Developers Mike Bousaleh and Kateri MacDonald Bousaleh, along with several residents, share what stands out after homeowners have had time to actually live in their homes and neighborhood.

When you are considering a new home, floor plans, finishes, square footage, and location all matter. But those details do not always tell you what it will actually feel like to live there.

That is what makes the perspectives in this video especially valuable. These are not simply buyers talking about what attracted them to Lady of the Lakes Estates before they moved in. The Lady of the Lakes Estates homeowners featured here have had about a year to experience their homes, settle into their routines, welcome family and friends, and get to know the neighborhood around them.

In the video, homeowners Bill Lewis, Julie Bath, Sandra Watson, and Craig Cousins join developers Mike Bousaleh and Kateri MacDonald Bousaleh to talk about construction quality, first-floor living, personalization, family visits, and the community taking shape around them.

Watch the developer and homeowner interview on YouTube.

Mike and Kateri bring decades of experience in construction and real estate to Lady of the Lakes Estates. In the interview, Kateri describes a roughly 30-year career as a real estate attorney, while Mike describes about 30 years as a general contractor.

That background helps explain the way they talk about the homes. Their comments are less about chasing a checklist and more about whether they would be comfortable living in the finished product themselves.

“We built the kind of homes that we would like to own ourselves and that we would like for our family.”

That is a simple statement, but it gives useful context for the choices buyers see in the community. The goal, as Mike and Kateri describe it, is to deliver a quality home with details they are willing to stand behind, not simply to complete another house and move on to the next one.

Bill Lewis had already been looking in the Lakes Region for years before discovering Lady of the Lakes Estates. One of the first things that caught his attention was the architecture of the planned home designs.

Bill also understood that renderings and drawings do not always guarantee that every detail will carry through to the finished home. In the interview, he talks about having seen other projects where rooflines, stonework, or other architectural details were simplified during construction.

He says that was not what he experienced here.

“The builder's building what he says he's going to build.”

For a buyer considering new construction, that observation gets at a concern that can be difficult to answer from a brochure. What will the home actually look and feel like when the plans become a finished structure? After living with the result, Bill says the completed homes matched the character he saw in the original drawings, which helped reinforce his confidence in the project.

Sandra Watson and her daughter, Julie Bath, came to the community with a very different set of priorities.

Sandra returned from Florida to be closer to her children and grandchildren, and the family was looking for a home in Laconia with first-floor living. Today, Sandra uses the main living spaces on one level, while Julie has an upstairs bedroom for the frequent visits she describes in the interview.

“Very happy having everything on the one level.”

The arrangement shows how a floor plan can serve two needs at the same time. The first floor can support a simpler daily routine for the primary resident, while upstairs bedrooms and flexible spaces still provide room for family members and guests.

Julie also describes her upstairs bedroom as more spacious than she expected. It is a small detail, but after living in the home, it illustrates why it can be useful to think about a floor plan not only in terms of bedroom count, but also in terms of who will use those rooms and how often people will visit.

Craig Cousins and his wife were already local and wanted to stay in Laconia after selling their previous home. They had also lived in another new-home development, so Craig came to Lady of the Lakes Estates with a point of comparison.

He describes that earlier experience as much more predetermined. At Lady of the Lakes Estates, he says the available home structures provided a starting point, while the interior gave them opportunities to make choices that reflected how they wanted to live.

“The ability to be able to have the flexibility made it something that made a house a home.”

For future buyers, his experience is also a good reminder to ask about selections early. Available finishes, features, and personalization opportunities can depend on the home type and how far construction has progressed. The earlier you understand what can still be selected, the easier it is to determine which available opportunity best fits your priorities. You can also review the buying process before planning a visit.

One of the most practical examples in the interview is Craig describing the bonus room his family added.

For them, the value of that room is not abstract. Friends and family come to the Lakes Region during the summer, and the additional space gives guests somewhere comfortable to stay. Craig talks about a summer filled with visitors and time on the lake, with the home serving as the place everyone comes back to afterward.

That is a useful way to think about flexible space when comparing homes. A bonus room might become a guest room, hobby space, office, media room, or something entirely different. What matters is whether the space supports the way you expect to use the home once daily life begins.

The Lady of the Lakes Estates homeowners in the interview use different words to describe the neighborhood, but a similar idea keeps coming up: they enjoy seeing people, walking outside, and feeling connected to the community around them.

Sandra calls the neighborhood her “happy place” and describes people waving and smiling when she is outside. Julie talks about the sense that neighbors will look out for one another. Craig describes being able to walk around the neighborhood or use the trails, say hello to people, and feel like he is in a place he can call home.

Those comments add context to amenities such as the walking trails and pickleball courts. The amenities themselves matter, but residents are also describing the everyday interactions that can happen around them.

No two homeowners will experience a neighborhood in exactly the same way. Still, hearing residents talk about the relationships that have formed after they have had time to settle in provides a perspective that a site plan cannot.

Another thing that stands out in the interview is how different the residents are in what first attracted them to Lady of the Lakes Estates.

Bill was interested in the architecture and how the homes were being built. Sandra wanted to return to New Hampshire to be near family and needed a layout that worked well on one level. Julie wanted her mother to have a welcoming neighborhood while still having comfortable space for her own visits. Craig and his wife wanted to remain in Laconia, personalize a new home, stay close to the lake, and have room for the people who spend time with them during the summer.

There is no single reason someone chooses a home here, and that may be one of the most useful takeaways from the conversation. The home, the neighborhood, the location, and the people all play different roles depending on what a buyer is looking for.

A website can show you floor plans, home features, neighborhood amenities, and photos. But hearing from homeowners after they have spent about a year living in their homes provides something different.

They have had time to experience the layouts in everyday life, host family and friends, get to know their neighbors, use the community amenities, and see whether the home they chose actually works the way they hoped it would.

Their comments are not predictions about what life at Lady of the Lakes Estates might be like. They are reflections on what it has actually become for the people already living there.