From Campground To A House

When we purchased the W Cheney Road property in April of 2017, it was a piece of land with a pole barn on it. At the time of purchase, our plan was to live in Grand Rapids after Lloyd retired from ChildServe, and to use the property as a campground and potential gathering place for family and friends. We had no idea that within the next two years this initial vision for our property would evolve to what it is today.

How did this happen?

In essence, it goes something like this: We allowed ourselves to dream of possibilities, and made a series of incremental decisions while listening closely to everything around and within us. In other words, we made it up along the way. It was an unfolding process full of surprises.

Back in Des Moines, as we continued to absorb the reality of the land purchase, we thought of a new possibility for the pole barn: why not fashion a small apartment-like structure in it, much as we had done back in 2007 in the basement of our Grand Rapids house?  We thought this would provide a cozy non-camping option for us or others to use, especially during winter visits to the area.

After checking with the county zone administrator however, we discovered that the pole barn was a non-conforming structure. He told us the only way to make it a conforming structure would be to build a house on the property. If we failed to do so and if any of the neighbors complained, we would have to tear the pole barn down.

Upon hearing this news, our dream of building an apartment in the pole barn apartment shifted to the idea of building a small cabin on the property. We enlisted the help of our friend Tim Hielkema, an architect in Des Moines, and he helped us design a simple 700 square foot single bedroom cabin. We had a lot of fun working with Tim on this project and were super excited to build it ourselves, something Lloyd had always dreamed of doing.

When we showed the blueprints to our adult kids that summer, their first question was: “But where are our bedrooms?” After considering their input, and while continuing to work with Tim, our simple cabin evolved to a 900 square foot structure with a full basement. During one of our final meetings with Tim, he jokingly said, “I think your cabin has become a house!”  Even so, we were still planning to live in our Grand Rapids basement apartment after Lloyd retired, and use our cabin-turned-house for weekend and/or other visits, especially during the summer months.

We agreed with Tim that the cabin-turned-house was getting too complex for us to build ourselves. We would need outside help which would be expensive. We weren’t sure we would have the resources to complete the project or how it would affect our retirement financial situation.  Not-knowing was scary at times. We kept moving ahead though,  because we both had a deep down sense of confidence and peace that this was the right thing for us to do. Trust in the process was stronger than the fear involved, or perhaps we just took turns feeling uncomfortable.

After leaving Des Moines in late May, we spent most of the summer getting settled into the house and hosting quite a number of guests. By mid-summer we realized that we wanted this house in northern Michigan to be our primary residence.  Looking back, we are amazed by what has unfolded over the past two years and so very grateful for the outcome.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Vicki Vanderkwaak On December 31, 2019   /   A Place