Northern Home & Cottage, August/September

northern home & cottage

There are three things for me that make a house: great rugs, great art and great antiques.

-Lucy Earl, Jones-Keena & Co.

FOR THE WAY YOU L I VE UP NORTH

FRANKFORT FARMHOUSE REIMAGINED P. 42

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^ Peach Crisp with Vanilla Bean Ice Cream Serves 6

Object of Desire

PÊCHE KEEN WE LOVE a good Le Creuset pot—not only for

the timeless utility, but also for the hit of accent color it adds to any kitchen shelf. And the juiciest new color rollout, Pêche, is a soft shade of peachy sunset that goes from oven to table with style. On our wish list: the cast-iron shallow casserole (just right for a peach pan dowdy) and the stoneware heritage rectangular dish, perfect for summer’s crisps and cobblers. We’d pair either of them with this classic recipe, courtesy of Mission Table. –C.M.

Peach Filling 6 ripe peaches, peeled and cut into 1-inch wedges 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 lemon, juiced and zested 2 teaspoons corn starch 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon Topping 4 ounces sweet butter, cubed, at room temperature 1/2 cup brown sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup rolled oats 1-2 cups all-purpose flour 1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. Make the peach filling. In a medium mixing bowl combine peaches, sugar, lemon juice and zest and let stand for five minutes. Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine. Set aside.

3. To make the topping, combine butter and brown sugar in a mixer on low speed until incorporated. Add vanilla, salt and oats and continue mixing while adding flour incrementally until it looks like wet granola and just barely holds together when pressed into a ball.

4. Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking dish with butter, add peach filling and cover evenly with topping. Bake until topping turns golden brown and filling starts to bubble, about 20–25 minutes. Remove peach crisp from oven, let stand for 15 minutes and serve warm with vanilla bean ice cream.

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house and home

KEEPING IT OLD SCHOOL A CHICAGO COUPLE TRANSFORMS A SUMMER COTTAGE INTO A YEAR-ROUND HOME WORTHY OF ITS VENERABLE HISTORY. B y E L I Z A B E T H E D W A R D S / Photos by ANGELA DEWITT

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J

ust weeks before the stock market crashed in 1929, Alexander Grant Ruthven, then a zoology instructor at University of Michigan, was named president of the prestigious institution. For the next 22 years, Ruthven guided the university through the Great Depression and then World War II. When he needed relief from the pressure, he escaped to a farm in Frankfort where he kept Morgan horses on a large parcel of land until his death in 1971.

The farm has several dwellings on it—one said to have been lived in

by Ruthven’s daughter. Over the rest of the last century, that farmhouse sat empty and was rumored to be haunted. Eventually, it was turned into a summer cottage and upgraded with insulation and a new roof.

But still, there was much to be done when Chicagoans Mike and Barbara Perry purchased it. With deep ties to the Frankfort area and its history— Barbara has been summering here since she was a child—the couple set out to convert the old cottage into a year-round home.

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The Perrys hired contractor Darryl McNiff of Platte River Construction to oversee their project. McNiff and his team had built a home for their family friends nearby, and had renovated a section of Barb’s family cottage in Crystal Downs—with rave reviews from both clients. But finding an architect proved harder, as each one they called was booked out for many months. That was when McNiff suggested Keith Campbell, a commercial

architect in Chicago and former client of his who has a second home in Benzie County. The Perrys tracked Campbell down and found their taste was a perfect match. “It was a great gift, in a turbulent time of our lives, to have Darryl suggest that we might work with Keith,” Barbara says. Both were in transition—Keith had just retired from his career as a commercial architect, and the Perrys were packing up their house of 35 years outside of Chicago.

“We all wanted to do a renovation that was consistent with the architectural language of the original house,” Campbell adds.

The formidable punch list for the old cottage included installing central heating. The existing heat was electric baseboard, a system the Perrys realized was untenable when it cost them $30 to heat the house on just one November night. To that end, McNiff’s crew installed in-floor heating

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by breaking through a basement wall into the extremely tight crawlspace under the home—a laborious process, but one that preserved the original Douglas fir flooring.

Updating the antiquated kitchen was an equally complicated endeavor.

“It was a nightmare,” McNiff recalls.

“When we opened the walls up, the framing was almost non-existent—the walls had two-by-fours holding everything up.” As with any work in an old

structure, there were surprises, including the charred evidence of a chimney fire that made the Perrys and their contractors wonder how the clawfoot tub directly above it managed not to fall through the ceiling. A newspaper buried in the old lath-and-plaster walls and dated 1893 was another enlightening discovery, placing the home’s construction date to that year or before.

Working within the small existing footprint, Barbara led the way in

While the old cottage kitchen needed a top-to-bottom redo, the homeowners managed to preserve its vintage ambiance; Family antiques and local art scattered throughout the home are a blending of the couple’s Chicago and Northern Michigan roots; The primary bedroom, with its pastoral view of Alexander Grant Ruthven’s former stables, is big enough for the Perrys to spread their yoga mats.

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The light-filled bedroom in the apartment above the garage makes a welcoming space for guests; Soothing sage-colored walls and a cedar-paneled ceiling create the sense of a sanctuary in the new primary bedroom; The kitchen in the guest apartment is small but stylish and efficient; The refurbished clawfoot bathtub fits under an upstairs eave where it’s been since the better part of the last century.

the design of a perfectly functioning kitchen outfitted with Wolverine cabinetry and new appliances. Mike, meanwhile, re-harvested pine wood once used in the kitchen walls to make a lovely banquette nestled in one corner.

