Designing a Lake Martin home from the outside in

Every time I walk into a house that wasn’t designed for Lake Martin, I can tell almost immediately. And no, it’s not always because the house looks bad or is built poorly. In fact, it might be a beautiful home with great craftsmanship. But it’s often clear that the builder took a great plan that worked in the city and then dropped it on a lake lot without thinking through what makes Lake Martin living, well, Lake Martin living.

And listen, I get it. Builders often have a favorite floor plan, one they’ve built dozens of times in neighborhoods around Montgomery, Birmingham, Atlanta or elsewhere. The plan works. Buyers love it. It photographs well. But that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily going to work here.