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Lodge comfort |

for DeHaan Homes of Hudsonville, Michigan, it is about the experience delivered and the trust established in the partnership that is integral to the design-build process when realizing a grand lodge and retreat for their clients

greatlakesbydesign.com svkmp.com EDITOR Rachel J. Weick SENIOR STAFF WRITER Brenna Buckwald Riley Collins CREATIVE DIRECTOR Robin Vargo

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Wooded retreat build |

Caron Custom Homes in Decatur, Michigan realizes a modest, low-maintenance home of modern inspiration amid designated wetlands and timbers in collaboration with Chicago-based Vinci | Hamp Architects Inc.

PUBLISHER John C. Olsa ADVERTISING SALES John C. Olsa — johno@svkmp.com WESTERN MICHIGAN SALES Kim Amesbury — kamesbury@comcast.net CIRCULATION David Fant, Market Mapping Plus PRINTING AND MAILING Walsworth Printing Holland Litho

Lake definition |

two iconic pieces of custom-build work by Mapleridge Construction in Williamsburg and Miller, Poineau, & Naumes, or MPN, in East Jordan, Michigan, are realized as a graceful ode to midcentury influence and a transitional addition inspired by Cape Cod aesthetics

ARTIST/PAINTER Margo Burian Gloria Oostema Debra Sanborn Jim Carroll LEGAL Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge ACCOUNTING Pennell CPA Fred Pennell, CPA, CGMA Brian Furness, CPA

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Organic warmth in detail |

inspired by open, spatial layout, organic minimalism, and family gathering, this home designed and built by Walker Residential Design of Caledonia, Ridgeline Homes of Hudsonville, and True Vine Creations of Hudsonville, Michigan delivers a welcoming atmosphere for their clients infused with coastal hues and natural materials

Build in partnership |

for the family-owned and -operated custom build firm of Whitmore Custom Homes in Grand Rapids, Michigan, it is through understanding their clients’ dreams and needs while having the processes in place to achieve true customization and unity of craftsmanship that leads to successfully building clients’ forever-home, such as in these two distinct lakefront projects

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616.336.8495 | searsarchitects.com

The Architects

ABOVE: 2020 COVER (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) FIRST ROW: John F. Spalding, RA, AIA, NCARB; Ted Lott, AIA, LEED AP; James D. Nordlie, AIA; Kevin Toukoumidis, AIA, LEED SECOND ROW: Damian Farrell, FAIA, LEED AP; Dennis Reckley, RA OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP LEFT: 2017 COVER (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) FIRST ROW: Gina Van Tine, AIA, LEED AP; Michael H. Pattullo, AIA; Nicholas J. White, AIA, LEED AP SECOND ROW: Robert Sears; Megan Feenstra-Wall, AIA; Mark Humitz, AIA, LEED AP; top: Wayne Visbeen, AIA, IIDA OPPOSITE PAGE, TOP RIGHT: 2018 COVER (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) FIRST ROW: Brent Dykstra, LEED AP; Kevin Montgomery, AIA, LEED GA; Kenneth Richmond, AIA; Aimee P.C. Buccellato, LEED AP SECOND ROW: Garrick Landsberg, AIA, LEED AP; Sarah Bourgeois, AIA; Eric De Witt, AIA; Kevin Buccellato, AIA, NCARB TOP: Nick Liebler, LEED AP OPPOSITE PAGE, BOTTOM: 2019 COVER (FROM LEFT TO RIGHT) Brian Barkwell, AIA; Thomas R. Mathison, FAIA; Matthew Gerard, AIA; Louis DesRosiers, AIA; Elaine Keiser, AIA, NCARB Photography: M-Buck Studio LLC

DeHaan Homes

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Photography: Ashley Avila Photography

Integration, collaboration, and innovation: there are many benefits inherent to the design-build process, where its delivery method is based on having a single-source contact accountable for all aspects of the build and is supported by a skilled team of craftspeople with the singular goal of realizing their clients’ vision within the built landscape. It is about the goal of creating a sense of ease in a complex construction process, where an integrated, collaborative team works to address schedule-related challenges, cost and selection decisions, and practical site nuances from design, engineering, estimating, and specification writing, to construction and, finally, post-construction phases.

For DeHaan Homes, a custom residential design-build firm with nearly 95 years of experience across four generations in Hudsonville, Michigan, it is this very delivery process that defines its work as its experienced design-build team guides clients and homeowners through best-value solutions from initial design through move-in and through warranty. It is about the experience delivered to their clients and the trust established in the partnership through communication and service, and a flexibility to adapt to ever-evolving challenges in an industry faced with external disruptions.

“Today, it is all about the journey and creating a great experience,” said Douglas DeHaan, president, fourth-generation craftsman, and owner of DeHaan Homes. “At times, the actual sketching and creative design is the easy part of the process; listening and being respectful and thoughtful of what our clients want to create, that is the hard part. Design is the graphic portion of listening to our clients’ lifestyle, capturing their vision of how they want to live in their home and the feel they desire to obtain upon completion.”

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For DeHaan, who grew up working alongside his father on job sites, designing and building clients’ dream homes is a passionate venture, where foundational principles of quality and excellence in craftsmanship and workmanship are core to a successful, team-generated project. The company has developed a diverse portfolio of work throughout the years, ranging in scale, style, and typology, inspired by client vision and imagination and based on a process that is rooted in a collaborative approach of communication and creativity.

“We have great talent on our team with our internal goals of trying to provide the

best client experience for our clients,” DeHaan said. “Our approach is commercial-like.

That is, pre-designing plans, pre-designing our interior architecture, and also providing electrical plans, floor covering layouts, and all of our material selections before beginning the home, leaving the least amount of ambiguity with the selections and decisions.

This process is one that promotes that hightouch experience. Most of the heavy-lifting has been done up-front. If you build a home and you have to design it as you build it, it becomes an onerous proposition.”

The vision When it came to the grand hunting lodge and retreat on a roughly 125-acre site nestled among orchards, asparagus fields, timbers, groomed trails, and water, listening to the clients and translating their programmatic goals and overall vision into a 13,000-square-foot destination, instilled with a sense of intimacy and comfort, was integral to the design-build process. DeHaan noted the clients had previously experienced multiple remodeling projects and sought him out in their journey to renovate a small cottage near White Lake.

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out, the clients decided to invest in building a custom destination for the first time.

“It had always been his dream to have a resort-like home in a private location, so we listened intently to their desires. They were so understated and humble and when we were drawing, he kept talking about what he wanted to do and it kept growing due to their vision for how they wanted to live,” DeHaan said.

