Northern Home & Cottage, February 2026 by MyNorth

northern home & cottage

FOR THE WAY YOU LIVE UP NORTH

“The

house grabs onto the view and pulls it inside.”

– Joseph Mosey, architect

COTTAGE, CONTEMPORIZED

A HOMELY TORCH LAKE RANCH IS RE-IMAGINED AS A COZY RETREAT CONNECTED TO THE LANDSCAPE.

LUCINDA HAHN / Photos courtesy of JOSEPH MOSELEY ARCHITECTURE, INC.

The old cottage on Torch Lake was built with great intentions—but not much else going for it. Built in the 1950s, it was a low-roofed, drafty, slowly deteriorating structure that only hinted at the mid-century charm it wished it had. The basement was leaky and the living room tiny, with windows that constricted the lake views. It was, as architect Joseph Mosey says kindly, “a mid-century modern wannabe, but not at all that cool.”

Still, the site itself was unbeatable: 100 feet of sparkling frontage, mature trees and the kind of aqua-blue panorama Torch Lake is famous for. The homeowners, a couple with college-aged daughters, had used the cottage for several years as a summer retreat, and they dreamed of creating a year-round home—something warm, modern and connected to the water. “Stylistically, they wanted a modern house, but rich in materials to fit in with the lake,” Mosey says.

Their initial plan was to renovate. But it soon became clear that nearly everything— foundation, framing, roof—was failing, and that it would be most efficient to tear the

Previous spread: The monoslope metal roof adds a modern vibe—and sheds snow quickly during winter. On the front porch, the vertical steel I-beam was repurposed from the original cottage.

Design in action:

perfect for pets.

Our homes are meant to be lived in, paws and all—and at Bay View Flooring & Design Center, we’re proud to feature Pet Perfect® carpet by Shaw, designed for life with pets and the people who love them. Thoughtfully engineered to handle muddy tracks and everyday spills, Pet Perfect® delivers durability without sacrificing comfort or style. With stain and odor resistance built in, this carpet collection supports households while maintaining a look. By highlighting Pet Perfect® in our showroom, we continue our commitment to providing Northern Michigan homeowners with solutions that fit real life—for those who matter most.

Shaw Floors is proud to be the Preferred Flooring of the American Kennel Club

Miss Pepper visits Bay View’s Pet Perfect carpet display.

Wide-plank white-oak floors and white-oak cabinetry—crafted by the builder’s sister company, mPn— add richness and consistency.

structure down, rebuilding the cottage as an all-new home based on the renovation plans.

One of Mosey’s guiding concepts was scale. On approach up the driveway, the house remains intentionally modest, with low-pitched rooflines and a petite one-car garage. But once inside, cue the drama. From a small, compact entryway, the living room lifts off toward Torch Lake, thanks to a ceiling that rises to 14 feet, 6 inches. A towering wall of glass—8-foot picture windows topped by 3-foot transoms—frames the lake as a living painting. “The house grabs onto the view and pulls it inside,” says Mosey. “It makes the home feel much bigger than it really is.”

With the house facing east, morning sunlight pours into the living room; in winter, the low sun angles push light deep into the home, warming it physically and visually. Stained

ceiling beams run through the kitchen, dining and living areas in a steady rhythm line, with a lower ceiling over the kitchen. “We don’t love creating warehouses for people to live in,” Mosey says. “Changing ceiling heights helps define each room without using walls.”

Despite its modern silhouette, the 2,100-square-foot home feels cozy and grounded. Its dark-brown metal roof and stained cedar siding fit the natural surroundings, along with the stone— “a little nod to Uncle Frank [Lloyd Wright],” notes Mosey—accenting the foundation, front porch and fireplace. The linear-gas fireplace is especially welcome in the colder months. Wrapped in sheets of patinaed steel, it features an I-beam mantle salvaged from the original cottage, all fabricated and installed by builder Mapleridge. Says co-owner Scott Naumes: “We enjoy doing that kind of not-your-

run-of-the-mill thing—stuff that takes a little bit more thought.”

What can get overlooked—especially in summer—is that this modern home is also a high-performance winter retreat, thanks to an unusual construction approach. Because of the home’s angled walls and varied roof heights, traditional stick framing would have been slow and costly. Naumes suggested using structural insulated panels, or SIPs. Essentially thick foam insulation sandwiched between engineered boards, SIPs are cut on a CNC machine to exact specifications. “With all the angles in this house, SIPs made sense,” Naumes explains. “The shell went up in three days. Stick framing could’ve taken a month and a half.”

SIPs are roughly 50 percent more energy-efficient than traditional framing—a boon in Northern Michigan winters. “It’s one of the tightest houses

we’ve ever built,” Naumes says. And while the house incorporates high-performance elements, the homeowners did not pursue an extravagant or oversized build. “They didn’t go overboard,” Naumes says. “But they put their money in the right places.”

The result is a home that’s stylish and welcoming. The monoslope metal roof, wide overhangs and stacked-box forms give it a modern character, while the cedar, oak, and stone keep it connected to the landscape. A walkout lower level offers a bunk room, perfect for extended family on snowy winter weekends.

It’s a home that feels good in all four seasons, but perhaps especially now, when the fireplace crackles, the floors are warm underfoot, and Torch Lake stretches out beyond the glass, crisp and quiet under winter skies.”

Above: The fireplace surround, made of fabricated steel, was accented by antique-looking fasteners and patinaed by skilled painters. The rhythm of stained, structural ceiling beams unites the main living space.

