Oneida Lake home has views from every room

Lakefront homes are usually built to maximize views. When Roger and Shirley Burdick sat down with their architect to talk about building on their 2.20-acre lot on Oneida Lake 20 years ago, they took it one step further.

They asked the architect to orient the four-bedroom, 4 1/2-bathroom home so that nearly every room would have not only a view of Big Bay, but also views of the rest of the nearly 21-mile long lake, stretching to the east.

The Burdicks had a lot of other ideas -- mostly clipped from Architectural Digest and other home design publications-- about what they wanted in the 5,327-square-foot home they built at 5871 Bartel Circle.

The living room's 20-foot-high coffered ceiling, with recessed lighting, helps to frame the multi-tier paned windows and French doors overlooking the lake -- the first thing visitors see when they walk through the main entrance.

A fir bead board ceiling in the first-floor home office complements the room's American cherry judges paneling and built-in cabinets, book shelves and entertainment center.

And on the second floor, two bedrooms have vaulted ceilings and skylights.

The home has a doorbell intercom and a central vacuum as well as a four-zone, whole-house audio system with speakers and volume control in every room. The four amplifiers will stay in the house.

Two units with humidifiers and electronic air cleaners provide two-zone, natural gas-fueled heating and air conditioning. An energy management system allows temperatures to be set independently for each room. The same system also manages lighting and security throughout the house.

Because the Burdicks have allergies, they installed oak floors -- some inlaid with borders of oak and walnut -- throughout the house, except for the marble in the foyer, ceramic tile in the bathrooms and Berber carpet in the finished lower-level recreation room.

All three fireplaces -- the wide, brick-fronted one in the family room, with a firewood box that can be loaded from the back; the marble-fronted one in the living room; and the tile and oak-trimmed one in the rec room -- were originally wood burning, but have been converted to gas.

The two Burdick children are grown, but Shirley remembers making school lunches while enjoying the sunrise with "the big breadth of red sky over the lake," visible from the bay windows above the kitchen sink.

The kitchen has a breakfast nook, with its own bay windows overlooking the lake, and a center island with seating for three. Granite countertops complement the American cherry cabinets and built-in high-end side-by-side refrigerator. There is a 48-inch, four-burner gas range with a grill and griddle, a built-in convection oven, microwave and warming drawer. All appliances will stay in the house.