The entrance to Virginia and Tim Lyda's home in Shavano Park is surrounded by trees, as shown June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

Virginia and Tim Lyda have lived in their Shavano Park home since 1999 and, over the past few years, they've redone it room by room, all under the auspices of designer Mary Beth Edgerton and builder Peter Stainken.

"My marching orders were to make the house look like Virginia," Edgerton said. "Now, what does that mean? Well, Virginia likes traditional, but with a twist. She likes color, but not a saturation of color. And she likes to be current, but she also wants a look that will stand the test of time."

Homeowner Virginia Lyda stands in the kitchen of her Shavano Park home on June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

The results are apparent as soon as one enters the front door of the five-bedroom, 5½-bath house.

First, there's the two-story atrium that rises almost 20 feet. Crossing that is the overhead catwalk, which the family calls "the bridge," running from one upstairs wing of the house to the other. And beyond that is the living room, with two levels of soaring windows overlooking the parklike backyard, complete with pool, fire pit, and pickleball court.

The effect is a real showstopper.

"The house has so many unique features," Edgerton said. "You can't buy a new house like this anymore because things like the bridge are just too expensive and labor intensive."

The entryway to Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home is pictured June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

Tim and Virginia Lyda's backyard features a pool and several seating areas, as shown June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

To support the bridge's span, workers installed a combination of laminated veneer lumber and a steel beam. (Richard A. Marini/Staff)

Prior to the renovation, the bridge was supported by four decorative columns, which tended to clutter up the entryway. So together, Virginia Lyda, Edgerton and Stainken decided they had to go.

"I'd loved those columns when we first moved in," said Virginia Lyda, a former teacher. "But over time they started to feel old and outdated."

But because the columns were load bearing, removing them required reinforcing the bridge. To do that, Stainken installed a combination of laminated veneer lumber and a steel beam to support the span.

"Fortunately, we didn't have to take the bridge down while doing the work," he said. "And with the columns gone, the entryway really opened up."

A formal sitting room in Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home is pictured from the upstairs hallway June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

They also opened up the living room, at least visually, by replacing the original 6-foot-tall bowed windows with new ones 10-feet tall. With a second row of windows above that, the room floods with natural light while also showcasing the backyard beyond.

"One of the most amazing things about this house is that it sits on a piece property that's so lush and green," Edgerton said. "The windows bring the park into the house - the backyard is visible from outside the front door - making it so much more welcoming."

They further accentuated the room's look by replacing the original tile flooring with classic, narrow-plank oak stained a warm, golden honey color.

Rising from the ground floor, the gracefully curved staircase leading upstairs was completely rebuilt, with simplified balusters of turned metal and new wood railings. They even changed out the stair treads, which had been partially carpeted.

"The carpeting gave the stairway a dated look, which didn't work in such an elegant home," Edgerton said. "I told Virginia that the stairs were not worthy of the home."

A formal dining room in Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home is pictured June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

Another traditional feature they kept is the formal dining room, located to the left of the front door.

Although Virginia Lyda said she understands that many new homes eschew such spaces, in the misbegotten belief that formal dining is reserved for the snooty, she wanted to keep hers.

"We use it for holidays or if we have friends over and need more space," she said, explaining that, while they did discuss flipping the living and dining room, in the end they left things as they they were, only updating the dining room with new paint and a new, lighter chandelier.

An open-concept kitchen leads into a living room that overlooks the backyard of Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

The nearby kitchen has something of a French country flavor, with cream cabinetry, elegant gold hardware and rustic features such as the stained-glass window looking out the front yard and new flooring made of thin, bricklike tile.

"The brick floor has a timeless look," Edgerton said. "It makes you feel like you could be in New Orleans, Charleston, even France."

Lyda said she was especially happy with the look.

"We originally wanted a house made with brick," she said. "But this one was a spec house, so while we were able to make some changes, we couldn't change the stone facade."

During the renovation, they took both the kitchen and the adjacent den down to the studs, allowing them to extend the opening between the two rooms by about 3 feet. This gave them enough space to install a larger island in the kitchen center.

"You can see Virginia's good taste in the stone we used on the island and the countertops," Edgerton said. "It's called Taj Mahal quartzite, which is about as luxurious and classic as you can get."

Several rooms inside Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home feature recessed ceilings, as shown June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

Like several rooms in the house, the primary bedroom has a tray ceiling, meaning the center is recessed, creating an upside-down traylike effect. But this one is triple-tiered, so standing beneath it is like looking up from the inside of a wedding cake.

"All the tray ceilings were original to the house," Edgerton said. "I think they provide a feeling of luxury."

The one place where that luxury might have been a bit much, however, was in the den, where they removed the tray ceiling and replaced it with decorative wood beams.

Coming off the kitchen, the layers made things too visually complicated, Stainken explained.

"The beams also help connect the two rooms visually," he added.

The upstairs game room is one of Virginia Lyda's favorite, with its long line of treehouse level windows overlooking the yard below.

A sitting room on the second floor provides a view of the backyard through large windows in Virginia and Tim Lyda's Shavano Park home. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)

"This is a special room because it's where I come every morning and do my Bible reading," she said. "And I especially love how Mary Beth painted the window moldings the same color as the walls, so there's nothing to break up the view outside."

During the renovation, they removed the gas fireplace that had been at the center of the wall ever since they bought the house.

"That really opens things," she said. "I can't believe we had them put a fireplace there."

As with most of the bathrooms, the ones on the second story have floating cabinets that are lit from below, with the lighting on motion-activated switches.

"To my mind, floating cabinets make the bathroom feel bigger," Stainken said. "Plus, the lighting acts as a night light that turns on automatically."

Motion lighting was installed under the cabinets in the bathrooms of Virginia and Tim Lyda's home in Shavano Park, as shown June 30. (Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News)