After 10 years of renovations, we are close to being finished with the Cabbage Lakehouse.

Our journey began in 2015 when we purchased a foreclosed cottage on Houghton Lake in Michigan. Little did we know the challenges that we would face renovating it. We were not newcomers to remodeling or building. In our early 20s, we bought our first home and remodeled the entire house, despite having little experience at the time. After a few more homes, we designed and built our dream home in our early 30s.

We had no idea we would completely transform the space, including raising the structure and adding a new foundation. We handled most of the demo and the rebuild ourselves. The mechanical work and drywall installation were contracted out. Due to the distance from our permanent home, we could only work on the cottage most weekends. We held a tight budget during the renovation. Doing many things ourselves helped, and also purchasing items on clearance or at resale shops.

Below is some of the before and after of our 10-year project. Here is the lakeside renovation.

Picture from the original MLS listing. Notice the cottage has a slab foundation.
New windows and doors installed . In the process of raising the 2 story structure
New foundation built and the cottage lowered.
The cottage with new siding, trim and lights
The cottage after adding the lower deck and upper deck
A side view of the new decks
Our finished lakeside without the upstairs door pergola

Below is our renovated cottage entrance. The first on the left was the original to the cottage. It had a sunroom attached to the side with windows and a small door. This sunroom made the kitchen feel very dark. We ended up taking the sunroom off the side of the house after we raised it. I was looking to change the entrance of the cottage, and due to cost, we decided that a new sunroom was not worth the extra cost.

Original picture with the sunroom attached to the side entrance
We still have the roof of the sunroom on as we raised the cottage for its new foundation. The roof would also be demolished later.
Better side view.The chimney was not finished when we purchased the cottage. We will eventaully paid someone to complete it and take it to the roof with real stone
After the sunporch and roof were taken off. New doors and windows were added to lett more sun into the kitchen. A new double door was added for the new entrance.
The concrete foundation for the old porch still remained. Chimney is reticked and stones now go all the way up.
Our finished entry into the cottage. I love how this pergola and entrance turned out.

The Interior Renovation

Interior Renovations

Interior Renovations

Before Interior work could begin, we needed to determine the layout of the first floor. This new layout would determine the placement of the new windows and new doors. I wish I had rendered the prior layout to show how drastically we changed the layout. The kitchen was closed off with a small 4 foot opening into the middle of the cottage. We took out the entire wall and increased the kitchen floor space by 2 ft. by eliminating space in a first-floor bedroom. The wall was a load-bearing wall, so we had to order LVL’s for support. The front of the cottage was also opened up with an additional LVL so that we could eliminate a supporting beam.

The initial first-floor bathroom had a pass thru to the back bedroom. Yes you had to go through the bathroom to get to the back room. We made the bedroom smaller (thus adding space to the kitchen), created a hall, and moved the plumbing to allow for a nice-sized bathroom with no pass-through. We added a wall of windows in the kitchen and in the front sunroom area.

The original stairs did not meet code requirements, so we reworked the stairs and added a larger landing.

The upstairs also needed reworking. When we purchased the cottage, there was only a toilet and a sink upstairs with no bathroom on the master bedroom side. We took space out of the 4th bedroom to add a tub/shower enclosure to that bathroom . Then we need to plan the master bedroom bathroom. Since we wanted to maximize the lake views from the master, we added a sliding door wall and 5 additional windows. The drawing was modified even further so that the lakeside of the cottage had symmetry with the window placement. The entry of the bedroom was changed to allow for this new bathroom.

THE KITCHEN

The original kitchen was very dark because a mudroom porch was attached to the cottage and blocked any view of the lake. The kitchen sink drainpipe was broken, and all contents from the sink drained outside onto the ground. (This was a foreclosure, so I am sure the pipe was not winterized properly).

Original kitchen with the mixmatched windows
Original eating space in the kitchen
The day we closed on the cottage
Jim tearing out the cabinents.
Jim in the eating area of the kitchen. We had to demo wallpaper over 70’s paneling, exterior siding and sheathing from inside the kitchen.
The pile of misc kitchen material.
Jordynn when we were taking down all the walls in the kitchen
Original opening of the kitchen into the great room, it was about 4 ft wide.
Jim in the kitchen demo.
The original kitchen with all of the different layers of material.