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hey met under a blue moon, fell in love with beachfront property at Bluewater and built a California-style home bathed in white-washed blues. Is there a theme here? Without a doubt. Elizabeth and Ted Lowndes, along with their three kids, are going with the flow, and having the time of their lives, on the shores of a 100-year-old sandpit lake in Valley. Their home is part of a luxury lake community, a venture of Lanoha Development, that spans 500 acres and includes 268 residential lots, a 5-mile nature trail, and an assortment of shorebirds, to Elizabeth’s delight. “There are tons of young kids out here,” she says. “But we also have empty-nesters, too. It’s a great mix.” When you live on a lake, she says, your house can be a pretty popular spot. “It’s not uncommon for friends to text and say, ‘Hey, what are you guys doing this weekend?'” It’s a loaded question because the family loves to hang out by the water and share the fun with others. "Everything is outside when friends come over," says Elizabeth, who more commonly goes by Lizzie. “It’s hard to get the kids out of the water.” The kids in this blended family are Lizzie’s son Jack, 13, and daughter Aspen, 11; and Ted’s daughter, Grace, 7. Lizzie also has a daughter, Jaime, who just graduated from college. Jack loves to fish and has reeled in
walleye, bass, crappie and gar from the spring-fed lake that’s 60 feet deep in some spots. Aspen and Grace love to kayak and build castles in the sand. Lizzie gets her exercise in a kayak, too. You’re apt to see her paddling across the lake to have morning coffee with other moms in the neighborhood. Those moms make it a point to go on monthly outings, as well. "We'll drive our ATVs to Outer Limits in Valley for Taco Tuesday, or ride our bikes to Pines Country Club down the road. Sometimes friends and I will ride 16 miles to West Shores,” the luxury lake development in Waterloo. The family's five-bedroom home is contemporary in design and loaded with high-performance amenities. The builder, Tim Lowndes of Charles Thomas Homes, is Ted's brother. Lizzie, who sells real estate, happily accommodates walk-throughs for clients looking for building ideas. The centerpiece of the open floor plan is a great room with a 23foot ceiling, a dramatic large-tile hearth, expansive window walls and six double-wide sliding doors as breezeways and gateways to the patio and lake. The original floor plan (which the couple purchased) had an open loft that the homeowners revised to create a hangout for the kids and an exercise area for mom and dad. It’s a practical use of space since the house is built on a slab foundation. “It’s our California basement,'' Lizzie says. A soft gray and white palette, wavy architectural glass, weathered woods
and smooth stone finishes give the interior a rustic modern beach look. “I’m a minimalist,” Lizzie says. “If I don’t have a spot for something, that gets me excited.” Lizzie and Ted selected most of the hard and soft finishes themselves. The hearth, they realized early, would require the help of a pro. “We were overwhelmed,” Lizzie says. Julia Russell of Julia Russell Interiors gave the fireplace wall the knockyour-socks-off impact the couple envisioned for the soaring vertical space. “It’s cool and timeless,” Lizzie says of Julia's incorporation of tile and stainless steel. Julia also designed an accent wall for the dinette using white-washed plank often mistaken for stone. Between nighttime boat rides, tubing, heron sightings, s’mores around the fire pit and sand between their toes, the Lowndes family is truly livin' the dream. “It’s so pretty year-round,” Lizzie says, gazing at the lake. “I get up in the morning, walk out of the bedroom and automatically look left through the great-room windows. I’ll never tire of the view.”
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