The definitive book on "lake-house " style.

This richly illustrated book takes the reader deep into lake country to reveal the essence of lake house and summer cottage style. Spectacular photographs and insightful essays capture the best of 100 revered homes.

Lake Houses is a guided tour of gardens where bright impatiens grow among the roots of island trees, past hammocks hung from the weathered beams of a breezy wraparound veranda, into rustic turn-of-the-century cottage kitchens, and across the warm wood floors of sun-drenched sitting rooms on the bay.

This enchanting book is full of memories, but it also serves as an idea book. In these pages, lake house owners from several regions welcome visitors onto their properties and open the doors to their beloved summer residences.

Included are chapters on:

• Exteriors
• Living rooms
• Dining rooms
• Kitchens
• Boathouses
• Bedrooms
• Bathrooms
• Guest cabins and bunkies
• Decks, docks and gazebos
• Verandas and porches
• Wall works and fireplaces
• Gardens.

Whether designed by a famous architect or a pragmatic relative many generations ago, these lake houses represent the soul of summer.

John de Visser''s photographs have been collected in more than 60 books. His outstanding lake country pictorials include Boathouses, The Thousand Islands, Shelter at the Shore and Georgian Bay. He lives in Cobourg, Ontario.

Judy Ross is the award-winning author of eight books, and her articles have appeared in such magazines as House and Home, Cottage Life, Canadian Gardening, Leisureways, Town and Country, and Travel and Leisure. She lives in Collingwood, Ontario.

by John de Visser and Judy Ross