This Natural Waterfront Home is a Beachcomber’s Dream

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In the morning, when the sun rises over placid South Bar Lake on their home’s east side, Barbara and John Ludlow take in the parade of wildlife just outside their wall-sized window. Eagles, otters, beavers, muskrats, plovers and herons flit across the banks of South Bar and also along the sweet stream that lies just to the north of their home—a view framed by another floor-to-ceiling window.

As the day progresses, the couple’s focus turns west, to the epic view of Lake Michigan out another wall-sized window. Here, they can look north along the shoreline to the Sleeping Bear Dunes and south to Empire Bluff—both sites preserved in perpetuity as a part of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

The Ludlows found the property their home sits on while on a stone-hunting walk about four years ago. It had been on the market for several years. Needless to say, it didn’t take long for them to realize they had found the dream site for a beach house. Being near water is particularly important to John who grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, and surfed before, during and after school in search of the perfect wave.

The property came with an old cottage that the sustainably minded couple hoped to renovate. To that end, they brought in architect Randi Thiebaut of Commonality Architecture, known for her streamlined, functional designs. Given that the property is included in Michigan’s Critical Dunes Area Program, which would mean navigating the Department of Environmental Quality’s rules, Thiebaut recommended builder Justin Acker of Asunto Builders who had dealt with similar projects.

Acker soon determined that, despite the Ludlows’ best intentions, the old cottage couldn’t be saved: it was sinking into the site and needed to come down. The upside was that starting from the ground up meant the couple could have exactly what they wanted: a low-profile, energy-efficient, not-so-big home with as little structure blocking the view of the water as possible. For inspiration, they studied beach houses in Scandinavia, Australia and California. Working closely with Thiebaut they refined their vision to zero in on a minimalist floor plan centered around capturing the views of the three bodies of water.

The design was one thing; the construction, it turned out, was quite another. “We may have run into every roadblock possible,” Barbara says. “DEQ permits, Covid, the [backed up] supply chain, lack of skilled labor and Mother Nature’s extreme elements, including wind.”

The deceptively simple home was in actuality a feat of engineering, starting from the 36 helical piers that augur 28 to 35 feet into the ground to anchor the structure to the site. The home has no actual foundation—meaning that it can be picked up and moved if the dunes around it move—criteria of the Critical Dunes program.

Built with highly efficient thermal windows, walls of 8-inch-thick SIPs (Structural Insulated Panels), ceilings of 11-inch-thick SIPs and heated floors, the home is super energy efficient— utilities, in fact, run less than $150 per month.

The home’s interior elements are purposely understated: wood, glass and other materials in neutral tones. “The only color in the house, beside the art collection, comes from the outside world: Lake Michigan blues and South Bar greens,” Barbara says. The couple’s collection of modern furniture including pieces from Herman Miller, Knoll and Design Within Reach is perfectly suited to this minimalist backdrop. “The simplicity of modern design inspired the warm interior decor,” Barbara adds. Last, but by no means least, John’s vintage surfboard, mounted on a wall in the great room, sums up the pristine connection to life in this home and the water around it.

With the construction struggles behind them, the Ludlows have fallen in love with the house—so much so that they’ve given up thinking of it as a vacation home. Home for them now has become this perfect little architectural lens for watching wind, waves and wildlife.

More Incredible Northern Michigan Homes

• Stunning Shingle-Style Seaside Cottage on Walloon Lake
• Glen Lake Century-Old Family Cottage Turned Modern Farmhouse
• Take A Look Inside Diver Cottage in Suttons Bay