Exterior Lakehouse Renovation Plans

I’m almost in disbelief when I say, that after two and a half years of looking at tired siding, the new exterior starts in a a couple of days! Yassssss! I’m really excited to show you my exterior renovation plans for our lakehouse. Believe me when I tell you that I overthought myself in circles so many times, it’s been unbelievable. I bet you’ll be surprised to see that I’m keeping a big item exactly the same! I have some big ideas to amp up the curb appeal and I can’t wait to show you our exterior lakehouse renovation plans!

Why I’m Staying with White Wide Plank Siding (but replacing of course!)

I love white and this home has been a white house for 100 years! That’s right our lakehouse was built in 1922 and will be having a big birthday next year. I’m already planning the celebration! Even though I knew I loved white, I still thought that if we were changing the exterior then I should change the colour and I thought that through a lot. The only alternative that I really considered was a composite cedar shake look in a light weathered grey. The weird thing was I kept thinking I love the really wide plank of our siding now…that look is so classic…the wider the better, in my opinion.

I was in the final days of having to decide and the final inspiration came when we were watching Father of the Bride. I was like I love that exterior so much…and realized, hey wait they have wide plank white siding like we do, and a black roof like we do, and that’s when I knew that I wasn’t going to change the white siding look just get new fresh siding and focus all my efforts and dollars on curb appeal details.

In case you’re wondering why we can’t work with what we have, our siding is aluminum and is just as old as the hills and was not installed well, so it has butt joints (two pieces seamed together) in all the wrong places like everywhere you wouldn’t put one! Like all the way up the centre of the front porch?! They also don’t make this size anymore and we’re making so many changes it’s well worth switching it out….trust me I spent a long time thinking about how to make that one work.

What We’ve Replaced Already

We replaced all of our windows and the ones that we haven’t yet will all be done just in time for the siding, and we replaced our front door. We also did extensive work to the sewers, plumbing, drainage, and foundation. Oh and we also did new landscaping and planted a million hydrangeas. I can’t wait till the whole house is covered in a sea of white annabelle hydrangeas! The main focus this past 2.5 years was was the interior which renovated completely. It’s kind of wild when people come over for the first time and walk into a fully renovated house when the exterior looks so old and clap-trappy. We’re like, “surprise”! lol…I can’t wait for our insides to match our outsides!

In Case You Missed Our Interior Renovation Reveals

In case you’re new to our lakehouse reno, here are some dramatic reveals you need to see: Kitchen, Living Room, Dining Room, Mudroom, Master Bedroom, Ensuite, Juliette’s Bedroom, laundry room, coffee bar

In the next few weeks, I’ll finally be sharing our family room reno and our daughters’ bathroom reno…I can’t wait to show you them!

Front Elevation When we Bought the Home

Current Progress

Porch Exterior Lakehouse Renovation Plan

I really wanted to focus our reno dollars where I think you would really see it. The porch is definitely a key factor in our exterior lakehouse renovation plan. After lots of searching, this porch by Polhemus Savery Dasilva Architects makes my heart sing! I’m not exactly sure how and which details our guy will do but this is the photo. I love the curve underneath to give height and the posts are so nice. Looking forward to seeing how our guy makes some magic happen to integrate into our home.

Little Metal Roofs with Corbels

For me where our curb appeal is lacking the most is all the empty, plain space above the windows. I guess it’s just what happens with capecods of our vintage, but my plan to really dress that space up is with metal roofs supported by corbels. The best example of what I want is by Lilypad Cottage. It’s just perfect in every way. We’re also doing the panelling/wainscoting look around the windows as well, on the 4 prominent front windows.

Shutters and Window Boxes

I love this image from Sanctuary Home Decor. These are the exact shutters we’re getting. Except our shutters and siding will be white on white. I think it will be really pretty, clean, and classic. Our installer doesn’t want to order them till after the trim is done to get the exact right length…which really isn’t my favourite idea because they will arrive so much later (patience girrrl! lol!) I think I’m going to get around some of the lead time by asking if he can start on the shutter windows?

Rear Elevation When We Bought the Home

When we bought the home it had a porch off the back that wasn’t approved by ERCA (because our home is on the water you need approvals for all work) and had to be removed, but it didn’t bother us at all because it had ruined the view. We kept the roof and then supported it, to make a covered porch. The home also had no patio doors out at all, so we added a 16′ set and an 8′ set. The view is now 180 degrees from inside and out.

In the photo below, you can see we’ve replaced the dormer window on the right end of the house, which we did during our master bedroom reno. All the rest of the original windows will be replaced in a couple of days and that will be the end of the interior renos!

Current Progress

You can really see how the 3 seasons porch had ruined the view and how open it is now without it. You can also see how the only way outside was through the porch.

I can’t believe how much work the house needed! We went through some dark times that’s for sure doubting ourselves, if it would all be worth it, but I’m so pumped to say that now that we’re at the finish line it’s been insanely worth it. We feel so freaking lucky to have bought this home and took a chance on it when we did. It’s been the best decision I think we’ve ever made. Especially since we kept our last home and turned it into a vacation rental.

I can’t wait to share every step of the exterior reno with you guys!! So the final windows go in this week and the exterior starts next week. I’ll be sharing a ton of updates on my Instagram story daily!

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