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"When actor Christopher McDonald came across a French chateau perched on a lake at the top of California&amp;#039;s San Bernardino Mountains, he knew immediately that it would be the perfect home for his growing family. The 22-room house, built in 1922 by an opera singer as her &amp;quot;country cottage,&amp;quot; and later occupied by Shirley Temple (when she performed in the movie Heidi), first caught McDonald&amp;#039;s eye several years before he actually bought it. &amp;quot;There were lots of nice houses by the lake,&amp;quot; says McDonald, &amp;quot;but this was really spectacular.&amp;quot; The kitchen, however, was abysmal. &amp;quot;It had a nineteen-seventies look with a lowered ceiling, burnt orange tile, and there was barely any light. It was a hideous color and it was screaming for a remodel.&amp;quot;  &amp;quot;The room was completely closed off, with the exception of only two windows. The question I kept asking was, &amp;#039;Why didn&amp;#039;t anybody think to take advantage of all this wonderful natural light?&amp;#039;&amp;quot; marvels McDonald, who is a regular on the television drama, Family Law, and who has also costarred in over 75 feature films.  Since the McDonalds entertain frequently and informally, it was important to design a space that was user-friendly and allowed for easy access to the outdoors. McDonald hired architect John Lyles and told him to &amp;quot;expand the kitchen because we all know that everyone seems to live there. What we didn&amp;#039;t want was to end up with anything that was in any way pretentious or stuffy because we don&amp;#039;t live that way.&amp;quot;  Lyles suggested extending the existing room by 11 feet toward the west so that the integrity of the turret-shaped space would not be lost. &amp;quot;I couldn&amp;#039;t visualize it so he designed a little model for me,&amp;quot; laughs McDonald, &amp;quot;and then, I got it. We had to remove two sixty-foot-tall pine trees in order to expand the space but I was okay with that because there are trees for miles.&amp;quot;   As the kitchen was gutted down to its skeleton, the McDonalds were pleasantly surprised when the contractor removed the low false ceiling to uncover the room&amp;#039;s original ceiling, which added a foot and a half to the room&amp;#039;s height. &amp;quot;At that point, the kitchen felt more spacious and on scale with the rest of the house,&amp;quot; says McDonald.   McDonald worked closely with contractor Rob Jeavons to ensure the kitchen ended up exactly as he envisioned it, sometimes trusting his own instincts rather than the tried-and-true laws of kitchen design. &amp;quot;One idea was to put the Sub-Zero refrigerator in the middle of the room so as not to compromise the work triangle, but in that spot, it cut off all the western light. I opted to put the fridge on the other side of the room, so we could put in as many windows and doors as possible,&amp;quot; says McDonald.  To attain what he calls the kitchen of his dreams, McDonald admits, &amp;quot;I probably drove John and Rob a little nuts. I&amp;#039;m the guy who was so anxious to do this remodel, I pulled in the pieces and wanted it all done yesterday.&amp;quot;  McDonald pored through many magazines and did &amp;quot;major legwork to find a lot of things I loved and had to have,&amp;quot; including the distressed fir floors that were taken from demolished barns in California and refinished to a honey color. &amp;quot;The floors are softer than I anticipated, but I love that they look like they&amp;#039;ve been here for fifty years,&amp;quot; he adds.  The actor also wanted everything to be &amp;quot;super-sized&amp;quot; in order to better accommodate his 6-foot-3-inch frame. The overhead cabinets were built approximately 6 feet off the ground to allow McDonald a less obstructed view while standing, and the countertops are 4 inches higher than normal, which he says, &amp;quot;is not a problem for my wife; she says that it&amp;#039;s more comfortable for her as well.&amp;quot;   The end result? Even though there is the adjacent great room with 40-foot-ceilings and the deck outside, family and friends always gather in the kitchen. &amp;quot;We had a party last Fourth of July, with one hundred fifty people, and everyone wanted to be in the triangle, right in the work space, doing stuff. We had twelve people\u2014our guests\u2014standing here chopping and cooking and serving,&amp;quot; McDonald laughs.  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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