Archive for category: INNsider

The 1928 enclosed porch renovation is very close to completion and today as you are receiving this, the floor is undergoing refinishing. Everything on the porch has been restored down to the original brass window hardware that were covered with layers of paint and now shine again. 340 panes of glass were removed from caked on glazing and caulk and 44 window frames were sanded and repaired. Brand new storm windows were built to cozy up the area during inclement weather and to keep the rain and snow out. The ceiling is shiny fresh and the walls have been repainted.

Monday the fireplaces will be lined and wood burning inserts installed. There is still a bit of work to be done on the exterior window sills and the original exterior porch doors, however she is close enough to perfect for me!

Thank you to everyone who sanded, painted, patched and pitched in to make this fabulous!

Mercyhurst University Magazine has a great feature on Maggie and the Inn:

Maggie Kato ’82 isn’t afraid to wake a sleeping bear. In fact, she’s taken on the ambitious task of rehabilitating and soon operating the Sleeping Bear Inn, the oldest inn within the National Park Service.

If you knew Kato in her Mercyhurst days, you knew her as Margaret Wirtz. She only recently started going by Maggie, around the same time she retired from a meaningful career with Genesee County Habitat for Humanity. Now Kato and her husband, Jeff, are stewards of a historic property that will open as a bed-and-breakfast this year. Located in Glen Haven, Michigan, Sleeping Bear Inn is part of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, a national park on the northwest portion of Michigan’s lower peninsula.

“The Lake Michigan water is often a Caribbean blue hue that contrasts with the brilliant blue sky and the tawny sand perfectly,” Kato says of the spot, which she describes as “paradise.”

The inn was built in 1866 as a frontier hotel and operated until the 1970s. The Katos noticed the historic but empty building while on vacation, and their curiosity was piqued. They formed the nonprofit Balancing Environment and Rehabilitation (BEAR) in 2018 and submitted a proposal to rehabilitate and run the inn. In March 2022, it became official when BEAR secured a 40-year lease.

Kato would not have imagined herself restoring the oldest inn in the National Park Service—“never in my wildest dreams!”—however, her path to this point might make perfect sense. At Mercyhurst, she majored in Human Ecology, a field that studies the relationship between humans and their natural and built environments. Looking back, her college concentrations in Interior Design and Foods and Nutrition also foreshadowed her current role, as Kato seeks to maintain the historic charm and authenticity of the building even as it is modernized, and she looks forward to cooking for guests in the inn’s large, homey kitchen.

She credits her career as executive director of Genesee County Habitat for Humanity with preparing her for this project. During her 15 years in the position, Kato saw the organization grow from building one or two homes a year to building and rehabilitating as many as 50 homes a year.

“I’m very proud of what we were able to accomplish,” Kato said. “I believe our response to the Flint water crisis was especially impactful, and during my time with Habitat for Humanity, we were able to provide decent, affordable housing solutions, and that is wonderful work to be a part of.”

 

It is a bit of decorative detail at the base of the original front door sidelight where the recessed area has a raised 3 inch by 8 inch panel. The entire front door area has had the MANY layers of paint removed and is primed and ready for paint. The very closest match to the original paint color we could find is in the attached Sherwin Williams swatch named Lemon Verbena.

So why am I highlighting this little bitty? The BEAR Team has a challenge for artists who may want to be part of the legacy of the National Park Service’s oldest Inn. There are 4 of these panels, two on the porch side and 2 on the dining room side and we are hoping there is an artist out there who would like to create small paintings on all four of these. Maybe the 4 seasons of a tree, maybe 4 things Glen Haven has been known for, maybe the portraits of 4 people associated with the Inn, we leave the subject up to you.

Interested? Please send your quick sketch by email to info@sleepingbearinn.org or in the mail to BEAR 5248 Glen Haven Road Glen Arbor, MI 49636. Please remember that the artwork should coordinate with the door color as that cannot be changed and remember the raised panel size is 3″ x 8″. We would expect the artist be able to paint the panels by June 19th for something special we have planned for that week.

Please make sure you send your sketch proposal by March 31, 2023 and we will announce the winner on April 11, 2023. We value your talent and time so please let us know your fee or if you are choosing to donate your work to the project.

The five original 1866 windows on the porch are in the process of restoration. The window sashes that hung lopsided in the frames were carefully removed and about 8 layers of paint, caulk and over-glaze were stripped away.

Two wonderful volunteers, Frank and David have been helping with this very painstaking slow but very, very important restoration!

The frames are ready to be primed and painted. When complete, we will paint the porch walls, touch-up the ceiling and sand the floors. Our goal is to have the interior of the porch complete by April.

Yesterday, the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore (SLBE) leadership team sat down with BEAR and Landscape Architect Frank Clements to review the landscape plan. The plan shown above is based on a comprehensive Cultural Landscape Report for Glen Haven Village commissioned by SLBE and the National Park Service in 2007. The team found the plan favorable and has sent it to their Regional Office for final approval. Although the plan is difficult to interpret without the narrative, a few highlights include:

• the interpretation of the old narrow-gauge rail in the upper right hand corner; the introduction of boardwalk to match the existing boardwalk on the east side of the village
• a re-introduction of trees that were once existent and taken out by a storm
• replacing the non-historic concrete porch on the south side of the Inn with a wood deck made accessible with a ramp from the Garage parking lot
• replacing the asphalt Garage parking lot with Grasspave or similar; providing a path to the knoll depicted in the upper portion of the plan
• adding low level native shrubbery around the Inn; and replacing the rock that once defined the Inn property from the road
• Additional features include the inclusion of hammocks and a seating area for Inn guests in the area around the existing lilac and the ability to add rented tents to that area and the area on the north-west side of the Inn for weddings and other occasions (depicted by the dashed lines)
• We also intend to place planters with red geraniums on the sides of the existing entrances just as they were in the past

This plan is a phased approach as we will not be able to add all of the elements this year due to the cost of this plan and the renovation. It is the vision of our future and how it will incorporate into the larger vision of a future Glen Haven.

Just how many hours does it take…to completely renovate a window?

I was asked this very good question by Dave our volunteer this past week and so I calculated it. For us, it takes 16-20 hours of active labor to complete the following process. First, the window and the hardware are removed and the window opening is boarded. The hardware goes into a crockpot with dawn dish soap (what doesn’t that stuff do?) for 24 hours and after it has cooked, the paint covering the hardware slips off and then they can be polished. The window is placed into a specially made by George steam chamber for an hour. After it has been steamed, the old window glazing and caulk is removed and the glass is freed. The window frame is dried and then scraped, sanded and primed after which the glass is reset and glazed. After several days of drying the window is ready to be painted and then reset into the window opening with the cleaned brass hardware. The result is pretty stunning and we hope when you sit on the porch next to one of the 34 windows to enjoy your lunch, you will notice these beautifully restored 100 year old windows! Thank you to everyone who has had a hand in helping with this process and is willing to continue to do so! We are about halfway done.

Did you know…

The sun came out yesterday? It has been a long time since the clouds gave way over the village and it was wonderful to see it shine through those restored porch windows.