“Could we have put it in the ‘dryer’ and removed 1,000 square-feet out of it? I’m sure we could have, but, to me, scale is everything. I think when you go through the home, you really feel like the scale is proportional, meaning a large space can be perfect 12

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if executed correctly. You really feel like the space, though it is voluminous, is still intimate. That is the secret to design: how do you take something that is really big and make it feel cozy?” DeHaan added.

Designed by the design-build team at DeHaan Homes, they sketched a large lodge space with two wings. Organized with a private residential wing and a garage-guest wing on the opposite end, the two-story great room, indoor pool, and gathering spaces serve as its centerpiece. Its entry sequence opens up to the great room where a double-sided fireplace separates it from the indoor pool positioned directly beyond and six chandeliers, two fans, and a large, cus-

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tom antler fixture provide an intimate scale, balancing the 28-foot-high space. The main public space is flanked on either side with more functional areas like the dining and residential kitchen—complete with island and window overlooking the pool—toward the guest wing, and smaller, more intimate entertainment areas are positioned near the private wing.

The entertainment spaces, which feature a pool table, lounge seating, powder room, and bar complete with a flip window opening out into the pool, are intentional in layout and scale. The series of gathering spaces then transitions into designated changing rooms and a pool bath before leading into the private master suite complete with fireplace.

There is a secondary bedroom suite intended for their only granddaughter. On the upper GREAT LAKES

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level of the residential wing, there are two additional bedroom suites and a shared lounge area for their adult children.

In the other wing, which transitions from residential kitchen to the garage entry area with a mudroom, bathroom, and laundry space, there is also an enclosed outdoor kitchen with shared access to both the garage and the interior pantry. The enclosed kitchen not only features a three-basin, stainless steel sink, but also a grill and cooktop. On the upper level, four guest suites, a guest lounge, and bathroom are designated space for their seven grandsons or, on occasion, hunting guests.

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“We designed this lodge with two sleeping areas opposite each other,” DeHaan said.

“It was just so unique in so many ways. The takeaway was listening to their lifestyle and how they wanted to use it, but trying to make it feel warm and intimate. They really wanted a small cabin, but, in reality, they were building a resort.”

The warmth in details While large in footprint, DeHaan Homes was intentional in proportion and scale, integrating materials and finishes that infuse the lodge with textural warmth and intimacy. From the tactile surface of the Venetian 20

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plaster walls, the natural stone fireplace, and the warm-gray, old world, white oak fumed woodwork on top of imported wide-planked French floors; to the layering of custom furniture, built-ins, draperies, and Pendleton wool, the lodge’s materiality speaks to that intimate cabin concept.

“All the trim in the house is fumed, white oak, which is a process from the turn-of-thecentury where you remove the tannin acids out of the oak through a process of fuming.

We used a UV matte finish, so it almost appears as if there is no finish at all,” DeHaan said. “The walls are all Venetian plaster, so it is a real warm finish and there is move-

ment in the plaster. We felt that if we painted the walls even a warm color and they were smooth and flat, it would look too residential for what we wanted to accomplish.”

Other details found throughout the home comprise square treads on the stairwells, a beer tap and hanging rack in the bar area, and hammered stainless steel silverware, along with custom-built headboards, nightstands, and dressers, among other furnishings to fit the architecture and style of the home.

“We did the complete package of design, interior architecture, and interior selections including the furnishings, and we even coordinated their plates, cups, and dishware,” De-

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Haan said. “To me, the most gratifying piece was starting with a humbling beginning and landing with such an expectation and actually exceeding it. To take clients’ own story and make it come to life, was the most profound thing to me about this journey we made together.”

The feeling Though rather imposing in stance and approach, the lodge is a celebration of craftsmanship, detail, and understated rustic elegance. Its exterior silhouette speaks to the grand lodges of old, inspired by turn-of-thecentury resorts and modern-day destinations, while its exterior materiality doesn’t detract from the beauty of its sprawling wooded site. Its interior captures the ambiance of lodge comfort, which is achieved through the careful and thoughtful use and planning of warm tone woods, Venetian plaster, wide-planked floors, and a continual layering of materials—creating an intangible presence of everyday living.

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Caron Custom Homes

Wooded retreat build

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Photography: Tony Soluri Photography and Tom Harris Architectural Photography

For Paul Caron, owner of Caron Custom Homes in Decatur, Michigan, a successful, high-quality custom home is defined by its honest and informative process, exacting level of detail, and a driven mindset to push the build envelope. It is in the experience and the journey, from initial conceptual plan and meeting to realized vision and first step beyond the threshold, that a design-build process delivers upon the trust instilled in a contractor—an aspect Caron considers integral to a well-built home and process.

“If I’m building a home for you, I want to be very proud of what I’m building for you. What is important in a custom home, to me, is the level of quality. I strive for perfection and will go over things to ensure it. From a customer standpoint, that is a huge level of trust that you can put in me as a builder, that I look at a home that way, and trust with a contractor is huge,” Caron said.

“It is delivery, but delivering not just the home, but also can you deliver a relationship and a trust level and everything with it—or did you just deliver a home and the people are happy to see you gone out of their lives?” Caron added.

The company Caron Custom Homes is a design-build firm offering custom home, general contracting, and custom cabinetry services to clients throughout the Michiana, New Buffalo, Union Pier, St. Joseph, Sawyer, and Lake Michigan region. Specializing in waterfront properties, Caron Custom Homes provides a range of services in new build and remodel work, such as: site planning, excavation, budgeting, project management, construction and framing, drywall installation, electrical, mechanical, plumbing, kitchen and bath woodwork and design, concrete, and landscaping, among others.

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For roughly 20 years, the firm has worked with architects, designers, and homeowners to deliver well-crafted custom homes backed by a process informed by open and honest communication, developing a portfolio of work spanning typology and scale across its geographical footprint. Caron noted as a design-build firm that often partners with other architects, at times the level of design provided by the firm is pulled back, but having a working knowledge of design is important as a builder.

“That is what they do best, so that makes the 26

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most sense, but if you have some design sense as a contractor of what works and what looks good and how things are supposed to go together—do you have a mechanical mindset of how things work—then I think you are all the better as a contractor,” Caron said.

“In contracting, we have our own carpenters who work for us. We do more than just contract the work; we are interactive in the work with our hands and with the work we do. Personally, I am proud of the fact that I was a master carpenter long before I was a general contractor, because

I can implement all those things into our labor force and into our projects. I think that is what makes us who we are,” Caron added.

