House of faith
No such thing as a coincidence for Baugh family of Boyne City
Twenty years ago, Marcia Baugh was flipping through Country Living magazine when she came across a feature on a home in Boyne City. She fell for its interior design details — brick floor in the kitchen, tin ceilings, classic cottage wainscoting, front porch looking out over Lake Charlevoix, quaint gardens out the back.
She clipped the pictures and tucked them away in a folder, preparing for a remodel project she and husband, Russ, were planning at their Kalamazoo home. Many of us know such collections; sometimes it’s meaningful words we find just when we need them, a recipe that you think the kids will devour, or photos of dream kitchens and cozy dens that might provide inspiration when the time is right.
We clip, like Marcia did, and keep socking them away. And usually, the folders are lost or forgotten by the time a decade or more passes.
But Marcia and Russ Baugh don’t have a “usually” life.
Fourteen years after she clipped those photos, Marcia and Russ were visiting friends in Boyne City. As they walked down the sidewalk near the Harborage Marina, Marcia stopped in front of a little house that seemed really familiar.
How? She hadn’t been here before, but somehow she knew what the gardens would look like out back, the lead windows, the front porch. As she poked around, she spotted the homeowner, an elderly woman who invited her inside.
There was the charming brick floor, the wainscoting, the tin ceiling. Marcia couldn’t explain why the home seemed so familiar, but then the owner told her the house had once been featured in a national magazine.
Aha. The switch was flipped. Of course, Marcia thought. The magazine.
The year was 2002, the magazine feature was in 1988. Much had transpired in that time frame, of course, and the Baughs were preparing a return mission trip to Africa for at least a couple more years. As they were talking to the homeowner, they told her they were heading out of the country, but they’d be interested in purchasing her home if she ever wanted to sell.
“She said, ‘You’re going to think this is crazy, but I just asked the Lord to have someone walk through this gate who wanted to buy this house,’” Marcia recalled.
“And I said, ‘I don’t think that’s crazy at all.’”
The Baughs said they’d need to sell their home in Kalamazoo before they could buy it; the homeowner said she had her eye on a condo unit in town but it wasn’t for sale, and she was planning to hold out until it became available.
They exchanged phone numbers.
Three days later the Baughs listed their home; by 3 p.m. that day, it was sold. The next morning, the elderly woman’s Realtor called the Baughs and said, “You’re not going to believe this, but this guy just walked in the door, and said his mom is ready to sell her condo.”
It was the one the elderly homeowner wanted.
Actually, Marcia said, she could believe it.
They closed on the house the day before their plane departed for Africa, where they’d remain for two years. “We took the magazine with us,” Marcia said, to look at their new vacation home up north that they hadn’t yet been able to enjoy.
While they were away, the Baughs had planned to open the house up for rentals, and had several beds placed in the spacious upper-level finished attic area. Th e painter suggested they name it “The Orphanage,” which brought a good laugh. The Baughs had the words painted on the wall behind the spiral staircase.
But we already agreed not much happens in the Baugh family without a certain amount of serendipity at play.
When they returned to the united States from Africa in 2004, they had 4-year-old Joseph, a ugandan orphan, with them as their son.
Marcia and Russ had planned to move to Africa permanently in 2007 when a family emergency arose and they could not leave. The only belonging they hadn’t sold was the Boyne City cottage, and today it’s their full-time home.
“I think it’s meant to be,” Marcia said, “and if it does ever sell, I think someone will walk up to the front door …”
About the home
Exterior color scheme: key lime and raspberry
Year built: 1904, along “Tannery row,” 10 houses now with coveted lakefront views where tannery workers and their families lived decades ago. Renovations have been undertaken through the years, first in the mid-1980s and then by the Baughs who upgraded the furnace, added A/C, insulation and new appliances, and numerous cosmetic updates.
Square footage: 2,000 approx.
Bedrooms: Two on the main floor; “The Orphanage” upstairs with five twin beds, one fullsized bed and a crib, ideal for their son Joseph, 9 1/2, and the Baughs’ eight grandchildren.
Bathrooms: Two full on main level
Ideas to borrow: Walloon Lake artist Martina Hahn has been painting “The Orphanage” in scenes depicting the region, with a beach and the Kilwin’s clock tower in downtown Boyne City prominent features (www.m-art-ina.com). The Baughs also installed a hanging porch swing in the upper level.
Keeping the cottage feel: Crisp linens, slipcovers, cheerful wall colors and antiqued beds and armoires. “The tendency is to try and make it more convenient, but then it loses its cottage charm,” Marcia said.