March 2011 Gem Lake Newsletter - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Gem Lake News Page 2 of 6 "For a while it seemed that every week, something else went wrong," said proud owner Greg Smith recently. "That's just the way it is when you start remodeling an older structure." One of the happiest of complications to the schedule, was the birth of their daughter, who is now two years old. The fact that another child is on the way, has slowed things up a bit more. Greg's wife, Melissa Geller, is a local physician. However, some wonderful work has been accomplished on the stately house, which was once the original club house of the long defunct Mataska Golf Course. The couple wanted to break the project into parts to minimize disruption and spread out costs. The first phase of the project was to start on the south end and completely update the master bedroom and bath, while opening up the key rooms below on the first floor. "To do this, we eliminated a staircase to the second floor that chopped up the master bath floor plan. We also eliminated some of the walls in that area and "borrowed" one of the bedrooms next door to create a master closet. The result is a floor plan that makes better use of the space, feels more open and works more efficiently. " One the first floor, the Smiths turned a damp and outdated screened porch into a TV room off the living room. This, and the elimination of that staircase, expanded and opened up the main room of the house. A tremendous aid to the first phase of the project was the fact that Greg was able to find old drawings of the Bemis house on file at the University of Minnesota School of Architecture. Next, the couple turned their attention to an old "recreation room" in the lower level of the house. "The Bemis family used this as an old movie room and it was in pretty bad shape. There were some moisture problems. We went all the way back to the bare walls and made it into a great playroom. Along the way, the couple have had to address a lot of infrastructure issues in the house, including the old heating and air conditioning systems, ancient windows, and the lack of proper insulation. At present, Greg and Melissa are engaged in what they roughly call "Phase Two" of the remodeling project. This has involved taking down some of th walls that separated small bedrooms and turning them into fewer, but more functional spaces. (continued on pg. 5) Pictured below: top photo is the newly remodeled master suite, bottom photo is the new television room on the first floor. Historic Bemis Home Gets a Major Facelift (continued from page 1)