Caron’s foray into the field initially began while in high school enrolled in a trades program working for a number of custom home builders. Driven by a relentless pursuit to do something bigger and better—paired with an affinity for the build process and for working with people—Caron quickly went from framing crew to custom home building entrepreneur.

“I enjoy building. I enjoy working with

people. Like a lot of people, at that early stage in my life, I wanted to advance and saw an opportunity to work on a framing crew for a number of years and make more money.

That was always the name of the game, how do you make more money in construction, which definitely shaped how I worked and what I was capable of; what was expected of me,” Caron said.

“There was a lot of mentoring through those years. A framing crew is fast-paced, it’s very hard work, and you are pushed hard,

so it pushed me to be probably a lot better at what I did and a lot more efficient at what I did, but I still learned a lot from the custom home building side as well. Still today, as you work with people, you take something from every interaction and you apply it to what you do to make yourself better,” Caron added.

Now, nearly two decades after starting the firm, Caron said the process is one that recognizes every client and every situation is different, requiring flexibility and a little bit of intuition to ensure the experience is enjoyable for GREAT LAKES

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them and the final product meets their needs and expectations.

“Some customers are very hands-off— and some architects are very hands-off—and their expectations are just as high as the next person. You have to know how to handle that project. Other people, they have to have more interaction with you, they have to know what is happening tomorrow, not next week,” Caron said. “You really just have to be intuitive with yourself and with people and with the state of the project—and is the process you are using with that project going to be effective or is it not? It is always being very upfront, open, honest, and keeping things as black and white as you can on paper, and being informative.”

Caron Custom Homes also has an inhouse woodworking shop where the team provides full customization of cabinetry from design to cabinet-making for clients. The custom cabinetry service became an in-house operation about 12 years ago when Caron said he had the opportunity to acquire a cabinet-maker company when the owner was set to retire. Caron noted that while it was a hor-

rible time in 2009 to decide to venture into a new direction as a young business, he recognized it as a key part of some of the homes they were building at the time and knew it would be an integral part of the process moving forward.

“There is a comfort level knowing that your contractor is in charge of all your cabinetry, your finishing items, and that we are not only just in charge of that, but also we are helping with the design if needed. We are working with the architect on their designs and making sure everything is built to spec and if there are additional things that we think of as we are midstream in construction, we are showing them what we have built and they make a change and it is something easy for us to do, because we are in full control of that,” Caron said.

“I think the more places you have control over your project, the better, and in your finishing; that is really what everyone is looking at when the home is done, is this finished product. So, having our hands into that, fully, I think is a huge benefit to how our homes finish,” Caron added.

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The team When Vinci | Hamp Architects Inc., a full-service architectural practice based in Chicago, approached Caron Custom Homes about their interest in building a client’s modest, low-maintenance home on a unique property, Caron said his attention was sparked immediately. Caron noted it was the level of quality showcased in a couple of the firm’s more traditional homes in the area that led the architectural practice to be comfortable partnering with them.

“We looked at a couple traditional homes and what they noticed first was the quality level is exactly what they were looking for, despite the design differences,” Caron said. “It was great; it was a new firm that I had never worked with before and, to me, it’s a big pat on the back that you are doing something right when you invite someone else to critique you and it’s a positive thing. You feel good that you are heading in the right direction.”

Vinci | Hamp Architects, as a firm, is dedicated to improving the built environment GREAT LAKES

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through preservation of historic work and creating new buildings that are straightforward expressions of function, structure and materials. Led by John Vinci, FAIA—who has been principal of his own firms since 1969 and known for work like the Louis Sullivan’s Chicago Stock Exchange Trading Room and Frank Lloyd Wright’s Home and Studio in Oak Park—and Philip Hamp, FAIA, LEED AP BD+C, who joined Vinci in 1980 and formed Vinci | Hamp Architects in 1995— Vinci | Hamp Architects works with residen34

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tial, preservation, museums, and other institutional clients and has been recognized with an AIA National Honor Award in 2007 and 2014. Backed by a team of principal architects, associates, and designers, the firm has developed a robust portfolio of restoration and new design work, such as at the Illinois State Capital, Art Institute of Chicago, Henry Ford Museum, Chicago Tribune Tower, Rothko Pavilion at Portland Art Museum, and diverse residential styles.

The site For this particular project, located in southwest Michigan, the client not only wanted to build a home of modern inspiration set within the timbers and designated wetlands of the site, but also maintain the natural resources of the property. Defined by the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy—formerly the Department of Environmental Quality, or DEQ—as land featuring the presence of water at a frequency and duration sufficient to support wetland vegeta-

tion or quality life, wetlands provide a number of benefits to the surrounding ecosystem, such as flood and storm control, wildlife habitat, erosion control, and serve as a biological and chemical oxidation basin.

“This was an eight-acre parcel that had designated wetlands inside of it and that is always a tougher area that we need to make sure we follow through with the [EGLE] and that we are not disturbing any of those areas,” Caron said. “The homeowner was also doing some forestry work with different arbors, try-

ing to make sure that the property was maintained—which it hadn’t been maintained well from a forestry perspective up until he purchased it—and wetlands were part of that.”

With tight constraints as to where to position the home on the lot while adhering to both forestry and wetland regulations, Caron noted the team had to shift the location of the buildable area and snake the driveway through the landscape while navigating challenges of the ground itself since it was relatively soft in a wetland area. The solution was to install geo-

web materials in for the base driveway until it was solid, and to site the home on an elevated ridge to allow for privacy from the road and views of the nearby pond.

The retreat Nestled amid the timbers and natural vegetation of the site, this modern-lined, contemporary home is defined by its flat rooflines, low-profile presence, and exterior of rich, charred finish. There is an intentional relationship to its environment as indoor-outGREAT LAKES

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door boundaries dissolve through the use of screened porches, glasswork providing sightlines through the home, and natural materials layered on the interior like metal, concrete, and wood. Its layout is intuitive in design as one moves from master suite and small screened porch complete with skylight through the kitchen, dining, and communal living areas to a secondary bedroom and large, screened porch located at the other end of the home. The Shou Sugi Ban exterior finish, based on the traditional Japanese method of wood preservation known as yakisugi, speaks to a centuries-long-held history and architectural detail that adds bold contrast to its interior palette and a durable, sustainable element to the function of the home.

“The exterior finish of the home is a Shou Sugi Ban siding, which is a charred siding that we ordered and is very unique to work with. There is a high level of detail with how it was installed and how it was drawn to be installed onsite,” Caron said. “You had to have your best woodworking involved to do it. All of the outside corners are mitered, all of the posts like on the porches are mitered,

and with charred material, you are dealing with something that is very imperfect and yet you are trying to create perfection, so it was a huge challenge and yet turned out fantastic.”

