The story below is from our January/February 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
A contractor improves his humble home into a resort-style setting for his family legacy.
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
The right combination of lighting provides both safety and visual appeal.
Mike and Belinda Bryant are high school sweethearts, and happy grandparents, with deep roots in Franklin County. Bit by bit, Mike has used his skills as a contractor to transform a once humble home into a resort-like setting on Smith Mountain Lake, adding modern twists to a profound family legacy.
Belinda’s family farmed and raised cattle on over 100 acres when Belinda was a girl. When Smith Mountain Lake was constructed, her family ceded a large swath of land to the project. Mike and Belinda built their own home just down the road from Belinda’s parents on the family’s remaining acreage.
Belinda’s father lived until the age of 86, despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at 34. He regularly told Belinda that he was still alive because the beauty of the land sustained him, and he didn’t want to be anywhere else. He passed away, peacefully at home, in the place he’d loved his whole life.
1 of 2
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
Before
2 of 2
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
After
Now, Belinda’s mom, 86, lives in the same house without her husband. Although she lives alone, she’s close enough to enjoy family time with her daughter, granddaughters, and great-granddaughter.
This is because many family gatherings take place right at the Bryant’s house. When Mike and Belinda’s oldest daughter, Bridgit, got engaged in 2017, she insisted, “I want to get married at home.” The Bryants consequently set up an archway overlooking the water, the caterer prepared food in the basement, and the wedding planner had Bridgit surprise guests by walking out of the kitchen.
The father of the bride “lost it” as his oldest daughter walked down the aisle and passed the tree house she played in as a little girl, triggering memories as he gave her away. Boaters on the lake honked their horns and shouted their congratulations as Bridgit and her husband joined their lives in the covenant of marriage. Like Belinda’s father who lived his last day in his own home, Bridgit’s wish of getting married in her own backyard came true.
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
Bridgit's wedding on the property
Since Bridgit’s wedding, Mike and Belinda have hosted other family events, such as Thanksgiving and their granddaughter’s birthday, allowing Mike to show off updates as he makes them.
Mike jokes that “a contractor is always slowest to work on his own home,” because customer projects always take precedent. Since opening Construction Marketing LLC with Belinda’s brother, Ronnie Booth, in 2010, time is a commodity. However, Mike was able to complete a recent outdoor renovation on his own home, rendering the space more usable for his family.
The renovated upper deck features a stunning view of the lake. It boasts infrared gas heaters, gas lanterns and a fire pit that warm people in winter and illuminate the space. These amenities add a couple extra months of use over the course of a year and lend an enchanting feel at night as the flames dance in the darkness.
In the summer, the Bryants utilize the space often because it’s covered from the harshness of the sun, and a ceiling fan is highly effective at maintaining pleasant air flow. Their old deck was half-open and half-closed and too sun scorched to use in the hot months.
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
Mike describes the gas lanterns as one of his project “splurges” that he couldn’t resist.
Mike says that achieving total temperature control in an outdoor space isn’t realistic because outdoor spaces aren’t enclosed. However, partial temperature control is a growing trend in construction because “The more people see others using it, the more comfortable they get with the idea.”
As for the lower level of the deck, it offers a view of the landscaping that Mike and Belinda completed piece by piece as time allowed. They sometimes sit down there because it feels “cozier” with its new furniture and stamped concrete.
Mike purchased the home building materials for this project at Capps Home Building Center in Moneta. While some of their materials are more expensive than materials from a box store, Mike believes that their superior products, knowledgeable sales force and customer service are worth it. Construction Marketing LLC has carefully built clientele and their reputation by executing customized projects with high-quality materials.
Mike offers this analogy: “If you only want a vehicle to go from point A to point B, you can buy a vehicle to do that. But the ride feels a lot different than if you want to travel in luxury.” He enjoys creating “showplaces customers can be proud of for years down the road and use for entertaining.”
These high-quality materials are also eco-friendly. Trex uses 95% recycled materials and “some of the most earth-friendly manufacturing practices in the country.” They document the amount of plastic they keep out of landfills by recycling it and don’t use harmful chemicals in their processing. Additionally, they manufacture locally in Winchester.
Belinda is especially grateful for the low-maintenance materials from Trex. She was the primary caretaker of their old wood deck and patiently power washed it each year before the renovation.
Their new deck features composite planks. “Now all I have to do is sweep or use a blower to clean the deck, so there’s virtually no maintenance,” she says.
Belinda’s workload maintaining the lawn is also minimized now because Mike built slate chip landscaping into the side of their hill. “I used to mow the lawn with a push mower that tipped over on that hill,” Belinda laughs. All the mowing is now on flat land.
While Construction Marketing LLC is primarily a construction company, staff can help with design on outdoor living spaces. They’re also adamant about not allowing a customer to make a poor design decision just to make a sale.
Courtesy of Mike Bryant
The upper deck allows the whole family to enjoy a view of the lake while staying comfortable beneath the full enclosure.
Sometimes customers want to do something that will be a future engineering problem because they’re thinking only about aesthetics. To maintain their company integrity, Mike says, “We’ve had to walk away from projects when we know something isn’t going to work. We don’t want to do the work and ruin our reputation when something goes wrong down the line.”
Other times, customers aren’t sure what they want, and in that case, staff guides them along. They also recommend looking at pictures on their website to help spark creativity.
Mike and Belinda’s slow and steady improvements to their home, on land that everyone from great-grandma to great grandchildren enjoy, have paid off. On a recent vacation to Lake George, they reflected on how fortunate they feel to live on Smith Mountain Lake.
“It’s pretty,” Belinda says, “but we didn’t think it was any prettier than the home we get to enjoy every day.”
The story above is from our January/February 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!