Look Inside a Modern Masterpiece in the Big Woods

Back in the early ’90s when their family was young, the Morgans would head Up North from their home in Ann Arbor as often as they could. They camped then, trying out a variety of campgrounds in Northern Michigan, finally deciding that their favorite sites were in the Platte River Campground in Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The campground was next to everything they loved including the popular beach at the mouth of the Platte River and the secluded Boekeloo Road beach that lies down a long winding narrow lane off M-22. The hiking trails in the National Lakeshore seemed endless, and the marina in nearby Frankfort meant they could easily put their boat into Lake Michigan. On one trip, Carol nabbed a local real estate flyer and scoured it on the ride home. That was how they found the six wooded acres, backed up to the National Lakeshore on the outskirts of the tiny village of Honor, that they purchased in 2005.

Given their sons’ busy schedules, the couple was in no hurry to build. Instead, they moved a fifth-wheel camper onto their property, and eventually built a pole barn so, as Carol says: “We didn’t have to schlepp all of our toys back and forth.” Over the years the couple talked a lot about what they would want to build when the time came. They even staked out where they would want to build their future home, and cleared the site.

In 2010 they added a well and septic. Still, they didn’t feel ready to build … until one day a few years back Carol was walking through a bookstore and the photo on the cover of Dwell magazine caught her eye. She purchased the issue and found out the photo was of a Lindal Cedar home, a company founded in Seattle in 1945 that specializes in pre-cut, kiln-dried Douglas fir post-and-beam style homes. The house that had caught Carol’s eye was part of a strategic move by Lindal to brand the company’s post-and-beam building system as the ultimate modern home design. “The post-and-beam system is so appropriate for modern homes because there’s no structure inside the home. It’s all carried on posts and beams from one side of the home to the other so you can have big, open floor plans,” says Rick Fulmer, the Lindal representative in Traverse City whom the Morgans contacted and eventually worked with. Beyond the open floor plans, the post-and-beam system allows for the expansive windows that are the signature of modern homes. And on an even deeper note, the clean, organic look of Lindal Homes hearkens back to the aesthetic of the pioneer of modern architecture, Frank Lloyd Wright.

The Lindal style was exactly what the Morgans came to realize they wanted. “It was modern rustic–natural and looked like it would just fit into the woods without shouting out,” Carol says. If they were sold on the style, it didn’t take long for them to become fans of their Lindal rep, Fulmer—a former president of Four Winns boats who has also had a lifelong passion for building and designing. Fulmer in turn brought in architect Aris Georges whose deep résumé includes a Master of Architecture degree from Taliesin (the architecture school founded by Frank Lloyd Wright) as well as being named a senior fellow of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. While Georges owns a private practice, OM Studios, he is affiliated with Lindal Homes—thus his connection to Fulmer and Fulmer’s clients. For Georges, the wooded setting of the Morgans’ home presented a new challenge—one that delighted him. “Most of the houses I’ve worked with have long vistas, but that one was special because it was surrounded by beautiful tall trees and so it had a kind of coziness to it,” he says.

The team used virtual 3D modeling for everything from where the sun would hit their home in the winter and summer in order to gauge the depth of overhangs, to what the view from their elevated deck would look like. Fulmer and Georges worked with the Morgans for months to customize the home specifically to the site. “We can’t say enough about working with Rick,” Carol says. “He went above and beyond anyone that we have ever worked with as far as the time that he put in and the expertise that he brings to the project,” Jeff adds.

The Morgans broke ground just before the outbreak of Covid-19 and finished last year. Their new 2,400-square-foot home has the elements of a modern home, indeed—two shed roofs and one flat, a handsome Western red-cedar slatted front door that feels almost Asian, beautiful banks of windows and mid-century-modern–style eave brackets. Architectural Douglas fir beams on the interior warm the clean, open great room. Above all, the home has the transparency to the outdoors that the couple wanted. “You feel like you are in a snow globe, especially in the winter when the snow is falling,” Carol says.

Or as Georges describes it: “You come through the woods and suddenly you run into it. When you go inside, the house almost disappears around you because you’re in the woods again. It’s simply lovely.”

Modern Home in the Big Woods Building Resources

Lindal Cedar Homes Representative | Rick Fulmer, True North Trends
Architect | Aris Georges, OM Studio Design
Appliances | Big George’s Home Appliance Mart
Countertops | Blasius Inc,. Northern Michigan Design Gallery
Cabinets | Wolverine Cabinet Co.
Gas Fireplace | Phillips Lifestyles
Stone Fireplace Facade | The Concrete Service Inc.
Tile | Tile Craft, Inc.
Fixtures | Ferguson
Flooring | Builders FirstSource
HVAC/Plumbing | Moore Mechanical