Caron also said one of the most unique things about the home is when standing in the great room, it feels like one is part of the outdoor landscape since the way the space was designed with a post and beam structure that carry across the ceiling and cantilever from the building to protect entries and floorto-ceiling windows in the living room, draws the eye outward.

“It gives you a feeling of being drawn out into that nature. There have been different times walking through the home that you will have wildlife—deer, birds—come right up by the windows,” Caron said. “There are also screened porches that are on two different ends of the home, fully screened, but large spaces, and very open. You are always feeling like you are part of nature. It is very peaceful and just a very peaceful setting.”

Caron Custom Homes also provided interior woodworking in custom shelving and cabinetry, sourced a Holiday Kitchens—a Rice GREAT LAKES

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Lake, Wisconsin custom cabinet manufacturer—furnishing for the kitchen, and worked with a local fabrication company, Manning Enterprises Inc. in Paw Paw, Michigan to create desk supports and railings for the project.

The experience With the natural landscape serving as vibrant background to an interior of gypsum board walls and ceilings and radiant-heated polished concrete floors, this woodland retreat of modern inspiration is built on the details and an exacting process, and for Caron, working with Vinci | Hamp Architects was a great experience.

“It was a really nice project to work with Vinci | Hamp on and, similar to other architects, they were very involved with selections, with design details, and with every feature of the home. Everything was broken

down, a lot of cross-section views, a lot of additional markups and writeups on the plan, they wanted every detail to be thought of and to be executed well. Working with them closely is really the only way to build a home like that,” Caron said.

“I like the additional design that goes into certain homes. I like working with people directly. I’m good at relaxing people from a moment of worry, so I think that helps me be very good at what I do, because this is a high-tension job. There are always a lot of stressful moments, but how you work with people—is it stressful all the time or are you good at having options for people and talking about what works and what doesn’t work and keeping things calm—is important,” Caron added.

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Lake definition

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Mapleridge/MPN

Photography: Speckman Photography LLC and Cerys Fryczynski

Throughout the years, the social atmosphere that has formed around northern Michigan’s vast network of beachy landscapes, forested pockets, and quaint towns has been forged by the inevitable calmness that typically befits vacation destinations. From the crooks of bays shaped by Lake Michigan’s more than 3,000 miles of shoreline to its chain of inland lake counterparts, the topography of northern Michigan is a broad playscape for making lasting memories, especially when custom-crafted legacy homes support them.

In northern Michigan, teams of expert builders and craftspeople transform residential investments and long-held dreams for lakeside living for their clients, delivering comfort and enduring architectural strength in high-end, custom homes. Two of these teams within the northern Michigan region, Mapleridge Construction LLC in Williamsburg and Miller, Poineau & Naumes Fine Home Builders, or MPN, in East Jordan, have leveraged their shared passion for the craft and experience in creating exceptional builds to bring their clients’ visions to reality. MPN, a full-service, high-end custom home builder, and its sister company, Mapleridge Construction, a custom home builder specializing in new construction and extensive renovation, are led by Scott Naumes, co-owner, and Chris Miller, co-owner and general manager. As a result, the teams have provided quality, custom residences across Michigan’s northern shorelines, from Grand Traverse Bay and Torch Lake to Charlevoix and Leelanau.

It is on nearly two acres of Long Lake shoreline, just southwest of Traverse City and off the coast of Grand Traverse Bay in Harbor Springs, that two iconic pieces of custom-build-work by these firms can be found. The former is a graceful ode to midcentury influences, realized in horizontal forms of stone, wood, and glass, and interiors fitted for aging-in-place. The latter is a complex, transitional addition to the bay, dreamed by owners fond of Cape Cod aesthetics and a desire for a unique build.

Long Lake legacy Photography: Speckman Photography On its roughly 1.7 acres and approximately 250 feet of shoreline, the Long Lake retreat is an elegant work of building and architecture, with a visual depth forged by its joining of shake, quarry stone, fresh-milled wood, and a serene

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color palette mixing warm and cool. These characteristics are formed into architecture inspired early on by the sheltering forms of Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie style. The new build—which replaced an existing home onsite—offered the homeowners an opportunity to customize it to their liking.

“It’s a beautiful house. But, it’s a little bit different with the mix of the stone, stucco, and shake—it’s not your typical house,” said Scott Naumes, co-owner of Mapleridge Construction, which completed the custom build.

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The building is foreshadowed by a long, curved drive running through the woods culminating in a generous expanse of stone pavers that catch excess runoff water. The gray stonework travels up to the low entry from the driveway where, just beyond, an intricate façade of multi-hued stone enters through stunning French doors made of textured glass and surrounded by a dark wood frame.

With its signature preparedness and experience in crafting beautiful works of architecture along Michigan’s northern coastlines,

Mapleridge Construction was an easy choice for the homeowners once it came time to find a builder. Mapleridge specializes in new construction and extensive renovations, enriching both processes with the ability of an 11,000-square-foot woodworking and paint shop that allows for exact specifications of interior and exterior details. As the title of custom homebuilder suggests, a large part of the Mapleridge process involves collaborating with the homeowners to make sure their visions are realized to their utmost potential.

“In the long run, for the homeowners, the more eyes that are on a project, the better the result will be,” Naumes said.

Particularly in lakefront homes, specifications and preferences can mean smaller details set the mood and atmosphere of the designed space. However, they often also run much deeper to understanding the relationship of the land and water with the architecture and the exact positioning of a residence to achieve the client’s ideal vantage point, which was the case for the Long Lake residence.

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“Groundwater was an issue, so when building the site up, we positioned the house to take advantage of the views,” Naumes said.

“That was the biggest challenge of the whole house really: getting it positioned and the elevation correct, so it wasn’t sticking out of the ground too tall for the homeowners.”

With review by the homeowners, the team had the site professionally staked and excavated to ensure the proper groundwater clearance before they raised it on a slightly shrunken foundation, striking a balance on the parcel. The raised setting also allowed for charming additions of textured quarry stone, which curve into retaining walls integrating 44

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down into the yard’s lake-facing slope.

The home sits as a grouping of horizontally oriented volumes that taper into a second floor and terrace, which overlooks the water. Together, its balanced stature and usage of low, hipped roofs with deep overhangs serving as patio coverage exude a calming manifestation of the modern prairie house. This design balance that Eric Mansuy, AIA associate and principal at G7 Design in Traverse City, surmised could be the most challenging part of the build.