Left: Materials from the rest of the house—natural stone, ceiling beams—lend warmth and texture to the primary bathroom.

resources

Architectural Design: Joseph Mosey Architecture, Inc., josephmoseyarchitecture.com

Builder: Mapleridge Construction, mapleridge.us

Windows: Marvin Windows, marvin.com

Roof: Absolute Building Solutions LLC, absolutebuildingsolutionsmi.com

Electric: Moon Electric, 231.533.9587

Plumbing: Bardenhagen Plumbing, 231.499.8695

Deck railings: Viewrail, viewrail.com

Cabinetry: Miller, Poineau & Naumes, mpnbuild.com

Firepit area: Bruce’s Excavation, brucesexcavation.com

LIGHT ON THE BLUFF

WITH SOME EXTRA TLC, A DARK AND DREARY VICTORIAN IS REBORN AS A LUMINOUS LAKESIDE HAVEN.

By NICOLE LANE / Photos by SABRINA LEIGH STUDIOS

Perched high above Lake Superior, a centuriesold home inhales light. In the past, the home faced a rail yard; its rear elevation was never meant to frame postcard views. But the owners longed to pull the light in, to knock down exterior walls and loosen the tight, dark rooms that had been shaped by decades of well-meaning modifications; to let the house finally live the way a modern family would— open, airy, connected.

The Marquette home, built in 1880, has seen many lives. It cycled through owners, morphed into a duplex, turned back into a single family and endured a fire that devastated much of the original grandeur, detail and character.

Enter Curio Design Studio. Their mission: Open the house toward the view of the iconic Ore Docks and restore the craftsmanship that once defined it. The homeowners were searching for a designer who honors the roots and bones of a home and contacted Curio. “We’re not wildly bold, but around here people associate us with more pattern, more saturated colors, more wallpaper—not the

typical white farmhouse style,” says Allison Harlow, founder and interior designer of Curio.

The journey in renovating the home began with blueprints, architects and dreams of a major addition. But as work unfolded, the plan for the kitchen, powder room, mudroom and library shifted. Instead of building out, the team opted to refine and build within the beauty of what already existed. Harlow says the owner felt like a steward returning the house to its former glory. “[Marquette] is a very intentional place to live—you don’t just end up here. People really choose to live here, and they’re intentional in how they renovate, too.” That mindset and care shaped the renovations, where the homeowner honored history rather than chasing trends. The sweep of the ceilings, the deep woodwork, the quiet echo of a grander past.

Early challenges surfaced in the kitchen plans, especially around the range wall—an ambiguous zone in the blueprints. “We like to plan for the worst-case scenario,” Harlow says. “And in this case, the opposite happened. We actually found more space in the walls than we expected.” The surprise opened room for more cabinetry, giving the kitchen both elegance and function.

The small architectural win lets the house exhale—offering a little bit of permission to reveal its full potential. When the original architectural plans were scrapped, Curio artfully envisioned how to conjure luminosity within the existing walls, and Closner Construction brought the dream forward. With each layer they uncovered, the team leaned further into the home’s character, connecting and guiding the design toward a more fluid, natural cohesion.

The reimagined kitchen now anchors the main floor, glowing with daylight and layered in curated detail—from deep plum cabinetry and unlacquered brass fixtures to a herringbone oak floor that bridges old and new. “[The owners’ ] initial vision was almost like a conservatory off the back of an old English home—glassfilled and light-filled,” says Harlow.

Bi-fold doors now open the chef’s kitchen to the back porch, dissolving

To complement the plum-colored painted cabinets of the island, Harlow kept to natural wood around the stove to keep a touch of Old World charm. Opposite: Instead of tiles, the kitchen got new wood floors installed by U.P. Hardwood, which were custom-stained and include transitions at the doorjambs for a more inlaid pattern that sweeps the room.

the former boundary between indoors and the Superior horizon. The owners imagined cocktail and dinner parties, passing appetizers across the communal center island and lighting up the grill for whitefish over harbor views. It’s a space meant for food lovers and social butterflies, with a great love of the outdoors.

To balance the light, a moody powder room with deep purple floral wallpaper and sculptural black marble sink greets visitors. An adjacent cozy library stretches upward with floorto-ceiling bookshelves. The homeowner was ready to experiment with color, being pulled toward dark, bold, funky hues. Throughout the home,

Amplifying the opportunities for natural light opened the space in the home, while deep colors, dark cabinets and bold wallpaper infused the home with new energy.

750 N Dumas Rd, Suttons Bay

Curio stitched classic materials—marble, natural wood, rich colors—into a palette that feels revived yet rooted.

The renovation honors the home’s story while elevating it into something polished. One of Harlow’s favorite touches is the custom glass transoms above the pantry and the mudroom doors. “I wanted people to walk through the home and question what was here originally,” says Harlow. Even the light switches whisper history—mother-of-pearl push buttons set in unlacquered brass. “You don’t always get a client who cares that much for the little details. That’s fifty dollars more for a switch and plate cover, but it feels like it belongs, and the house is really deserving of that.”

From custom millwork to vintage-inspired hardware, the details reinforce harmony. The spaces flow effortlessly, as though the kitchen always opened toward the lake, always welcomed the flood of Superior light. Harlow says, “It was one of those projects where you’re just like, ‘Oh, this person gets it, they get me, they get the professionalism of what we do, and are willing to surrender to that process.’”

The dark green in the powder room is a nod to nearby Northern Michigan University, whose colors are green and gold.