A Minnesota Cabin With a Ski-Lodge Feel

The 3,100-square-foot home offered the Weinbergers and their three grown children everything they were looking for. Close to the water, the home sat on a level site and included four bedrooms plus built-in bunks.

 

“Enough room to have everybody together,” Mike explains. The couple was immediately smitten with the great room anchored by a central stone fireplace and topped by heavy timber trusses. “It had a ski-lodge feel,” he says, “like out West.” A cook’s dream of a kitchen and a screened porch with fireplace helped seal the deal for the Weinbergers, who enjoy gathering friends and family at their cabin.

 

Originally built by Matt Balmer, a partner in Lands End Development, for his own family, the house has a timeless look, thanks in part to the mix of materials on the exterior. Timber plank siding on the lower level resembles hewn logs. Above the plank siding, board-and-batten painted green mixes with shakes and smooth cedar lap siding. Fieldstone around the porch posts adds earthy texture, too. Timber trusses support the porch roof and accent the peaks of the gables.

 

Jeff Balmer, Matt’s brother and a partner in the company, designed the home. “Folks like that we specialize in lake homes and cabins,” Matt says. “We offer a varied palette of looks: Scandinavian, lodge, hunting cabin. We’re able to design and build for clients with varied preferences.”

 

This home, like all the homes the company builds, enjoys a spot right on the water. The great room, dining room, screened porch and master suite all overlook the lake. The open kitchen with high-end appliances and a huge walk-in pantry helps the Weinbergers accommodate crowds of hungry guests. “It’s nice for lots of cooks in the kitchen,” Nancy says.

 

“We just go out and use what nature has to offer,” Mike says. In warm weather they spend time in and on the lake—swimming or paddle-boarding on calm days. When winter sets in, they ice fish, cross-country ski, snowshoe and skate.“We take advantage of an outdoor ice skating rink that Matt built across the road,” Nancy says. The rink, set in the woods, is complete with lights and a warming hut.

 

Three charming fireplaces clad in local fieldstone welcome the family home at the end of the day. In the summer, the screen porch’s fireplace beckons. “It’s nice in the evening when you can sit out there and listen to a rainstorm or the call of loons,” Nancy says. In the winter, they cozy up to the gas fireplace in the loft. In the great room, the couple shifts the furniture around seasonally; moving chairs and the sofa to face the window and the lake in the summer and back toward the fireplace in the winter.

 

Family tradition brings everyone to the lake in July. “Everybody knows not to interfere with the 4th of July week,” Mike says. Extra guests are easily accommodated in casual sleeping space above the stand-alone garage on the site and in the cabinet-style bunks built into one wall of the loft. “Everybody seems to like them,” Nancy says. “You’re in your own little room.” These beds have become almost a trademark of Lands End Development homes. “We do lots of built-in beds,” Matt says. “It provides extra sleeping space without adding square footage.”

 

From the relaxing front porch to the bedrooms upstairs to the gently curving patio on the lakeside, the house functions well for a family getaway. A large mudroom is located across from a powder room near the front door and the garage. A foyer leads directly to the pantry and kitchen, making stocking up on a weekend’s worth of groceries easy. The master suite includes a bathroom with a lake view, a large walk-in closet and a washer and dryer.

 

Upstairs, three bedrooms share a compartmentalized bath with double sinks. Plenty of closets and storage space accommodate seasonal clothes and gear. A second washer and dryer are hidden behind double doors in the hallway outside the bedrooms. The house is built on a crawl space foundation, and the two-car garage is built-in, just off the mudroom. A second, insulated and heated garage with a rough bonus space above accommodates guests in warm weather and is perfect for storing boats, bikes and other equipment.

 

The couple plans to one day finish the bonus space. An office adjacent to the great room was originally designed as a spot for the Balmers to work while their children studied or worked on art projects. Now Mike often uses the office during long weekend stays. With the short North Country summers, the Weinbergers say, many Minnesota folks try to squeeze out every minute by heading out to their cabins on Thursday nights now.