Lakeview Reconfiguration — Mercer Island, WA
Overview
The existing main floor was chopped into a formal living room no one used, a cramped kitchen, and a dining room that only saw the table at holidays. We removed two non-structural walls and one load-bearing wall — replaced with a flush steel beam — to create one connected space that works for daily life, not just special occasions.
The challenge
The load-bearing wall sat above a finished basement ceiling, which meant threading a new beam through an already-finished space without a full basement demo. Existing plumbing in the kitchen wall also needed to be rerouted without disturbing the lake-view windows the family cared about most.
Our solution
We opened the ceiling from below in narrow sections to install a flush steel beam, keeping most of the basement finish intact, and rerouted the kitchen's plumbing through the new island footprint instead of the exterior wall. The result is one continuous space that keeps every one of the lake-view windows unobstructed.
We'd lived with three disconnected rooms for a decade. Now it's one space where everyone actually wants to be — and we didn't lose a single window.