of property that’s exhausting to not like,” Mr. Hale stated. “However the home had a variety of deferred upkeep. It wanted a lot work.”

Many individuals would have torn it down and constructed one thing larger, however the Lewises needed to work with what was already there. Mr. Hale developed a plan to remodel the home inside and outside whereas leaving the unique construction principally intact.

To get the household into the home as shortly as potential, he cut up the work into two phases: The primary could be a intestine renovation of the inside; the second could be a metamorphosis of the outside, with a brand new outbuilding and landscaping to tie all the things collectively.

Within the first section, partitions have been eliminated between the kitchen, front room, eating room and solarium to create one free-flowing area with the informal sense of togetherness the Lewises envisioned. Upstairs, six awkward bedrooms have been reconfigured into 4 beneficiant ones. Downstairs, the media room within the walkout basement was transformed.

All through, the Lewises selected supplies they wouldn’t have to fret about, whereas aiming so as to add a bit of Japanese wabi-sabi, which they’d admired throughout a visit to Kyoto years earlier. “We needed it to be sensible,” Ms. Lewis stated. “You may be coming in off the lake dripping moist, so we needed to embrace that concept of utilizing the home in a snug manner, the place nothing was overly treasured.”

That line of considering is widespread within the space, famous the couple’s inside designer, Jennie Gruss. “Within the Northwest, individuals need their areas to be stunning however tremendous useful and sturdy,” she stated. “However on high of that, they needed this layer of serenity.”

The furnishings she used included a pair of front room sofas upholstered in indoor-outdoor cloth that appears and appears like white linen however resists moisture and stains, and a pair of classic chairs by Jindrich Halabala that already had timeworn wooden arms.

The household moved into the home after the primary section was accomplished in September 2017, in time to get pleasure from it earlier than their oldest baby left for faculty. They moved again out once more in June 2018, and the second section started. This time, their contractor, Whelbilt Properties, up to date the outside look of the home, changing outdated home windows with new high-performance ones and recladding the construction with shou-sugi-ban charred wooden siding on the highest ground and slender white bricks on the decrease ground.

Beside the home, they constructed a 1,100-square-foot outbuilding with a storage and visitor suite at road degree, and an out of doors bathe and space for storing for paddleboards beneath. (Mr. Lewis is a paddling fanatic who has competed in long-distance races.)

The brand new landscaping, designed by the panorama structure agency Alchemie and applied by Ohashi Panorama Providers, stitches the 2 buildings along with Huckleberry basalt boulders, forest grasses and Japanese black maple bushes (together with some that have been 70 years outdated), to create an instantaneous sense of maturity. The landscaping additionally consists of areas for a sizzling tub from J & Ok Cedarworks, a hearth pit and an space of garden the place the household canine, Luigi, can run.

Development was full a 12 months later, in June 2019. Altogether, the venture price about $500 a sq. foot.

When their youngest baby left for faculty earlier this 12 months, Mr. and Ms. Lewis grew to become empty nesters. However the residence they constructed nonetheless serves because the household’s important gathering spot. “It’s a very pretty place to be,” Mr. Lewis stated. “We dwell exterior as a lot as inside, getting train or simply sitting by the fireplace pit and telling an excellent story.”

“Or,” Ms. Lewis added, “sitting within the sizzling tub on a wet day.”

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