Building Sand Castles
Life on Lake Michigan: Two different home styles along the water’s edge
The first houses many Lake Michigan residents built here were with plastic buckets and shovels.
The tradition of heading Up North to the family coastal cottage for the summer months runs deep as the lake in area families, whose time spent up north as children meant building sand castles, swimming in the cool waters and creating family memories that have passed generation to generation.
Through the decades, much has changed along the jagged coastline from Cross Village to Charlevoix, as people are more apt to stay year ’round, the architecture is varied and evolving, and the castles keep getting bigger. These, however, won’t wash away with the tide.
By Design: The Fisher Home
You don’t see many houses like Tim and Sara Fisher’s around this region of Michigan.
Maybe Miami Beach or L.A., but Victorian or shingle-styled or rustic lodge are more common up North than contemporary.
And that is the point.
“One reason we like to do contemporary is that we don’t get to do it very often,” said Tim, president of his firm, Indesign of Charlevoix.
The Fishers have created an oasis in their hectic daily lives running Indesign, an all-inclusive building, interior design and architecture firm known for some of the most unique homes in the region.
They live in perhaps the most contemporary example of their design abilities, but often, Tim said, people assume it’s their signature style. They created the home as both a showpiece of their abilities and to suit their personal tastes.
The Lake Michigan house south of Charlevoix is a picturesque beachfront home sparing in detail — which makes it particularly eye-catching, both inside and out. The all-white exterior requires annual painting and maintenance as blasts of both winter winds and scorching summer sun wear away the finish.
“Another reason I love contemporary is it’s hard to make it look good,” said Tim. “It’s really hard to get complexity to look simple. The cleaner the lines, the more simplistic it is, and the more design restraint that has to be exercised. To keep it simple really shows restraint.”
Details like rounded drywall corners, clean lines, no moldings or trim, no exterior accouterments like shutters, a flat roof — all elements incorporated at the peninsula property that feels private and isolated despite being a house of windows.
That’s another element of good design, Tim notes — considering the lot layout before building the home. The only window in the rear of the home, which faces a neighbor, is a glass door that looks directly out … to a tree.
“Good architecture is always looking at what you want to see and editing all the rest out,” said Tim. “I would sit on the site from early morning ’til late at night, and we moved, moved, moved it until we found the sweet spot. It only works because it’s on a pier — it feels like we’re on the end of a dock.”
When the Fishers designed the home about 10 years ago, they looked to create a space that serves not only as an example of perfect balance for potential clients to see, but for them to live in as well.
The home faces due north and is set on a true compass design. “It’s very feng shui,” said Tim. “It’s intentionally set on a design axis.”
Everything in the home, it seems, is intentional, creating an atmosphere that induces peace. It was designed by Tim and built by what is now Schwartzfisher Construction of Petoskey. Sara, who specializes in furniture, fabric and window treatments for clients, said recent additions of a fitness room and wine cellar create an ideal space for their frequent entertaining, with expansive views to the water from a wall of windows. The home increased from the original 2,900 square feet to 3,300 after the addition.
Outside, landscape architect Maureen Parker worked with the Fishers to bring their theme outdoors, and Sara said polished rocks from her grandfather are added as a familial touch to the property.
“It’s so peaceful here,” said Sara. “We’ll sit out here ’til 7 or 8 at night.”
Each year the Fishers have been getting more shoreline because of the lowering water levels of the Great Lakes. Today, their yard resembles more a wildlife preserve than beach resort — and that’s how they prefer it.
“It’s a little bit of a sanctuary away from our chaotic lives,” Tim said. “I design here, Sara designs here. It’s a serene environment. It inspires.”
Family Tradition: The Hylant Home
Ann Hylant’s mom first bought a Forest Beach property, north of Harbor Springs, back in 1938, when she was single. After marrying Ann’s dad and starting their family, summers in Northern Michigan were the Ohio family’s tradition.
“I spent all my summers up here,” said Ann, “from Memorial Day weekend until Labor Day, back in the good ol’ days when school didn’t start until after Labor Day.”
Ann’s father would commute by railroad on the weekends, and later, Ann’s high school boyfriend, now husband Pat, would drive up to spend summers with Ann on the lake.
In 1982, the Hylants bought a home in Forest Beach and carried on the Up North tradition with their own two children, Patrick and Jackie. “They’ve been coming up here all their lives, too,” said Ann.
Now with six grandchildren, the family enjoys gathering at the 12,000-square-foot home situated along Lower Shore Drive, built by Doublestein Builders of Petoskey in 2002.
It is the couple’s second retirement home here; the first, in Birchwood, burned to the ground in 2002. Their current home was up for sale, and the rocky shore and sound of the waves helped beckon the Hylants to buy it.
Beach grass has replaced lawn and little grandchildren run rampant in and out, swimming in the lake and exploring the expansive estate. The home is the Hylants’ permanent residence, while they keep a small place in Ohio where Pat continues to work as chairman of his family-owned insurance and financial management giant Hylant Group and near to where their adult children live.
Long gone are the days of the railroad commute for fathers and husbands. A licensed pilot, Pat flies himself and their children and grandchildren back and forth in the family’s nine-seater private plane.
The family also still owns the Forest Beach property, where the children and grandchildren stay when they visit. It’s more child-friendly, with boats, play equipment, a park, private road — and lots and lots of “summer kids,” Ann said.
The next generation of sand castle builders, we presume. HL