“The clients love the outdoors, so a major objective was to create spaces that would flow between interior and exterior. This informed how the geometries of the home would de-

velop,” Mansuy said. “The long horizontal lines, and deep overhangs, of the roof, visually extend the interior space to the outside, which is an element that repeats throughout the home. Even though this feature had its challenges, ultimately, I feel, it enhances the experience of the home.”

The long scale of the roof-forms also elongates the available living space outdoors. The second-floor balcony and its glass boundary—a prominent sight-saving design feature throughout the home—serves as a lakeside overlook up top and a shelter for the outdoor living on the patio below where the homeowners can arrange seasonal furniture.

Apart from creating a natural flow between indoor and outdoor living spaces, the horizontal nature of the home supports wide navigation-ways indoors to allow easy mobility as the homeowner’s age. The master bedroom is also on the main floor, and an elevator is integrated into the design for this same reason. Each bedroom has its own bathroom for privacy since the homeowners enjoy entertaining groups, and in the main entertainment area—and most other rooms—guests are always connected to a view of the water. The visual harmony of horizontal layers was also emphasized in the woodworking; perhaps the most substantial customized aspect of the build.

“Some of the key custom aspects resulted from the homeowners having some trees when they were preparing the lot that they had milled up in rough lumber, which they wanted to in some way incorporate back into the house,” Naumes said.

“We put together multiple-sized links of rough-sawn wood, cut it into smaller pieces like a puzzle, and put it together, so it was almost like a dry-laid stone, but made out of wood. There are four or five different colored stains, and it’s custom, one-of-a-kind, and specific to that house and job,” Naumes added.

Several other customized areas by Mapleridge appear throughout the home: in the wood organization units in the wine room, the kitchen’s built-in cove and countertop GREAT LAKES

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inlay; the fireplace’s slab top; and a bar countertop toward the dining room, as well as a key-drop area in the mudroom composed of leftover planks. The team also got involved in building templates for a custom-fabricated stairway handrail that was crafted offsite and then later installed.

Among its many abilities, Mapleridge offers services like finish carpentry, stonework, stairway, handrail, and furniture design and fabrication. With the ability to navigate and manage this additional work when building a home, the Mapleridge team takes pleasure

in investigating the possibilities or difficulties that often arrive in unison with the job.

In all, its comprehensive and deeply enjoyed approach to the craft of building makes the team an asset for the rest of the design-andbuild network tasked with bringing home from initial sketch to turn-key solution.

“It was a great experience. I’ve been fortunate to work with many top builders in the area, and I would put [Mapleridge] on that list without a doubt. They’re great with communication and appreciate the importance of the details, which is something we look for,” Mansuy said.

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Bayside transitional Photography: Cerys Fryczynski On a bluff along Little Traverse Bay, another distinctive residence sits as a new fixture on the Michigan shoreline to the northeast.

From the home, a distant point of land is visible along with Petoskey just beyond. Thanks to its transitional design favoring more shallow rooms, each main area offers a vista of the bay and its activity. The home fills the spatial footprint of its predecessor, with two bedrooms in the primary residence and a separate carriage house holding a guest suite for added privacy and lodging.

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by Frederick Ball of Frederick Crosley Ball Associates in Harbor Springs, alongside stonework by Northern Michigan Stoneworks Inc., landscaping by Richard Hoffman Landscaping Inc., and landscape architecture by Maureen Parker, owner of Common Ground Landscapes. The program harnesses the homeowners’ appreciation for Cape Cod-style homes, but with a transitional edge in its northern Michigan habitat.

“There’s nothing in that house that is typical,” Ball said. “There is this cottage vocabulary in Harbor Springs that bloomed over [one] hundred years, but with most of the houses, [clients] bring their architects with different visions for what the house is. This one, I think, is a fusion of old and new cer-

tainly. I didn’t want it to look like the rest of the homes; it has a lot of the same elements, but those elements are all different.”

The elements are illustrated in several aspects of the home, from the mixture of exposed or panel-wrapped roof trusses in fresh white or natural tones, and the breezeway between the home and garage, to its custom built-in stone fireplace for cooking and circular steel light fixture. Materials from the regional area appear throughout the residence in new places and applications, leaving many delightful details to explore the more time is spent in or outdoors.

With architecture that thoroughly explored—and defined—a relationship between the traditional cottage and transitional vernacular , it required an apt builder to deliver a finely executed final product, which led to the collaboration with the custom-building team of MPN. “Anything [Ball] does has extreme detail; it’s going to be a one-of-a-kind piece of art with a ton of detail, and that’s what we’re all about,” said Chris Miller, co-owner and general manager of MPN. “It truly brings out the best of our company and our team if we can do something unique and custom. It really shows off our talents and abilities as a custom home builder.”

Part of the homeowners’ attraction to MPN was the team’s in-house woodworking abilities and talented team of craftspeople, who could achieve the design’s complex woodworking elements, particularly the extensive use of mitered, nickel-gap paneling throughout the interior.

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On the exterior, more custom details comprise the flair in the siding and soffit work, and integrations of different roof styles, from hipped to arched, in Alaskan yellow cedar. The overlapping of the roof design results in a complex meeting of forms and shapes that create a fluid, elegant visual style while exemplifying the skill required to achieve them. The team at MPN also made custom corbels to cap each flair detail on the windows for another charming characteristic on the fresh white exterior.

“The exterior detailing is so beautifully designed with so much going on that it was 52

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exceptional craftsmanship to make that exterior come together. There’s so many trim details, corbels, flair details, and crowns; you normally don’t have that amount of detail inside and out,” Miller said.

Inside, the framing created a pointed, vaulted ceiling on the second floor that attracted the owners, resulting in keeping the shape and finishing it in the mitered, poplar-panel-work that wraps most interior rooms. In the second bedroom of the main home, the pointed-ceiling is exchanged for a unique barrel-vaulted design finished in natural cypress wood for a textured

accent against white walls and furnishings. The cypress also appears underneath the customized breezeway that connects the main house and guesthouse; here, it composes another vaulted ceiling with exposed geometric beam shapes which shelter the stone cooking fireplace.

“The most difficult part to execute was how the exterior combines with the interior in those details and having those two areas speak to each other,” Ball said. “The interior features columns, detailing, and coves that are mimicked on the outside, bringing those elements together in an exciting way.”

White oak floors are found throughout the interior’s open floor plan and living quarters, and they anchor several structural or stylistic features that appear first on the exterior. Elegantly flared columns and siding, structural portions formed by curved stones, and gridded ceiling inlays in the living areas match the panes of several window transoms.

