The 2015 Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour in the Petoskey area takes place on Saturday, October 10 from 10 am to 5 pm. The tour treats tourgoers to 10 homes, each chosen for their distinctive style and/or innovative lifestyle concept. Proceeds raised during the home tour will benefit Northern Michigan non-profit, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan. Save by purchasing tickets to the 2015 Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour at MyNorthTickets.com:


The first home on the 2015 Northern Home & Cottage Petoskey Area Home Tour is in Boyne City at 01125 Forest Avenue.

As a child, Sue Damman vacationed in a rustic resort on the shores of Walloon Lake called Valhalla. It was an American plan resort, and Sue recalls the dinner bell ringing, signaling that meals were ready in the big lodge. Her parents had honeymooned there, and then vacationed there with their children until the resort closed in 1971. After Sue married, she and her husband, Warren, continued the Northern Michigan tradition by taking their family to vacation on the big, beautiful lakes of the region from Torch to Glen.

By this time Valhalla had become Wildwood on Walloon condominiums. Eventually the Dammans purchased one—and were thrilled to find out that the owners of Wildwood had left one of the old Valhalla cabins standing to use as a beach changing room. “It’s like being lost in time when I go in,” she says. Her Northern Michigan memories had come full circle—but then it got better. When a private lot went up for sale adjacent to the condominium association, the Dammans snapped it up: it was dream home time.

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Photo: Cottage Company

Sue had no trouble deciding what style of home she wanted—she has spent years collecting ideas from home magazines including our very own Traverse Magazine/Northern Home & Cottage. (When we met her son Tripp he recognized our publications as the magazines he’d had to lug around in big boxes several times for his mother!). Sue knew she wanted the Walloon lake-house look—lots of white beadboard, windows with big lake views, a loft-area for her grandkids. Most of all, she and Warren wanted to build a home that created Valhalla-type memories.

The Dammans hired Cottage Company of Harbor Springs (Rob and Vee Mossburg and Rob’s sister, Jill Nuding) to build the home. “We really liked the Mossburgs. It’s a family-run operation. We loved what they’d built in Harbor Springs, and we knew that with their attention to detail we wouldn’t have to worry—everything would be perfect,” Sue says.

And it is. The Dammans’ new vacation home glows with glossy white beadboard, deep molding and generous banks of mullioned windows framing watery views. And while there is no dinner bell to call in the family, there is a to-die-for brass and white enamel La Cornue stove, trusty enough to keep up with the family and friends who gather at the lake. Warren, too, got something he’d remembered from his childhood—a secret door. This one leads from the guest room through a closet into the Dammans’ bedroom. The grandkids love it—although their 4-year-old grandson Christopher, did comment to one person he was escorting through the door: “Nanni needs to clean up her shoes. She has too many in the way.”

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More Homes on the Petoskey Area Home Tour:

Home #2

Home #3

Home #4

Home #5

Home #6

Home #7

Home #8

 

Northern Michigan Wineries, Breweries, Petoskey restaurants, things to do around Petoskey and more! Our MyNorth Vacation Guide can help you plan your entire Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour Weekend!
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Photo(s) by The Cottage Company