Berm House

This Summer, for a hot-minute we contemplated selling the Frost House and buying another house around the corner. An incredible Architect Designed home on our favorite street in Michigan City – Kenwood. It is filled with mid-century modern homes in a short stretch. All designed by one architect Ken Fryer. Our neighbors on Kenwood called us about selling their home. We went over for a tour. The house that was up for sale was the first berm house in Michigan City. It was originally built in the 1960s for Dr. William Hall (a Dentist), who later had his Architect son add a small addition to accommodate his in-home dental office. Anyway, the short of the story is, there was no room for a pool. So we passed on the idea, but we did let some other neighbors know about the home. We connected them with the owners and a sale was made. Lucky for us – we get to visit the house and cocktail in the sunken lounge. Here are some photos from the walk-thru that we did earlier in the Summer of 2020. We will share some updates, as soon as our neighbors are finished with the renovations. OH! And great news – you will be able to rent it for a weekend get away. Stay tuned … we will let you know when it is available.

Exterior

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Interior

This house is filled with loads of original features, and the new owners are preserving them. The Kitchen built in bench is a favorite. Along with the sunken lounge room, and that incredible custom fireplace. People this house is a stunner. It is essentially a 2 bedroom and 2 bathroom home. There is a lovely space for a family TV room, and the dental office makes for a great home office. This is another fabulous gem in Michigan City and we are glad that it will be available for rent so people can experience it for themselves. They don’t make them like this anymore. I mean check out that sky-light.

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Garden Connections

In 2020 our backyard was our savior. It gave us sanity, and a place to socially distance safely with small groups of friends. With travel budgets not required we poured our cash into our garden, like many people. We spent the money on finally making the pool garden connect to the original garden and house. You see, our pool is on a separate lot. Dr. Frost purchased the land so he didn’t have to have a traditional home go up next to his modernist master piece. It sat empty all these years. The minute we realized it came with the house – we yelled ‘POOL’. The pool planning started immediately, we purchased the house in May 2016 and had found someone to install the pool a few months later come Spring the following year. By the following May 2017 we had a pool in the ground and were swimming. We worked with Julie DeLeon of Ground Work – Designs to pull the garden plan and pool placement together. Our budget was drained with all the fencing and landscaping that was required. We never went ahead with the original plans to have stairs to the pool added. The house garden abruptly ended, and it required you to walk across a sloping lawn to the pool deck. Well, we finally got the stairs installed in 2020, and the garden around the house finally connects to the pool. We can walk from the bedroom to the pool with no shoes on. Our mission is accomplished and we are please with how it turned out.

The plans were hotly debated on concrete, wood or stone. It took us forever to agree on the final materials. We really like how they turned out and can’t wait to see it next year once the trees, shrubs and ground cover have grown in. They were worth the wait. It has quickly become a favorite spot to cocktail or read in peace and quiet, with a seating spot for one.

A quick look back at the garden when we had no stairs. A big improvement don’t you think? Oh and yes – we keep adding to our Schultz outdoor furniture collection. We are thinking we might add a dining table under the maple and maybe a fire-pit? We will see what that unused area of lawn turns into. Stay tuned.

Visiting Columbus Indiana

We finally made the pilgrimage to the modern mecca of design in Columbus Indiana to see the Miller House. It has long been on the ‘visit’ list, and we finally got around to a quick overnight road trip. We wanted to get some design inspiration for updating the living room, injecting some color without making it too much of a modern mid-century maximalism [ahem Jonathan Adler-esque). We thought the Miller House was the perfect home to help us out.

We equipped ourselves with a few tour maps to help guide our tour: 1] Curbed did a great map and story in Sept 2019, and does a great job with building descriptions; 2] ArchDaily also did a nice job with a map and editing down the buildings to visit Jun 201, but it lacks descriptions.

