A Place to Share

I considered all the things I would miss by not having the old cottage, and what I would miss most was sharing of the cottage with the many friends and family that enjoyed it as much as I did. I had an informal understanding with many people that if they wanted to use the cottage while I was not there - then just help themselves. I thought that if I built a whole new house then people would think of it as "Gretch's home" and I would lose that "open to all" ambiance.

So I came up with the concept of having two in one - that is, the upper floor, the main level, would be my home, and the lower level, the walkout basement, would be the "cottage." So  I worked with my designer so that the lower level "cottage" could be completely locked off from the upper level, "my home." That way, even if I was not there, people could use the "cottage" level. I have designed it to have a full kitchen, 2 bedrooms, one with built-in bunks, 1 1/2 bathrooms, a sauna and an extra shower. The 1/2 bath is very close to the lake side door for easy access.

And let's not forget the screen porch!. The new cottage level will have a 28' x 10' screen porch off the front with sliding plastic "windows" so that it can be used even during chilly weather. (see EZ-Porch).

Thinking of the Future

While I am in pretty good shape now, that may not continue forever so I needed to think about accessibility. To deal with the hill, the plan is to dig down about 10 feet for the garage and main floor level. Then have the basement walls 10 ft high so that the lower level will be as close to the lake as possible. The lake side will be approximately the same level as the rear of the old woodshed and back just a bit further. To help accommodate older folk, my plans have a space for a future elevator, too.

Buy locally

One other thing I decided upon very early in the process was to buy products as local as possible. That is, lumber from northern Wisconsin, U.P. Michigan; items manufactured in Wisconsin and from there branching out to Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois. From there the USA then North America. This isn't a hard fast rule but acts as a guidline when making product decisions.

Lumber. And it is almost impossible to get framing lumber solely out of the Midwest. For the most part it comes from Canada and is called spf lumber (spruce, pine or fir). So I tried for SFI certified (Sustainable Forest Initiative) or FSC certified (Forest Stewardship Council) but found that to actually have the chain of custody papers certifying it, was cost prohibitive. However, the company supplying the lumber also supplies the SFI lumber and I am told that most probably it is coming from the same forests - just some has the certification paperwork done on it.

Cultured Stone. The design calls for stone on the exterior walls of the lower level and I found that what's called "cultured stone" (manmade) is less $$ and lighter weight so it makes sense to use it. I also discovered a manufacturer of cultured stone just outside of Wisconsin Rapids - Kent's Stone Products. They are a small family business that sells direct to contractors and home owners and are about $2/sq ft. less than other suppliers.

LVP Flooring. I am finding that it is very hard to source LVP (luxury vinyl plank) in the USA. Several vendors say they are beginning to move manufacturing to the USA (from China) but haven't gotten it done yet. The LVP I have found that is manufactured in the USA is thin, glue down type with limited colors available. The best quality is from China. But as of this writing I still am looking for USA made LVP.

Granite. Fortunately I found there are four counter top granites quarried in Wisconsin. I visited the Anderson Bros. & Johnson quarry northeast of Wausau WI. where they quarry Wausau Red and Wisconsin Red. I decided on the Wisconsin Red for the master bathroom. They also had slabs of lavender gray granite quarried Waterloo, WI which I fell in love with for my kitchen counters.

Slab of Wisconsin Red quarried NE of WausauMore Wisconsin Red. For master bath counter.Lavender Gray quarried in Waterloo, WILavendar Gray for kitchen counter Lavendar Gray. I have not picked an actual slab yet.

Also, I decided on granite fireplace hearths and granite window sills on the main level. For this use I found a very nice back granite with quartz veins quarried east of Mosinee, WI called Aqua Grantique.

Aqua Grantique quarried near Mosinee, WIAqua Grantique for window sills & hearths

Cabinets. I could see no reason not to have cabinets made of Wisconsin harvested wood. So I decided on cabinets made by Menominee Tribal Enterprises with wood harvested sustainabily from tribal lands in Menominee county. Here are photos of what I selected.

Birch cabinets from Menominee Tribal EnterprisesKitchen CabinetsKitchen Cabinets