The story below is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Photo above: Martha Stilwell was “hyper focused” on making sure the kitchen renovation didn’t look like an add-on. She is pleased that the white oak floors, additional island and cabinets all match the other part of the home.
Photos by Bill Hazlegrove Architectural Photography.
One couple’s getaway home combines elegance and functionality to accommodate ongoing family fun.
An opulent home in the Water’s Edge community of Penhook has proved to be the perfect holiday spot for one couple. Martha and Kevin Stilwell purchased a second home for lakeside vacations while their kids were growing up. Thanks to a kitchen and bath renovation with Construction Marketing, LLC, the Stilwells have the space to continue making memories 20 years later with an ever-expanding family.
HOLLYWOOD GLAMOUR
The house was already stunning when Martha and Kevin purchased it, as you would expect of a home formerly owned by a Hollywood celebrity. The Stilwells purchased it from Sissy Spacek, the actress most well-known for her portrayal of Carrie in the 1976 horror classic of the same name.
As the Stilwells got to know their neighbors the year they moved in, people asked where exactly they were located in the neighborhood. They replied, “We’re in Sissy’s house.”
The first summer that the Stilwells lived in the home, the local lake tour company paddled down the cove to include their home as a destination. The Stilwells’ sister-in- law was visiting and is very thin with fair skin, much like Sissy Spacek. As she stood in the kitchen in a large sunhat, passengers on the boat tour waved, believing that she was Sissy herself.
“We often wonder who has been in this house,” Martha says. “It doesn’t matter, but it’s fun to think about.” Posters with signatures of movie stars decorated the walls before Sissy and her husband, Hollywood producer Jack Fisk, moved out, adding to the intrigue.
A HOME FOR GATHERING
Glamour is fun, but the capacity for gathering is what prompted this renovation. Within one week of purchasing the home in 2004, the Stilwells hosted 18 people for the 4th of July weekend.
Martha and Kevin have been going strong since then. The tradition of large family gatherings hasn’t slowed down. It has actually intensified over time.
Their son, Luke, suffered a seizure and passed away in 2022. While the Stilwells had always prioritized gathering with family as often as possible, this tragedy made large gatherings an even more prominent piece of their lives.
Last July, the Stilwells hosted 32 people for the 4th of July weekend. As their number of grandchildren increases, more family will be added to the mix.
CHOOSING INTEGRITY WHEN CHOOSING CONSTRUCTION MARKETING, LLC
Martha had worked in interior design in the past, so she knew how to research contractors. After obtaining several bids for the project, the Stilwells felt the bid they got from Construction Marketing was “fair” compared to others, which were “outrageous.”
Yet it was the foresight of the team that ultimately sold the Stilwells on using them as their contractor. Martha and Kevin describe them as “realistic and on the ball.”
The construction team asked in-depth questions related to the engineering to get a scope of the project before beginning it. This resulted in “no surprises” related to budget once the work began.
Jason Perdue, the project manager, was the Stilwells’ primary contact during the renovation. Martha says, “We can’t say enough good things about him. He was kind, detailed and amazing!” The Stilwells appreciated th
at communication was constant. Jason ensured that the vision for the renovation was exactly brought to fruition.
OUTSIZED KITCHEN RENOVATION
Being such frequent hosts, the Stilwells needed more kitchen space. Fortunately, the addition increased the already ample space by 300 square feet.
The extra square footage permitted the installation of another island which seats 10 people, a second dishwasher and a double oven. All perfect for hosting large groups.
The Stilwells also installed additional cabinets that they purposefully leave empty. When visitors stay overnight, they can fill the cabinets with their own items and feel truly at home.
In addition, the cabinets feature an appliance garage, where the Stilwells store their coffee machine. The appliance garage rolls in and out of a drawer. It’s enclosed by the cabinet and completely hidden from view when not in use, brilliantly eliminating clutter.
As for lighting, Martha selected sconces with uplighting and downlighting on either side of the sink. Her goal was soft, diffused lighting, which she describes as “the jewelry of a room.”
Natural light floods in through the double sliding door that leads onto the balcony that overlooks the water. French door sliders with top to bottom glass allow a full view of the lake.
BATHROOM RENOVATION
The bathroom also allows for a view of the water. As part of its renovation, Martha and Kevin traded out a jacuzzi tub for a standalone soaking tub with lake views.
Construction Marketing, LLC removed a soffit, an overhang above the sink that was popular when the home was built. Removing this allowed Martha to take advantage of the height of the peaked ceiling.
Martha then chose the vanity, lighting, mirrors and tiles to complement each other and elongate the sight line. The tiles were installed in a vertical straight stack pattern, rather than horizontally, and run up the center of the peak seamlessly.
Martha selected 54-inch-tall mirrors to accentuate the height of the ceiling, and sconces that are long and thin for this same reason.
The other key element for achieving this look, Martha says, is minimizing the grout lines so that the tile feels more like one piece than a bunch of little pieces.
A three-quarter bathroom was also part of the renovation. A three-quarter bathroom can contain a combination of regular bathroom features, and in this case includes a toilet and stand-up shower.
The shower originally had a ceiling that made Martha feel like she was “in a box.” Martha selected a glass enclosure door for a more open feeling. She also installed a shower niche close to the floor of the shower. She cleverly uses it as a shaving shelf to prop her leg up.
GROWING OVER TIME
While Martha used her eye for design to update the home, the Stilwells didn’t update everything. Their kitchen table is 20 years old.
As time went on and their kids grew up, everyone who ate at the table signed it underneath. Signatures of decades’ worth of friends, boyfriends and girlfriends are scrawled across the wood.
And the Stilwell’s kids had a request of their own to not update everything. They said, “You can’t replace the kitchen screen door!” when they heard about the renovation.
Why?
“When you hear the sound of the screen door, that’s how you know you’re at the lake,” Kevin says. Martha describes its sound as “iconic.”
The sound of summers past was something the Stilwells knew they could never replace.
At a recent gathering, Martha and Kevin listened in on their grown children gathered around the new large island with their adult cousins. While they all ran around together as children, they’re deepening their bond as adults in their late 20s with kids of their own. Kevin and Martha witnessed what they call the “generational change and maturity” that’s part of growing up.
In the background of every conversation, the screen door creaks the same way it has for decades. Each creak evokes and echoes the halcyon lake days from the past, as everyone ushers the grandchildren into the lake days of the future.
The story above is from our March/April 2025 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