For the Miller House Tour, we booked well in advance to get tickets, as the tour is popular and limited in availability. The bonus of going during COVID there were 50% fewer people on the tour than normal, so there was plenty of room to socially distance, and less people you needed to dodge in your photos. MCM Daily by DC Hillier has a great write up and photos that you should check out, along with Leslie Williamson via Dwell.

The Miller House – it has to be seen to really grasp this beautiful property – the gardens were much larger than expected.

And then there was more garden to admire ….. we missed the pool – it was already closed for the winter.

We also booked an overnight stay at ‘The Inn at Irwin Gardens’, it was easy to book online, and came with breakfast in the morning included with the room rate. This private home and gardens was converted into an Inn in 2009, and much of the charm has been preserved and maintained to the original 1910 remodel, with some furniture pre-dated to the original build in 1864. It gained a lot of screen time in the movie ‘Columbus’ (2017).

The overnight trip was a little too quick, and because it was a weekend and during a global pandemic – many locations were not available for interior tours. None-the-less we enjoyed our visit.

Logs to Lustrons

Every year Indiana Dunes National Park with Indiana Landmarks host a ‘Logs to Lustrons Tour‘, it takes a full day to get to see all the homes and really is a fantastic event. This was our second year attending, and each year they add a few new homes or there are some amazing updates to learn about. We recommend that you keep an eye out for next years event and buy your tickets, it is typically the first weekend in May. Here are some of our photos from the event. Please excuse us – we were enjoying the narrative too much that we didn’t really get good shots.

Let’s start with our new favorite house in our area  – Read Dunes House. The owners of this home [and within the this home] advocated for the Dunes preservation and successfully so, the Dunes just became the 61st National Park in the USA. Phil Benham Read and his wife Irene commissioned their architect son Herbert P Read to design the weekend house. It is currently managed by the National Park Service and they are hoping to restore it and make it available for rentals. Let’s hope their plan works – it is a gem.

Another highlight on the tour [not all homes are open for interior tours] was the Schulhof Lustron home. What is unique about this Lustron is that it is a three bedroom model, and fewer than 200 models were made. This house was built in 1949, originally it sat on the lakefront, and in 1956 had to be moved due to beach erosion. Lucky it was a Lustrous, they were designed to be moved. Anyone want to help out and lease this one and restore it? Contact the parks for details on their leasing program.

Oops – I guess we shouldn’t be nosey and look in peoples drawers.

Loads of original features – but it needs some serious work to get it back in working order.

OK two more highlights to share. This one we are SUPER excited about. It is stunning.

Right next door to the Lustron, is Dr. John & Gerda Meyer House. Originally built as a one story home in 1961, it had an addition added to it in 1965. The lower level opens onto dune woodlands, and the upper level overlooks Lake Michigan. It was designed by Harold Olin [who also was an advocate for preserving the Indiana Dunes]. What makes us excited about this home, is that it will soon be available for rentals. If you want to get in to be one of the first to stay at this stunning home – you can do so thru this program. We didn’t take any photos that do this place justice – the bedroom is filled with clever storage ideas. such a beautiful home with incredible views – again photos we didn’t take – we were too excited to be able to finally get inside this gem.

This wall panel below is brilliant. Between the two horizontal wood strips are removable glass panels – that you can place art behind, and switch-out. Perfect for displaying photography straight out of the darkroom that is on the right. Downstairs has the original kitchen with another upstairs.

The dining room has panels that can be closed to convert the dining room into a bedroom, and it is cleverly attached to a jack + jill bathroom too.

Lastly, the Solomon Enclave. Party central. These homes / apartments are also on the list for being converted into rentals homes, managed by the National Park Service. Three homes built on a sub-divided lot, with views to the lake. The homes have plenty of the original features in tact, designed for summer vacations there is plenty of glass and screened porches. This will truly make a great spot for family reunions and large gatherings once it is back up and restored. We can’t wait to see life back in these building.

Anyway, just a quick tour – we are not going to share all the details – you just should sign-up and go next year. It really is a great day, and there is a stopping point where you can grab some lunch from the newly opened Goblin & Grocer.