Join us for a premier one-day home tour featuring 13 beautiful homes, thoughtfully designed and surrounded by stunning landscapes in Grand Traverse and Leelanau counties. The Traverse City Area Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour is Saturday, September 16 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Below is a sneak peek inside home #6, a dazzling contemporary!

Proceeds raised during the Traverse City Area Home Tour will benefit Northern Michigan non-profit, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan. Save money by purchasing tickets online at MyNorthTickets.com or by calling 800.836.0717. Online ticket sales end Friday, September 15 at noon. Tickets are also available at the door.

Address: 9008 E Crimson Valley Avenue, Traverse City

Directions: Beginning along West Bay at the intersection of M-22/S W Bay Shore Drive and Crain Hill Road: Turn onto E Crain Hill Road and drive 0.7 mile. Turn right onto S Center Highway and continue 1.4 miles. Turn left on E Crimson Valley Avenue.

Designer: Northwood Kitchens, 231.941.1470

Shellie Odren spent years watching home improvement shows and scouring design magazines. When she saw an idea that she liked she carefully noted it in a purple notebook. Someday she and her husband, Mike, hoped to build a dream home Up North. She was going to be ready.

That someday came on a winter day several years ago when, on a property search, the couple drove up to a piece they’d seen online—the last piece they wanted to look at that day. They nearly got stuck in the snow and were backing out when the owner drove up. It turned out the listing was expired, but he still wouldn’t mind selling. The Odrens liked his price—and they loved the views of orchards and Lake Leelanau from the parcel located midway between Traverse City and Suttons Bay. Sold!

Shellie, purple notebook in hand, turned to architect Bruce Calhoun of Creekwood Architecture to draw up her home plans. Calhoun put all of her ideas into one perfect blueprint—but ended up adding two tweaks of his own: a bump-out for the baby grand piano and a pair of parallel walls set at an angle to create a walkthrough between the foyer and the great room. It is a brilliant, creative way to give a bit of definition to an otherwise open floor plan. The walls are also a lovely place to display art—thus the name Shellie and Mike have given it, the Art Walk.

Shellie’s hip transitional style glows in this great room where punches of apple green and orange in the upholstery pop against Brazilian cherry floors and soft gray walls. An in-wall gas fireplace trimmed in one continuous piece of marble (no seams!) adds a sleek touch.

While Jarvis Custom Homes built the house, Shellie turned to Northwood Kitchens to execute her ideas (remember that purple notebook!) in the kitchen. The soothing palette in this room plays out in white cabinets, gray quartz perimeter countertops and a white quartz island countertop marbled with gray veins that pulls the palette together—a touch for which Shellie credits Northwood Kitchen’s Laura Brudzinski. As Shellie points out, the island is a workhorse because both she and Mike like to cook—his specialty, canning produce from his garden. The island is outfitted with a prep sink that has its own garbage disposal (genius idea). Another equally brilliant feature of this kitchen is the French oven—set into the wall it opens like shutters so there is no bending. Likewise, the dishwasher is set a back-friendly 16 inches off the floor to minimize bending.

Tourgoers will be dazzled by touches throughout this perfectly appointed home—crystal light fixtures, the happiest color of aqua on the master bedroom painted walls, cast iron soaking tubs (they keep the water hot!) in each bathroom and much more.

Preview all 13 homes on the Traverse Area Home Tour in the August 2017 issue of Northern Home & Cottage.


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Photo(s) by Dave Speckman