The Dream House provides ideas for homeowners, as well as funds for Lake County YMCA branches. By Karin Connelly Cleveland Magazine – June 2011

It’s the time of year when inspiration blossoms as visitors to the Y’s Dream House peek around each corner and find wonderful surprises inside and out. The Lake County YMCA has once again joined forces with local craftsmen and designers to present the 2011 Dream House.

The Dream House Project, now in its eighteenth year, is a critical fundraising event that has raised significant proceeds over the years for facility and equipment enhancements at all of the Lake County YMCA branches. These enhancements — from buses to splash pools to special needs locker-rooms — are the tools and resources that allow the Y to serve people of all ages in Lake County through its mission of building strong spirit, mind and body for all –— regardless of ability to pay.

This year’s 2,700-square-foot house with an additional 1,000 square-foot lower-level finished area — tucked into the wooded and hilly landscape of Concord Township’s Nature Preserve South — is meant to accommodate today’s family as it evolves to fit changing needs.

“The 2011 Dream House is all about how today’s family lives together,” says Lake County YMCA’s special events director Peggy Swanger. “It’s about flexibility. Today’s family looks and feels different than it did even five years ago — you’re likely to have parents living with you or staying with you for extended periods of time and adult children living at home.”

There is a master suite on the first floor, as well as a second-floor suite that could function as a master-suite area or an amazing guest suite. A second-floor bonus room can be used for a variety of needs — whether it serves as a media room, a craft room or a children’s play area. The lower level features a third suite of rooms: yet another full bath plus a retreat room and a family room with areas designed for multiple uses. The lower level has its own exit to the outdoors, which offers even more living and play space. It opens to a large patio complete with a fire pit and a beautifully landscaped yard, plus a first-floor deck accessible from the kitchen alcove, the master suite and the back yard.

Design co-coordinators Kate Weaver of Faux What in Mentor and Karen Krauss of Karen Krauss Designs in Concord volunteered to lead the 2011 design team — 14 designers from 11 local design firms — as they decorate each room of the house.

Colors include blues, plums, reds, neutrals and some unexpected hues. “There is a wide assortment of colors, the designers didn’t have to stick to one palette,” says Weaver. “We wanted to show the relationship between color and contrast, and what they have done is exciting and beautiful.”

The design co-coordinators hit auctions and other less-likely places for the furniture to combine a sense of the modern with the classic. “Most of the furniture is new,” says Krauss. “We’re bringing in old pieces and making them a little more new and exciting — interesting pieces with old bones. Something like your grandmother would have passed down.”

Bill Dawson Jr. of W.R. Dawson Construction in Painesville lent his talents to the construction process as builder, while John Johnson of Home Remedies in Concord Township served as construction manager. Getting the outdoor living area to look spectacular while coordinating with all the craftsmen and the 2011 Dream House design team has kept them both busy, as everyone works together to create an exciting tour experience — and someone’s home.

Tours start Friday, June 24, and continue through Sunday, Aug. 14. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. seven days a week.

Tour tickets are $12 each or three for $30. Each ticket enters the holder into the drawing for the house. The winner has the choice of taking the house or a $200,000 cash option. The semi-final drawing, at which the 20 semi-finalists are chosen, is Wednesday, Aug. 17, at 7 p.m. One of those 20 will be the lucky winner at the end of the final drawing on Sunday, Aug. 21, at 2 p.m.