Join us for a premier one-day home tour featuring 7 beautiful homes, thoughtfully designed and surrounded by stunning landscapes in the Petoskey area—Elk Rapids, Charlevoix, Harbor Springs and more. The Petoskey Area Northern Home & Cottage Home Tour is Saturday, October 14 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Below is a sneak peek inside home #6!
Proceeds raised during the Petoskey Area Home Tour will benefit Northern Michigan non-profit, Child and Family Services of Northwestern Michigan. Tickets (along with driving directions) are $20 until September 30 and $25 after. To purchase tickets please go to MyNorthTickets.com. For more information: 800.836.0717. Tickets can be purchased at MyNorthTickets through October 12 and at the following locations: Capital Granite, Petoskey Chamber of Commerce, Advance Electric in Gaylord. Tickets are also available at the door of each home—cash or check only.
Address: 8380 North Bayshore Dr., Elk Rapids
Designer: Cedar Creek Interiors, 231.498.2511
Four years ago Peggy Martin found a fixer-upper for sale on beautiful Bayshore Drive—the stunning, peaceful road that follows the Lake Michigan shoreline north out of Elk Rapids. “I told my husband it was cute but it needed a lot of work,” she recalls.
Peggy’s husband, Graham, is a retired architect, and it didn’t take him long to develop a vision for the homely, circa-1950s, cinderblock cottage. Graham, whose résumé includes some of the most prominent firms around San Antonio, Texas, has a passion for what he refers to as ranch tech homes: “Indigenous agricultural forms (barns and sheds) using modern materials including corrugated metal and recycled pipes.”
In a riff on that idea, the renovation would amp the indigenous lake cottage simple style while using those same modern materials—materials that Graham points out are durable and minimize upkeep. To that end, the Martins gutted the old cottage. They went on to clad the walls in whitewashed pine paneling and replace the mishmash of carpet/tile/oak flooring with stained, distressed pine flooring throughout. Plastic kitchen cabinets were replaced with open shelving made from wood planks attached to galvanized pipe with Kee Klamp fittings. The fitting systems are from a company called Simplified Building and allow using pipe for structural purposes without welding. A nearly ceiling-high bank of simple, painted-white cabinetry adds storage, and a green labradorite countertop packs a profound style punch.
On the exterior, the couple replaced cultured stone with fieldstone and plastic siding with corrugated Galvalume. With its industrial elements and open-loft layout Peggy says: “The cottage looked like a New York City apartment on the beach.”
Their newly renovated cottage was efficient, stylish and blended perfectly into its beach and woods setting. The only problem? It wasn’t big enough to house their combined family of six children and nine grandchildren when they visited. An addition was in order. Newly finished, the addition consists of a breezeway that connects the original space to a new wing that holds the master bedroom on the ground floor and a bedroom and bunkroom (Graham constructed the built-in bunks) on the lower level.
Just as they had with their rendition, the couple was committed to working with local products, artisans and tradespeople. The contractor was Terry Weaver of D.L.H. Builders out of Elk Rapids. Kim Hooker of Cedar Creek assisted Peggy on the interior decisions—everything from furniture and rugs to layout and space planning. The client/designer relationship was cemented on a shopping trip to Chicago together that yielded fabulous Argentinian industrial vapor tight lights and mid-century Italian dining chairs.
Tourgoers will love the custom furniture made by Glen Arbor artisan-furniture maker Paul May, as well as the vibrant paintings by local artists—and a special treat in the bunkroom: the floor is painted with bugs, critters and other wonderful ora and fauna by Northern Michigan artist Olivia Bishop.
Preview all 7 homes on the Petoskey Area Home Tour in the October 2017 issue of Northern Home & Cottage.
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