Additional metal details custom fabricated by Toledo-based, metal-crafter Greg Melms, feature extensively throughout the home, in the metal baluster collars, newel post caps, and even the balcony.

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Together with these custom details, those crafted by the MPN team form a cohesive build that is as strong constructively as it is decoratively, from custom cabinetry, vanities, and bookshelves down to the precisely mitered interior siding that ensures each wall shape formed by the architecture specifically meets the next in harmony.

“When you have that many details on a drawing and you are in the field, to try to make them all come together naturally, it can be a huge challenge,” Miller said. “[With] that tongue-and-groove, there’s no trim pieces. It’s all just beautifully crafted and mitered together, and that starts at a great framing contractor that framed it perfectly and then exceptional trim carpentry

to make it all come together seamlessly and beautifully.”

It is the result of an extensive team effort in finalized residences such as these, where homeowners investing in dream lakefront experiences, boundary-pushing designers, and teams of contractor-artisans pool their resources to create lakefront properties that define the new legacies of their shorefronts.

“It was wonderful, because everybody involved took this to heart. It was a labor of love, and sometimes that doesn’t happen,” Ball said. “Everybody, the artisans, from the masons up to the roofers, seemed to take this to heart and realize it was something special, which made it extra rewarding to watch the entire project evolve from dream to reality.”

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Organic warmth in detail

F Ridgeline Homes

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Folded into the tranquility of a lakeside neighborhood in Wayland, Michigan, Hidden Views is a new home build that is the result of three Michigan-based companies—Walker Residential Design of Caledonia, Ridgeline Homes of Hudsonville, and True Vine Creations of Hudsonville—collaborating on the design and build of a minimalistic, open home with an interior dipped in coastal colors. The result of which is a welcoming atmosphere for a couple that hosts family and friends often.

Overlooking Indian Lake on approximately 4.5 acres of land, Hidden Views, a home of 4,665 squarefeet in size, encompasses five bedrooms and four-anda-half bathrooms: an ideal space for hosting overnight guests. The home is simple and minimal in the natural color schemes and design, but one can find custom detail work unique to this specific build in practically every room. The coastal color scheme of organic blues, whites, grays, and natural woods dispersed throughout the home creates a quiet cohesion to the viewer’s eye.

Together, the design-and-build team with the homeowners charged their collaborative efforts toward tying together a final product inspired by family togetherness, organic minimalism, and one-of-akind build details.

The team Walker Residential Design is an architecture and design firm founded by Brad Walker. Walker was not only the residential designer on the Hidden Views project, but also has previously worked with Ridgeline Homes, a construction company led by Owner and Founder OJ Sabin, on designing a residence for the Spring Parade of Homes in 2018. It was that same home featured during the Parade of Homes that would inspire the clients of Hidden Views to work with Ridgeline Homes when they walked through the residence and fell in love with the open floorplan.

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Sabin noted that he first spoke to the owners of Hidden Views outside of the home Walker had designed in 2018. The couple had revisited the build at Parade of Homes after purchasing tickets through the Home Builders Association of Greater Grand Rapids, or HBA of Greater Grand Rapids, and expressed their desire for a home with similar floor layout concepts to the parade home, with Sabin.

“We just took the concept of that parade home and used it as a launch-point to design the house to fit their needs,” Sabin said. “[The clients] did a great job of sitting down and going through the blueprints with myself, Brad [Walker], and Julie [Wynalda] and thoughtfully thinking through each space and wrapping it around their lifestyle, but also the home-site they chose,” Sabin added.

Builder Since its establishment nearly two decades ago, Ridgeline Homes has evolved from focusing on subcontracting elements of new home builds to navigating the entire build experience, guiding clients throughout the process with communication, scheduling, and uncompromising quality at its core. The company works on approximate58

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ly three-to-six homes a year, depending on the size and company schedule. Sabin noted that his business focuses their building process on having a hands-on approach, where finish details like the trim-work, custom cabinetry, and builtin features of a home are completed by them.

“Even to the name, I feel like Ridgeline Homes speaks to the protection of the roofline of the house. That is what you need to create a home environment, so Ridgeline Homes was kind of birthed out of that—the roof, the peaks, the curb appeal—just what makes a house a home,” Sabin said.

Sabin also noted that his career first began when he was in high school. At the time, he worked for a builder, then moved onto working for a couple of bigger construction operations, which helped him understand the production side of the business. Sabin also attended a trade school, which taught him other valuable skills in the industry that he carried with him for his own business.

“Through all of that, [I] just honed in on the style of builds in regards to understanding that there is a market for all the different types of contractors and builders, whether it is mass-marketing or the more niche custom

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build. I knew that I wanted to focus on being onsite more often than not,” Sabin said.

“Being a part of those different styles of building allowed me to understand what I was looking for with my company,” Sabin added.

The team at Ridgeline Homes comprises Sabin and one other person—although many of their past projects included the work and collaboration of True Vines Creations, an interior design company established in 2003, and its Founder Julie Wynalda. It is a partnership that has been successful, and as Sabin noted, has resulted in a working relationship that often feels like she is part of the build team.

“Julie [Wynalda] is a wonderful asset from True Vine [Creations]. While she doesn’t work directly for me, she melds really well, and it feels like she is one of my team just because of how well we work together. While she is her own 60

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person and does amazing stuff, not only for me but other builders, she really is able to set that time apart and just be a part of the Ridgeline team when she is on my project,” Sabin said.

Interiors With a professional background in pharmaceutical sales, Wynalda recounts her career shift into the interior design field and starting True Vine Creations as nothing short of a miracle that sprouted out of a difficult time for her family.

Wynalda indicated that she had left the workforce when her and her husband began having children so that she could be present during her children’s first few years. One day, while her kids were still young, she got a call at home from her husband, and learned that he had been let go from his company due to downsizing within the business. Wynalda knew that she wanted to help

lift the financial stress off her family, and rather than re-enter into pharmaceutical sales, she was inspired to start a business making grape vine wreaths out of her home.

“That night, I turned over the verse for the day on a little calendar I have, and it said: ‘I am the vine, and you are the branch, and if you abide me, you will bear much fruit.’ With tears in my eyes in my kitchen I was like, ‘that’s what I want to do,’” Wynalda said. “I told my husband that I wanted to call it True Vine Creations.”

In True Vine Creations’ 18 years as a business, Wynalda has transitioned from selling grape vine wreaths at craft shows for the first few years, to crafting custom arrangements for customers, to eventually curating residential interiors and commercial spaces. Along the journey, Wynalda has worked in wedding décor, ran a home party business, and now has her own GREAT LAKES

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storefront for True Vine Creations, located in Hudsonville, Michigan, offering a selection of furniture and home décor.

