The task was to design a house, suitable for use also during the winter, situated on a plot outside the municipal boundaries on a vineyard hill north of Balaton, utilizing the foundations, main walls, and slabs of a press-house that had been used for many years as a vacation home. This necessitated the transformation of the existing, highly irregular building stock, which was built in several phases. We strove to perform the radical transformation in a way that allowed the building to harmonize with its natural and built environment. The former press house was alien to its surroundings and subpar regarding technical content. Still, its advantage was that its footprint was relatively large, both below and above the ground level. This, considered a vested right, allowed the creation of a residential home incorporating guest rooms. We designed a house typical for the “Upper Balaton” area: barely 6 meters wide, with its ridge perpendicular to the hill and fitted with a pitched roof and gables. It is complemented by a withdrawn, much narrower, and lower building situated perpendicularly, similarly fitted with a pitched roof and gables. The fenestration, the use of materials, the detailing, and the ornamentation, follow local traditions in a conservative, romantic, and sentimental way. The cellar-level, flat-roof cube, appearing almost as just a retaining wall on the façade facing the valley, is markedly different from the main mass – incorporating the small house perpendicular to the hill – in terms of both structure and material use; it is essentially hidden and overgrown with vegetation.