It’s just the most comfortable and inviting house,” Kay says. We have two outdoor fireplaces, a pool, the Jacuzzi, a grill, an outdoor television. While the Potters could never have dreamed that their little undertaking would become so large in scope, they couldn’t be happier about the results. It really was such a team effort,” Kay says. We were interested in keeping the integrity of the house, but we weren’t adding to someone else’s space,” she says.īetween construction and the reconfiguration of indoor and outdoor living areas, the project took just under two years to complete. If you totally remodel or build a new structure, it’s so much easier. “Distance did play a factor, but it was so much fun. Sarah says the project wasn’t hugely challenging-although the time element was frustrating. “For all the work we did, it remains a Texas lake house.”rn So even though Sarah says this project classified as her “first Texas lake house” she immediately understood the Potters’ needs and wants for the property.
Sarah and Kay have known one another for 12 years-in fact, Sarah had previously worked on the Potters’ primary residence here in Dallas, and she’s currently redoing Greg’s office. Recruiting the interior-design element was easy: Sarah Charhon was already on the team. We didn’t want to change the footprint because then it would change the compound. But it was important to us that we didn’t lose the meandering nature of the place. We decided we wanted to sleep 24 without doing weird things. “It was just a little redo that got away from us,” Kay says with a laugh. His excitement about the project made the Potters’ dream a bit grander. To accomplish their modest goals, they brought in architect David Stocker. Kay wanted a bigger kitchen and more room for overnight guests. So they opted to spruce the place up a little-at least that’s how it began. “We had so many great memories there, and I really wanted to keep it for the next generation,” Kay says. They briefly considered selling but quickly changed their minds. We just knew all the potential it had.”īut as time passed and Kay’s three children grew older, the family was making the trek to Fort Worth far less frequently. “When we saw this house, it was love at first sight.
Nonetheless, the lake became the destination for three generations of Potters to celebrate everything from the Fourth of July and Thanksgiving to Mother’s and Father’s Days.
#The lakehouse fort worth full#
You turn off a road and meander down to the waterfront.” Throughout the years, they made small changes here and there-even adding an upper garage for the boat and a cabana, but Kay says they never were able to bring the property to its full potential. “You drive in, and you feel like you’re somewhere else. It looked like something out of Southern California,” Kay says. “We wanted a place for the whole family to gather, and we saw this place. At the time, there were three different buildings on the land, so there was plenty of room for everyone.
All these country house hotels share in common comfort, excellent food and the joys of the English countryside.When Kay and Greg Potter-along with Greg’s parents-originally found the six-acre Fort Worth compound in 1996, it was love at first sight. While some continue to offer no more than the pleasures of a beautiful old house, a roaring fire and a cup of tea, others cater to our increased demands: for spas, cookery courses and activities such as foraging. Hundreds of characterful country estate hotels have followed, and today there’s a bewildering amount from which to choose. There had been leisure hotels in Britain before, of course, but this was the first where you could be assured of being personally pampered in beautiful rural surroundings, with a committed owner at the helm offering a warm welcome, decent food, peace and quiet. Presided over by a splendid couple, Francis Coulson and his partner Brian Sack, it came complete with a gargantuan afternoon tea, and Sack’s famous Icky Sticky Toffee Pudding and Coulson’s bedtime poems on the pillow. The British country house hotel was born in 1949, brought to us in the pink and frilly shape of Sharrow Bay, overlooking Ullswater in the Lake District.