“Through doing craft shows, I knew the way to make those connections was to build relationships with people, and just to be faithful in the small. It’s just really been crazy to see how those people are still people that even come to my shop today, and I’ve helped with maybe a wreath on their door, and then later on it was their home, and then because they liked what I did at their home, they wanted me to [design] their cottage,” Wynalda said.

“That is what the goal is—to have those relationships that aren’t just to build a home, but to walk through life with them. It’s a really sweet privilege,” Wynalda added.

The details With an open floor plan and an abundance of windows scattered throughout the main gathering spaces of the home, light flows through

the rooms and brightens the interior.

When one enters through the front door of the house, they are welcomed to the sight of an open and bright interior space, and also to the natural wooded lot on the backside of the home—banks of windows in the central area serve views of the outdoors. Sabin noted that the open floor plan made it so that the living room, dining room, and kitchen all function as one larger space. “[The clients] have a big family and they wanted to make sure that no matter the location on the main floor, everybody could be able to talk with one another,” Sabin said. “[The clients] love working in the kitchen and making meals and having that be a hub where they can meet, but yet be able to spread out into the dining room and the living room and still be able to enjoy the company.”

In the front entryway of the home and in the living room, stained wooden feature beams are built into the ceiling. Also displayed in the GREAT LAKES

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entryway, a crisp-white slat wall contrasts with the surrounding gray walls. Wynalda noted that another feature wall of a slightly different pattern from the foyer is in the formal dining room, presenting a design of crisscrossed slats, painted a shade named Blue Spruce. The two feature walls are intentionally disparate colors, the entryway being a more subtle focal point of white, so that the diverse design moments did not compete with one another.

The same Blue Spruce shade on the feature wall in the formal dining room is repeated in the coffered ceiling detail in the great room. Wynalda noted that this detail offers a contrast on the great room ceiling that was not as safe as wood or white, but also avoids intermingling so many colors that the design becomes overwhelming.

The kitchen cabinets are adorned in white, with an island in the middle of the space colored an earthy dark gray and featuring carved detailing on the sides. Above the island, sand-colored

rope pendants give a nod to the natural coastal look that has become the home’s interior theme.

Off from the kitchen, a four-seasons sun porch offers fresh air and views of nature as it overlooks the lake and beyond the tree line.

The porch can even be enjoyed during chillier weather, with the aid of the fireplace tucked into the space.

“There are wall features, ceiling details, and just endless craftsmanship that were in this home,” Wynalda said. “OJ [Sabin] is so good at craftsmanship. We just work really well together. It’s a treat for me, because pretty much anything I give him a drawing of or a sketch of, he might at first say, ‘oh, I’m not sure,’ but ultimately he does an amazing job.”

Basements are often thought of as being dark and closed off, but the Hidden Views home breaks the preconception by creating a welcoming and bright atmosphere in the lower level of the house. A large window above the

landing on the staircase shines light down the steps, and that same bright aesthetic is carried into the lower space.

The basement area captures a similar décor theme as the gathering spaces upstairs. A white custom-built TV center develops the ambiance of a space made for movie marathons, while also keeping chords and other clutter hidden away behind refined shelving built into the wall. On the other side of the room, there is a wet bar, which features two mini refrigerators built into espresso base cabinets, and twin, white oak slat walls on either side of the counter; warming up the bar area. A hallway in the lower level of the home also leads to two doors that open to yet another visiting area—presenting itself outside, to lawn.

Envisioned life The home in its entirety is punctuated by design that is airy and welcoming—the open floor plan, lighter hues, and natural materials GREAT LAKES

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cast throughout the interior create the feeling of the freedom of the outdoors inside the home.

Perfect for gathering, guests can either mingle in the open space upstairs, the family room on the lower level, or find solitude and rest in one of the five bedrooms. The same design style is tied together throughout every room, an indication of the team that worked on pulling the project together.

“OJ [Sabin] is an amazing craftsman, he’s not just a briefcase builder, he’s on the site and he’s doing the finished carpentry and he’s managing the project well, and Brad [Walker] does a great job of designing the homes. It’s just a real team situation from all of the many people that work on the home to myself having the privilege of being able to work on it with them,” Wynalda said.

“Without them, we are not able to do what we do, and I am not able to do what I love, so it’s definitely a whole group that OJ [Sabin] enlists.

We all just work together to ultimately bring our client’s dreams to life,” Wynalda added.

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Build in partnership

I Whitmore Custom Homes

Photography: Dan Zeeff of DJZ Photography and Alyssa Albers Photography

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In Grand Rapids, Michigan, in a city recognized, in part, for its fine network of contracting teams, architects, and interior designers, Whitmore Custom Homes makes its mark as an experienced custom build firm that is family owned and operated, and built on the shared vision of brothers Ryan, Brett, and Nate Whitmore. Combined, the brothers bring expertise in engineering, project management, and innovative solution-making that is wrapped in their overall values for integrity and open communication in the profession. As a team providing the comprehensive range of services that come with the task of custom building, Whitmore Custom Homes sees relationships with its clients more as partnerships in which both parties nurture a space into success from the ground up.

“It’s the people that we enjoy the most and the team we put together, the designers that we work with, and the customer. We’re at a point where we’re pretty picky about who the customer is,” said Nate Whitmore, co-founder of Whitmore Custom Homes.

“Our clientele is expecting to be hands-off and looking for someone they can trust; that’s where we come in as trained project managers and building falls into the process. From the engineering background standpoint that’s always what we [rely] on: processes and communication,” Whitmore added.

So far, the Whitmore team has crafted custom exteriors, living spaces, kitchens, and bathrooms across west Michigan and beyond. More recently, two homes—one a contemporary lakefront cottage and the other a refined home on a historic property tucked between lake and pond—have become illustrative works of the Whitmore approach to custom building.

The Wildermere lakefront cottage replaced a unique architectural work of concrete and copper that stood out in the neighborhood; thus, the owners wanted to create something equally as present in the space.

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Similarly, the pond-tucked Belding estate replaced one of the oldest properties in its township that predated the manmade lake just offshore, and it sought to harness the best of the surrounding water views. The homes are a picturesque testament to Whitmore Custom Homes’ custom capabilities, from planning and design to organizing permits and approvals, and on to each phase of construction and the final walkthrough.

