- John Durbrow: This house was intended to be a very compact, multi-function cabin.
Every room has expansive views over the lake
and that was the primary focus.
And then each room was just designed
to accommodate its particular function.
The way we wanted to live up here.
This room was the winter room.
The sun, actually because of this full southern exposure,
keeps this room very warm all winter.
We have holes in the floor
and at least three of the plants are planted in natural ground.
We have a banana here.
It grew up and grew so high that it was up to the ceiling
and actually had a full crop of bananas.
This was the room that we made for my wife
so that she could tolerate Wisconsin winters.
Come on guys.
This was going to just be a porch initially
but it's designed to be what in Texas they call a dog trot.
Come on.
This one is obviously the kitchen.
Kitchen, dining.
It's nice that it is such a big room.
It gives us place to put a range of things
that we picked up over the years.
That painting is from a door
of my favorite bar in Houston, Texas.
And that chair is a chair that I made out
of a large tree that was out at the farm.
And the "A" was just an old Walgreens sign.
Seems like everybody ought to have an "A" in their house.
Like anybody I suppose who lives in a place long enough,
you end up having a sort of mini museum of your life.
So this room, the entertainment room,
with two-foot thick walls on the north face.
This is where we originally spent all our time
until we moved up here full time.
It was a very good place for a bottle of red wine
and a nice fire and a good winter evening.
The only place we actually mow
is this one swath down to the lake.
And of course, up here the lake view gets even better.
And this is the view that we get every morning when we wake up
when the sun comes up in the east and shines directly in.
We get to sleep every night with the doors wide open
and we get the sound of the waves on the beach.
And it's a very, very pleasant way to spend an evening.
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