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hen a well - traveled couple with michigan
A BRILLIANT DESIGN-AND-BUILD TEAM WORKS WITH HOMEOWNERS DEDICATED TO PRESERVING THE CHARACTER OF THEIR NORTHWOODS LAKESIDE PROPERTY TO CREATE A SUBTLE MASTERPIECE OF RUSTIC STYLE. By E L I Z A B E T H E DWA R D S Photos courtesy of OLD MIS SION WINDOWS & KOLBE WINDOWS AND DOORS
and Midwestern roots purchased a piece of property in the Grand Traverse area on a lake encircled by woods, fed by clear spring water and teeming with panfish, the last thing they wanted to do was desecrate its pristine shoreline. Even if that meant not disturbing so much as a single tree. To that mission’s end, the plan became to take down six small summer cabins—some that dated to the 1950s— and place the new home on the long-ago cleared site. A seventh cabin would be saved and turned into a bunkhouse. Though the majority of cabins would be removed, the couple was determined to preserve their hand-hewn, midcentury spirit. The layout of the home itself is a tribute to the old cabins. “We took inspiration from the history of the property,” says architect Matt Rossetti, explaining that the home is laid out as four separate buildings (cabins, if you will), connected by breezeways. Breaking up the structure’s mass allows it to be better camouflaged in the shoreline landscape. The decision to look to the past informed every detail of this meticulously designed home from its walls of natural stone that echo the old cabins’ stone
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