On the lake they love
Family memories designed into Walloon Lake cottage-turned-home
This story is supposed to be about the house, but there’s something to get out of the way first.
Bunny Marquardt’s maiden name is Easter. And she was born on Easter Sunday. Bunny Easter.
“Say it Bob, what do you always say?” Bunny asks her husband of 43 years.
Deadpan, Bob responds, “I married the Easter Bunny.”
It’s not about the house, but really, in a way, it is. The couple, their enthusiasm and humor, and their cozy Walloon Lake cottage-turned-home are inextricably linked with family touches that spread warmth and cheer on the shores of one of Michigan’s most scenic waters.
There was the time The old sign in the front of the turn-of-the-century house says it all: Bedlam Manor. when they rented a hot tub for one son’s 8th-grade graduation party and parked it on the bed of a trailer in the side yard. There’s the story about the waterski jump they built out in the lake, only to decide after it was a bit too high for the kids’ safety. There’s the toy frog on the walkway that ribbits at passers-by.
If the Marquardts are about something, it’s family and community, and their home is a reflection of that. It feels like that place where many of us with Northern ties traveled as a kids, with all the happy memories of family, playing in the lake, sitting around wrapped in towels and laughing into late evening hours.
A place where old-meets-new, in both family and furnishings.
A custom-painted backsplash in the kitchen, created by area artist Sue Bolt, tells such stories, in the “four seasons of Walloon” that depict the Marquardts’ three children and five grandchildren enjoying their time up North. Bob’s beloved Studebaker has a spot in the sequence, too.
Since purchasing the home in 1978, the Marquardts have expanded the cottage twice to accommodate their growing family and their plan to live here full-time. Bob recently moved up permanently after retiring from the heating and air conditioning business he owned downstate, and Bunny has lived in the cottage since 2000 after retiring from owning a travel agency.
In prior years, when the kids were in school, Bunny would live up North with them from the day school was out until the day it started again in the fall. Each summer, the extended family would gather at the cottage on the Fourth of July and take on a group project, like installing cedar siding or moving the porch steps.
Now, the traditions include Jet Skiing, kayaks, boating, float-boat trips and a ping-pong tournament in the garage for family and neighbors.
“It really is Bedlam Manor,” Bob said. “If the weather’s good, they’re out from morning ’til night,” added Bunny.
The original home was about 1,200 or so square feet, and set on huge tree rounds rather than a foundation. The two remodeling jobs, completed by Fiel Construction, took time and consideration to use every inch of lot line left, Bunny said.
Bob is particularly fond of his 72-square-foot office, the only space left for his private retreat which looks out over birdhouses and feeders in a secluded spot in the yard. He also held out for the tin ceiling in the kitchen, which offers another helping of Northern Michigan cottage feel.
A slight step down off the main floor living room reveals where the first remodel begins, where a master-bath-size bathroom is adjacent to a TV room overlooking Walloon Lake. It’s in here where Bob recovered from a broken leg over the winter and eventually decided it was time to retire. (The view might’ve had something to do with that.)
Pieces from their world travels are found in the home as well, such as a game table brought back from Italy, where they traveled to the wedding of their interior designer, Nicole Belmonte of Bondurant in Petoskey. Belmonte, here on this day as well, is like family to the Marquardts. She calls Bunny “the ambassador of Walloon Lake.”
Bunny spearheaded the committee to construct a new firehall for the Melrose Township Fire Department in 2004, even storing the department’s trucks in their pole barn during the job. (Something about which Bob read in the newspaper; Bunny was too busy to tell him.)
She has organized fundraisers for the Friends of the Crooked Tree Library, the post office, playground and park, serves as chairperson of the Celebrate Walloon party and has a hand in several other Walloon Lake efforts like annual flower plantings. “She works harder in this community than anybody,” Belmonte said. “If something needs to be done, Bunny will raise the money to do it.”
Bunny says it’s all part of being a community member on the lake that they love.
“We don’t take it for granted,” she said. “We feel so fortunate to be here.”
In all, the Marquardts’ historic home now encompasses about 3,000 square feet, with modern touches like heated towel drawers in the bathrooms and a huge, rustic bunk room for the grandkids, ages 15-5.
“They all can’t wait to come up here and sleep together in the same room,” Bunny said. The kids’ bath is cheerfully designed in nautical décor with bright tiles and boating wallpaper, and they also have their own playhouse, Little Bedlam Manor, in the back yard.
There are reminders of the past, too, in the home’s design, like one guest room that is outfitted in old furniture from Bob’s parents, including a dresser where he carved his and his sister’s names into the dark wood finish. Light fixtures from Bunny’s parents’ house are used in the upstairs, along with an old boat lantern one of their sons found snorkeling in the lake.
Sitting next to the original antique fireplace, Bob recalls what brought them to Walloon in the first place. They were on a ski trip up north with friends when talked about buying a getaway. One said, “The only place you have to look is Walloon Lake.”
They met with the homeowner, who was particular in wanting her home sold to a family with children. Her name was Betty Perfect — the irony of which isn’t lost on Bunny Easter. HL