Wildermere lakefront retreat Photography: Alyssa Albers Photography This lakefront property continues in the distinctive architectural traditions of its prede74

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cessor on the property through a newly built exterior defined by fresh, white-painted brick, stucco, and engineered wood. Early on, the home presented a challenge foundationally, as the property was found to have organic layers unable to support a standard foundation. In response the Whitmore team built the home on helical piers connected by large concrete beams. Once past the challenge of fortifying the site, the team built up an exterior defined by intermixed roof gables and organized around a central entry segment suggesting Tudor revival notation.

At first glance, the home blends contemporary features with classic design founda-

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tions—a trait that carries to the interior but expands into an easygoing design program warranted by the lakeside setting, courtesy of Raye Design: a full-service interior design firm also based in Grand Rapids. Underscoring the gently arched front door is a single-step entry and recessed doorway leading into an equally grounded foyer. Visitors are greeted by smooth, wide-plank white oak that is mirrored by a wood-plank ceiling installation leading out to a set of interior French doors that reveal the home’s breathtaking view just beyond.

Through open doors, sightlines are led by vertical ceiling beams connecting this en-

trance with a double-sided fireplace that the design-and-build team used to figuratively and literally anchor the surrounding design program. When the room’s retractable wall is completely opened, solid space behind the fireplace disappears, allowing the natural setting just beyond to replace it as a canvas for the fire. Farther beyond, a patio of decorative cut concrete for open air enjoyment of the idyllic setting is intentionally positioned. This grand gesture was just one of many custom features orchestrated by Whitmore Custom Homes and Raye Design to achieve the owners’ vision of the unique family gathering space.

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“There are many custom aspects, but I think one that stood out to us was the covered patio space, which was central to the home design,” Whitmore said. “As you walk in the front door, you are standing in the foyer looking through French doors that align with a two-sided fireplace with walkways on either side, so you had an amazing view of Silver Lake. It just all lined up so well.”

Another noteworthy custom aspect was the bunk room that the homeowners envisioned for three children, which was designed

by Raye Design and fabricated by Whitmore Custom Homes carpenters onsite. Apart from these details, custom works that carry throughout include extensive custom cabinetry work by Luxe Custom Cabinetry, a cabinet maker in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The team customized areas around the cabinetry as well by precision-cutting wood planks for an accent material above the stove range and its inlayed stone backsplash, as well as on the kitchen ceil78

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ing for an exposed, unfinished beam effect.

The team further decorated the peaked ceiling heights from the open gable architecture with triangular beam formations painted white for a human-scaling of the open living space. It is these accessorized coves at ceiling level which collect in the views and bright qualities of the lake just beyond and hold them in the center of the home.

Bella Vista classic Photography: Dan Zeeff of DJZ Photography On another picturesque inland lake, secluded between a small, adjacent pond, another new residence crafted by Whitmore Custom Homes captures a similar breathtaking view of its natural surroundings. Immediately inviting from its generous circular drive, the Lake Bella Vista home’s refined presence in the spacious neighborhood was organized around water views, and the Whitmore Custom Homes team took special care to consider its parcel tucked between water bodies when orienting and fortifying the masses.

“The home was located between a large pond and the lake, so we spent a great deal of 80

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time making sure that the elevations worked for both bodies of water, while still allowing the design features to be recognized,” Whitmore said.

As with the Wildermere lakefront retreat, it was essential to identify potential risks for the building before the teams even broke ground to steer from avoidable surprises, especially since both homes were completed amid COVID-19, which posed its own logistical and supply issues. At the start of this project, it became apparent from soil testing the sand surrounding the property was high quality, but not compact enough to balance pressure from the water table and immediately support a traditional foundation. Instead of using helical piers for this foundation, how-

ever, the team decided to pump down the water before removing loose sand and replacing it with clean, compacted sand to support the more standard foundation.

“Both properties had challenges that needed to be dealt with,” Whitmore said. “There was certainly added complexity to the process, but since we knew this before starting the build, we were able to plan for it on the front end which allowed it to go pretty smoothly.”

The Whitmore team’s adept quality control from a project’s onset pairs well with considerate designers. In this case, the design team of Visbeen Architects Inc, a Grand Rapids-based, full-service architecture studio, and its interior design affiliate, Vision GREAT LAKES

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Interiors, provided a quality-driven and cohesive mentality to the project. The project, from its site soil tests to interior finishes, was carefully executed throughout the course of a year to ensure each need from the homeowners was thoroughly met.

The exterior architecture comprises one rectangular central mass balanced between two wings that are capped by gable roofs for a grounded, charming cottage evocation. The central entryway utilizes a careful symmetry as well, with its facing brick entry columns between which Bluestone stairs pool into the drive, and then lead to a stained wood doorway anchored between outdoor lanterns. The entire formation sports white-painted brick and matte-black metal window treatments for a modern edge. The combination provides the perfect backdrop for the home’s organizing detail: a generous lakeside patio expanse for entertaining and relaxing in the open air.

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“Being lakefront, so much focus was on the exterior entertaining areas. There was a screened-in porch that had electronic roll-up screens with bluestone floors that flowed onto a large rear bluestone patio overlooking Lake Bella Vista with amazing views,” Whitmore said.

This screened porch area functions as a livable three-season room that on one side leads to the open-air patio and on the other blends into the main living space through three sets of French doors that open to effectively double the entertaining space. Both living areas feature fireplaces demurely recessed in the white brick walls to save sights for the water, and details like the extensive use of naturally finished wood floors and cabinetry by Luxe Custom Cabinetry and white ceilings effectively transfer outdoor light deep into the interior.

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make the home a comfortable scale for the two owners, while also supporting incoming guests.

On one side of the central mass is a master wing boasting a master suite with soaking tub and walk-in shower, and the facing wing hosts the remaining three bedroom suites for guests, with an activity area on the lower level.

The process It is a demonstration of the orientation to users that underscores Whitmore Custom Homes’ approach to each of its projects. On one hand, this is the goal for residential building in the first place, and on the builder side, it is what can make the process gratifying.

“So many aspects made these projects so rewarding,” Whitmore said. “The clients were both incredible, the homes were both so well thought-out by the design teams and different than most anything you see in the area. On top of that they were both on beautiful lakes.”

The client-facing side of each project is always a test of experience and expertise for a builder, since it is imperative to understand what is being asked and have the processes in place to accomplish them. For Whitmore, this is the way to achieve true customization and unity of craftsmanship among the whole team, from those dreaming the concept to those fortifying its foundation and placing the finishing touches.

“To be a custom builder you need to have an experienced team that is so versatile that they not only have the ability to do most anything that is asked, but also have the ability to think critically about how to go about doing what is asked,” Whitmore said.

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