Roll Up Your Sleeves

Rick and Pam McKown are the ultimate do-it-yourselfers.

           With no previous homebuilding experience, the couple has been hands-on with nearly every aspect of their 9,000-square-foot Smith Mountain Lake home.

            "We didn’t set out to be home builders," said Rick, whose career as a mechanical engineer for Kraft Foods honed his sixth sense for how things should go together. "It just evolved; we discovered if we did it ourselves, we’d get things done the way we wanted them done."

            The couple searched for waterfront retirement locations in Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey and Virginia. After visiting longtime friends who had already settled here, the McKowns were sold on Smith Mountain Lake. In September 2001, they bought a lot – half of a point – in Park Place.

            "We moved from a spacious property near Libertyville, north of Chicago, where Kraft had its corporate offices," said Pam. "When we realized that another house could be built 12 feet from our lot line, we bought the adjoining lot, the other half of the point."

            Rick designed the house using a computer program that produced three-dimensional drawings from his specifications.

            "But it really helped to have a firm understanding of structures," he said.

            Pam added, "We went through zillions of magazines and created storyboards of photos that we pasted together for each room. There was an ‘ah-ha moment’ when we realized we wanted an open floor plan and neutral colors."

            "We figured the building project would take about a year and a half. Clearing and excavating the lot began in September 2003. The first nine months, we lived in a rented house. Then we decided to finish the garage loft with a large bedroom, kitchenette and bath, thinking we’d live in that for about three months. We were there two and a half years."

            Rick hired subcontractors for early construction stages but found he had to supervise closely to get things done to his specifications. He said his engineering background was "both a blessing and a curse. You know how things should be done, and you know you could do it yourself — better and more cost effectively."

            An example was installation of an in-floor heating system designed by Rick for both the main and lake levels. A crew of three helped him place and connect nearly two miles of radiant heat tubing – complexly plumbed into 19 separate zones – before concrete was poured. The resulting warmth of the floors delivers heat to the primary living spaces.

            Once the house was closed in and drywalled, the couple took over the remainder of the work. They received a temporary certificate of occupancy in September 2006, moved in and began tackling all the finishing details — kitchen, bathrooms, flooring, wood trim, the works.

            Pam, a social worker, decided to take the 2007 summer off to help Rick paint the house.

            "It took a year," she said, "After that, I was off work for another year and a half helping with other projects."

            She now works for Good Samaritan Hospice in Roanoke four days a week.

            "That leaves me three days a week to help on the house," she said. "We make a great team; Rick’s the creative guy, and I’m a very good assistant."

            Pam also is an accomplished seamstress who’s made all the window treatments. While the main level — 3,700 square feet of living room, dining room, kitchen, sun porch and master suite — seems complete, Pam disagreed.

            "Oh, no, nothing is done," she said. "We tell our neighbors that we’re on the 10-year plan, and we’re six years into it now."

            One looming project is building bookcases next to the fireplace, which towers about 30 feet above the living room. Made of realistic-looking manufactured stone, it resembles a perfectly assembled puzzle.

            "I carried the stones up the stairs to Rick on scaffolding near the ceiling," Pam said. "It took us about a month to complete, starting at the top and working our way down."

            The McKown’s kitchen has Sub-Zero paneled refrigerators and freezers, a Thermidor stove, warming drawer, granite countertops and contrasting marble-topped island of rustic alder, a wood the couple first saw in Tucson, Ariz. Bowman’s Woodworking of Ferrum made the butternut-colored maple cabinets.

            "We did the tile backsplash, and Rick finished the range hood in Venetian plaster," said Pam, noting that after the under-cabinet lighting is installed, the kitchen will be complete.

            Five detailed, arched overhead trusses add more interest to the kitchen.

            "Each beam had 50 pieces," Pam explained. "We sawed and assembled in the living room. Then we installed them working from scaffolding that was three levels high."

            A massive, yet airy, wrought iron and Brazilian cherry stairway leads up to two guest bedrooms with baths. One bedroom, lacking a lakeside window, has a big window-like opening cut into an interior wall providing a lake view through the living room’s two-story window below.

            Outside, between the house and lake, are three waterfalls and a re-circulating pond that appears to flow into the lake. Rick hired a dock builder to drive steel posts for the boathouse on their 420 feet of shoreline but, as with the house, finished the remainder of the boathouse himself.

            Though Rick still does some freelance consulting, he said, "Basically I’m retired."