The team built an addition to add a new primary bedroom, a light-filled space with generous windows and a cathedral ceiling clad in cedar. “We wanted to use a lot of cedar for its wonderful smell,” Mike says.

Now finished, the home is a harmonious orchestration of new and old. That old claw-foot tub has been re-plumbed and is (safely) usable again; the vanity that Mike fashioned out of another of the re-harvested wall planks is set handsomely in the primary bath; and the distinctive antique mullioned pattern of the windows in the upstairs rooms was replicated in the new addition. From top to bottom, the home is a graceful echo of its past—while being comfortably livable in the modern era.

While they’ve only recently moved in, the Perrys already have wonderful memories of their home that include the renovation itself. “Darryl, his crew and Keith all feel like family to us after working together on this project,” Barbara says.

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resources Architect Keith Campbell AIA Contractor Platte River Construction Foundation & Flatwork Collins Construction Electrical Ark Electric Heating Cannon Mechanical Plumbing Ultimate Plumbing Insulation TC Insulating Cabinetry Wolverine Cabinet Co. Appliances Max’s Service Wood Floor Refinishing GT Wood Flooring Lumber, Windows, Doors & Trim Honor & Onekama Building Supply Landscaping James Collins

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Photo by Maconochie Photography

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house and house home and home

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THE ANNIVERSARY COTTAGE

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ONE OF THE NORTH’S MOST TALENTED DESIGN-ANDBUILD TEAMS COMPLETES A CLASSIC SHINGLE-STYLE COTTAGE ON WALLOON LAKE IN TIME FOR THE LOVELIEST OF OCCASIONS. B y E L I Z A B E T H E D W A R D S / Photos by BETH SINGER

n the late fall of 2019, Brian and Brenda McKeen bought a lot on Walloon Lake with a sweeping vista up the body of the lake.

The purchase was the culmination of a long-held dream to have a cottage on that lake—a dream they’d often spoken about with Lucy Earl, of Jones-Keena & Co., the designer who’d helped them renovate their circa-1920s home in Bloomfield Hills. Given the McKeens’ strong working relationship with her, they looked to Earl to guide them through the design and building process of their new cottage. It was a task Earl took on with gusto, knowing that there was deadline: The McKeens wanted the cottage finished in time to celebrate Brian’s parents’ 70th wedding anniversary in the summer of 2021.

Earl launched the process by introducing the McKeens to architect Nick White of the Petoskey-based firm White & Liebler Architects. Over his three decades-plus career, White has developed a signature cottage

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style (particularly evident in the homes along Walloon Lake) that draws on the characteristics of early 20th-century summer homes in the Great Lakes and Northeastern Coast. That résumé jibed perfectly with the shingled exterior and lovely wrap-around porch that the McKeens envisioned for their new cottage. “We thought that Shingle style would be very fitting in Northern Michigan,” Brian says.

While White and his managing partner/principal Nick Liebler tackled the blueprint, Earl and the McKeens set off for a home-furnishing buying trip to Atlanta in January of 2020. “I tell every client that there are three things for me that make a house: great rugs, great art and great antiques—these give a house soul and a rich background,” Earl says. Among the trio’s finds on that trip was a large, four-panel fabric-covered wall piece embossed with depictions of Revolutionary War soldiers. Earl saw it at once as a thematically anchoring feature—bringing out the home’s spirit of vintage Americana as well as the shades of blue the McKeens wanted threaded throughout their home.

Even as the treasures from the Atlanta trip had been shipped North, and just before ground was to be broken for the new cottage, the Covid-19 shutdown took effect. The team, which now included contractor Richard Collie of the Harbor Springs– based Collie Construction, didn’t lose heart. Even when hammers couldn’t ring, they kept planning through a steady stream of Zoom meetings.

Despite the setback, there are many happy endings to the story of this cottage, one being the camaraderie that developed between the homeowners and the entire designand-build team. A standout was the opportunity for Earl and White, both of whom are nearing retirement, to work together: “Working with White & Liebler was a pure joy. Nick White and I are basically the same age, so as senior architect and designer we have lots of experience,” says Earl, adding that managing partner Nick Liebler was also a big part of the project. “We had a grand time creating this house.”

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The pale blue palette in the living room echoes the colors of Walloon Lake out the window. Note the millwork throughout the home drawn by White and executed by the craftspeople at Collie Construction: “Nick White is one of the best millwork architects I’ve ever worked with,” says Earl. “He understands how to do really beautiful traditional millwork packages for new construction that give a house a timeless quality.”

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But by far the grand finale was the wonderful 70th anniversary party held in the cottage for Brian McKeen’s parents, just 18 months after the team broke ground. While there was some finishing on the lower level to complete, the upstairs was ready to house the whole family.

“We built that entire house in record time,” says Earl.

The soldiers depicted in the antique wall panels set the color palette for the hearth room.

Earl picked up what she calls the “Crayola yellow” in the rug which also carries out the home’s blue theme; The homeowners chose an Adirondack theme for the downstair bar area (see the photo on page 61). Note the birch bark–covered walls; Earl designed the fireplace in one of the bedrooms after the Calvin Coolidge Summer White House in South Dakota. “It’s done out of all kinds of different gemstones, quartz and arrowheads and there’s a big fossil on the front of the fireplace that has a little tiny stone dinosaur inside,” says Earl. “The stone masons became so engaged [that they collected their own] stones to add. [When it was done] they waited for me at the top of the driveway to come and see the finish.”

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Architect White & Liebler Architects General Contractor Collie Construction Interior Design Jones-Keena & Co. Landscape Architecture Environmental Artists Cabinetry & Kitchen Design O’Brien Harris

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