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"View Slideshow\n\nIn 1978 Mildred and Raul Betancourt and a group of seven friends bought a piece of property on a private lake in Cupey, in the R\u00EDo Piedras section of San Juan, Puerto Rico, and proceeded to develop it. Betancourt, a civil engineer who was working as a general contractor, had a house built for himself, his wife and their children\u2014then aged 13, 10 and 8. He owned one of the best lots, right on the lake itself. Eventually he bought two additional lots, one on either side of his house. Over the years some of the original owners moved away, and young couples with children moved in. But the Betancourts decided to stay. \"This is such an incredible location,\" Raul Betancourt says. \"From this house we see nothing but the lake. We're only 15 minutes from downtown San Juan, but we have the feeling of being out in the country.\"\n\nWhen the children had moved out, married and had families of their own, and the time came to turn the house for five into a house for two\u2014plus the occasional visiting grandchild\u2014the Betancourts asked their nephew, Washington, D.C.-based architect and designer Jos\u00E9 E. Sol\u00EDs Betancourt, and his partner, designer Paul Sherrill, to design it for them. \"I quickly learned how to be a good client,\" Raul Betancourt says with a laugh. \"When Jos\u00E9 told me that the 7,000 square feet of white tile I had put down 10 years earlier would have to be taken out, I said yes to the nephew I had known since he was a baby.\"\n\n\"We wanted it to be very neutral, so that the art becomes the focal point. The incredible plants provide moments of color.\"\n\nWhat was wrong with the floor, Sol\u00EDs Betancourt explains, was that it was neither good enough nor appropriate for the house. \"It was commercial tile and looked like plastic,\" Raul Betancourt acknowledges. \"The color was wrong too. I had made changes to the house as an engineer, not as a designer.\" Sol\u00EDs Betancourt went to Florida with the couple, and together they chose a light walnut travertine to use throughout the house.\n\nWhile the exterior of the one-story concrete structure remained virtually unchanged, the designers reconfigured the rooms, opening them up to the light. Wallcoverings that had seemed modern in the 1970s were stripped away, and walls were painted ivory. The original wood front door was replaced with a Sol\u00EDs Betancourt-designed striped opaque-and-clear-glass door framed in stainless steel. For the main stairway leading to the lower level, which formerly had a wrought iron balustrade, the architect designed a glass balustrade capped with a teak banister\u2014a detail that permits maximum light to filter through the space.\n\nIn the living area, Sol\u00EDs Betancourt and Sherrill tore down a wall separating the kitchen and dining room, creating a vast space for living and entertaining. The kitchen is now hidden behind a bar. \"If one looks at it, one's eye is drawn to a plasma-screen television set in a granite-lined niche on a wall above the sink,\" Sol\u00EDs Betancourt points out. Teak cabinetry conceals the appliances.\n\nIn the master bedroom, the men carved out two large walk-in closets. A custom bed with an upholstered headboard centers the space. \"The room has a peaceful, Zen-like feel,\" says Sol\u00EDs Betancourt. For the bath, he designed a teak vanity, shaped like an inverted pyramid, to lend a touch of drama. The one addition is a second shower\u2014an outdoor one used by Raul Betancourt, alongside the indoor one used by his wife.\n\nMost of the furniture is modern, in pale shades of wood or rattan.\n\nMost of the furniture throughout is new and modern, in pale shades of wood or rattan. Four handsome Yin Yang club chairs with white cushions and wide, lacy rattan arms, conceived by Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue, are on one side of the living area; two graceful chaise longues are on the other. \"They're low, as is the ottoman between them, so they don't distract from the view,\" notes Sherrill.\n\nMixed in are works by Mildred Betancourt. Her pieces are displayed in almost every room of the house\u2014ceramic paintings and sculptures, watercolors and acrylics. \"It's excellent living with an artist,\" says Raul Betancourt. \"Mildred even made a ceramic basin for the powder room and one for a bath in the downstairs loggia.\"\n\nThe Betancourts also own works by well-known Puerto Rican artists. One of Angel Botello's bronze sculptures, Girl with Sticks, is in the entrance hall. During the renovation, the couple bought Girl with Bird, also by the renowned Spanish-born sculptor. It graces the plaza next to the pool. The most striking piece of art in the house may be the sculptural relief Multiple Horizons by Jaime Su\u00E1rez, which Sol\u00EDs Betancourt commissioned for the dining area. \"Jos\u00E9 studied architecture with Jaime, and I studied ceramics with him,\" explains Mildred Betancourt. \"We wanted the house to be very neutral and quiet, so that the art becomes the focal point,\" adds Sol\u00EDs Betancourt. \"The incredible plants\u2014bougainvillea, Xanadu' philodendron and orchids\u2014provide moments of color.\"\n\nThe downstairs area, which had originally been air-conditioned and enclosed, is now open to the outdoors. The loggia serves as an alfresco living room. Nearby is an outbuilding used by Mildred Betancourt as a studio. And a gazebo near the house is used for large parties. \"I'm one of 10 children, and we're a close family,\" Raul Betancourt says. \"On New Year's Eve we invite about 130 guests. Many of them are relatives. During other times of the year we go kayaking and paddle boating on the lake. Our youngest daughter, Jeniffer, an architect, designed a playground for the grandchildren to use. We are fortunate indeed to be living in a tropical paradise.\""^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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