Stunning Transformation

Gilbert Lake-area home undergoes an exquisite makeover buILDER: MOSHER

DOLAN, ROYAL OAk

DESIGN: CbI DESIGN PROFESSIONALS, bLOOMFIELD HILLS; INTEGRATED ARCHITECTuRAL INTERIORS, bLOOMFIELD HILLS

INTERIOR DESIGN:

DANA JACOb

DESIGNS, FRANkLIN

LANDSCAPE

ARCHITECTuRE:

STEWART HASS & ASSOCIATES, EASTPOINTE

TEXT:

TRACY DONOHuE

PHOTOGRAPHY: bETH SINGER

Nearly a century ago, this home was built in an idyllic setting along Gilbert Lake in Bloomfield Hills. Featuring distinctive Michigan split-face fieldstone, the prominent structure was designed in a grand Colonial Revival Farmhouse style on a nearly 8-acre, picturesque parcel of land. The property includes the island in the middle of the lake. Its current owners purchased this historic gem in 2007.

“The home was more than we ever imagined. We’d been looking for a house, and the day before I saw the listing email, we’d decided to take a break from our search,” the homeowner recalls. “When we first saw the property, (we knew) it was magnificent. It was out of our price range, but we bought it on a whim. My husband said it would be the best real estate investment he would ever make — and he’s in real estate.”

In 2016, the homeowners decided to embark on an extensive four-year, multiphase renovation and expansion project to better showcase their collective passions centered on art, wine, entertaining, and family gatherings. They also wanted to maximize the home’s stunning water views. Maintaining the integrity, tradition, and many of the historical details of the original house was challenging, but paramount to the project.

Robert Clarke, president and owner of CBI Design Professionals in Bloomfield Hills, explains that the project started with a bathroom renovation and led to two additional large-scale phases. “The second phase was to add a wing to the house that included an attached garage, kids’ activity area, new mudroom and rear stairs, laundry, and updates to the family room. It was the owners’ way of seeing whether the home could be expanded to look as if it had been there 100 years. The original stone on the house is much larger, a bit darker, and more squared than what you find today, but (getting a close) match on the new stone needed for the addition was critical to the project.”

According to Clarke, who also runs Integrated Architectural Interiors, the masonry work involved a lengthy process, but the new stone harmoniously blended in with the aged patina of the original stone after it was cleaned and restored to its former condition. The same stonework was also used outside, for the terraces and kitchen patio area, as well as indoors for the library’s fireplace and the mudroom area’s archways.

Due to the success of the initial work, the next phase of expansion began with a two-story library, an additional staircase, a garden room, and a master suite, along with an exercise room and a significant wine cellar and tasting room in the lower level. Ultimately, the impressive home’s total square footage across three floors increased by about 9,583 square feet, to nearly 15,000 square feet.

To accommodate the lifestyle of the homeowners, the house now has three entrances: a mudroom entrance, a main entrance, and a third entrance for larger-scale gatherings that has an interior door separating the entertaining space from the family living space. All three entrances have beautiful, unobstructed views to the outdoors.

“I didn’t realize how little we could see of the lake before; the views were minimal. The changes have let in more lake. Now we live on the lake,” the homeowner says.