Building a dream home can be a real treat, especially when you have collected treasures for years and are particularly adept at design and construction. Everything about this eclectic lake house speaks to Bret Ashton‘s apparent delight in designing and building it. You see, he is quite the Renaissance man. He’s a structural engineer by degree, but his company, Diesel Displays, has designed and built commercial and multi-family projects and restaurants for 20 years.
He bought this beautiful 4.51-acre slice of heaven overlooking Lewisville Lake several years ago. It was not his first rodeo, but the third home he’d built from scratch. He started drawing it on a napkin one evening, which is not surprising for someone who grew up drawing and studied architecture in college.
The fact he never planned to leave is evident in every corner of this 8,028-square-foot, six-bedroom, seven-bathroom eclectic lake house.
“I love all styles, from super modern to vintage,” he said. “This house has very different styles. In one room, there are walls constructed from Chicago brick, with copper fire hydrants. The kitchen, living, and dining rooms have reclaimed wood floors from England. My office is dark with paneling, and a 1912 Harley mounted on the wall. The light fixtures are modified vintage spotlights I found in Las Vegas.”
Ashton made the big clock on the family room wall in a few hours. “I was on a flight and read an article about lofts in a New York watchtower, so I designed the clock on the computer and cut it out the next day.” Most of the furniture in the house has the Ashton touch. The legs of the dining room table, for example, are part of the arm of a crane he’d found.
Ashton is also enamored of secret rooms. I mean, who isn’t? They bring out the kid in us and serve double duty to secure yourself or your valuables. This house has not one, not two, but three secret rooms. No, I cannot tell you where they are. Ok, I’ll give you one. It’s behind a bookcase, but that’s it. One more hint involves a key card. You have to see the house in person because you won’t get any more secrets about secret rooms out of me. Let’s just say the creators of the James Bond films could learn a thing or two from Ashton.
Ashton is also a car collector. At one point, he had 98. He’s winnowed down the collection in the past few years but made sure his garages could fit nine of his favorites. There are, of course, lifts should you want to fit in more.
So why leave this eclectic lake house that he’s so carefully crafted? Ashton has moved his offices to Carrollton, so the commute is not as ideal as it used to be, and even though it’s only 33 minutes to town when you have a teenage daughter, life is in the city.
“I’m going to miss this view,” he said.” It’s one of the longest views of the lake, and you can see the Fourth of July fireworks from the back porch. Even though it’s considered a lake house, you’re close to town. The PGA is basically down the street. It’s like the best of country and lake living but only 20 minutes from most things.”
