A Makeover Fit For A Priest Remodel Of Rancher Brings It In Tune With Rustic Beauty Of North Idaho Lake

First Place: Remodels and Additions

Structurally, there was nothing wrong with the weekend home Joe Levernier purchased for his family several years ago.

But the 30-year-old ranch-style retreat seemed out of place on the woodsy east shore of Priest Lake. The living room’s fake bricks and pressboard paneling clashed with the pristine views beyond the sliding aluminum door.

So Levernier approached Spokane architect Jon Sayler, whose timbered lodges dot the North Idaho landscape.

Sayler’s solution was to open up the existing floor plan, build a compact four-story tower nextdoor, and connect the two buildings with a 16-foot-long enclosed bridge.

A basement was added beneath the original house, which had been built on stilts, and a screened porch added to the existing deck. To maximize the light penetrating the heavily wooded site, the porch roof was made of 10-millimeter-thick sheets of translucent Lexan.

Inside the existing home, log columns were inserted to carry a new ridge beam. That allowed Sayler to eliminate the flat ceiling in the living-dining area and create a more inviting multiple-use “great room.”

The project also included adding a new, gabled entry porch accented with stone pillars.

The tower addition houses a master bedroom suite on the main level and a weekend office with distracting views upstairs.

Levernier said the exterior look Sayler conjured - particularly the 2-by-8s crisscrossing in front of windows - is meant to suggest North Idaho’s mining heritage. “We tried to get away from the typical log cabin,” he explained.

The five Inland Northwest Awards jurors were uniformly impressed.

“Ambitious project,” wrote Washington State University architecture professor David Wang, “but ambition fully realized.”

“Very attractive,” echoed Cheney Cowles Museum history curator Marsha Rooney. “Nice use of materials and addition of floor space on small footprint.”

“Spectacular transformation,” commented Spokane Art School director Sue Ellen Heflin.

“Great lake feel,” observed landscape architect Dave Nelson. “Fits into site.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo