List price: $11.495 million

The Property: What used to be a contemporary flat-roofed house is now a sophisticated French château with a gracious mansard roof sheltering a new second story. The makeover is the work of Don and Jan Zordani, the husband-and-wife team behind Milestone Development. They began, says Don, with an “extremely dark” 40-year-old wood-and-brick house situated on more than two acres overlooking Lake Michigan. They transformed it into an airy six-bedroom home, complete with a two-story living room that opens onto a view of the lake below. They also updated the plumbing and added a tower, an elevator, 13 dormers, a 1,500-bottle wine cellar, and a wood-paneled library. The first and second floors encompass about 5,700 square feet of space. The basement has another 3,000 square feet, though much of it isn’t really below ground; the original builder scooped out a big bowl of land so that people could walk out of the house’s lower level-a design decision that forever altered the lakefront bluff’s natural formation.

Price Points: Along with its classic good looks, this quintessentially North Shore house is one of only a half-dozen homes on a quiet, almost secret Lake Forest street. But a new neighbor is on the way: the Zordanis are working on another house a few doors down that, when finished, will be larger, more lavish-and priced at nearly $15 million.

Listing agent: The appropriately named Linda Landsell, Coldwell Banker, 847-302-5654