At Home on the River
The story of how Richard and Kathleen Nord ended up living on Lake Erie reads like a fairy tale penned by a Realtor. The couple and their two dogs, Bailey and Lexi, were very happy in their little house at the corner of Road to Happiness and Blissful in Bluebird Beach, a Vermilion neighborhood originally built as a summer cottage resort in the 1920s. But Kathleen had always wanted to live right on the lake — she liked the idea of being able to look at the water without walking to the community beach to do it.
One morning Kathleen noticed a “For Sale” sign in front of a small lakefront cottage while she was walking Bailey. The structure, built in the 1950s, was an architectural ugly duckling. But it was a mere 10 houses away from the Nords’ current address, in the same neighborhood where they strolled and cycled.
“We immediately bought it and tore it down,” Kathleen says.
The pair then hired Prete Builders, based in Vermilion, to construct the house of their dreams, an English cottage-style abode built of local limestone with a fireplace-warmed courtyard out front — a style inspired by the homes they’d admired in Carmel, Calif. The residence’s outstanding interior space features a large living/dining room with two sets of sliding glass doors framing spectacular lake views. Kathleen points out the vaulted ceiling of Douglas fir.
“I wish you could see the ceiling at night,” she says as she flips a switch to show off the uplighting. “There’s a rosy, warm glow in here that is just amazing.”
Kathleen chose a warm gold paint for the walls and black walnut for the floors. “I like earthy,” she says as she stands in front of the limestone fireplace, where armchairs upholstered in a grapevine print flank the fireplace. The finishes extend into a hall leading to a powder room and two bedrooms with attached baths, all of which boast cream-colored beadboard wainscoting and crown molding. The exceptions are the cherry kitchen and library, a handsome room with a coffered cherry ceiling, leaded-glass window and walls covered in a deep red shadow-striped wallpaper.
The house serves as a base for the Nords to pursue their
respective projects. “We dabble in different things,” explains Kathleen, a restaurateur turned musician who plays the mandolin and guitar. Richard, a landscape architect by profession, is a sculptor. One of his works, a sculpture inspired by the moai of Easter Island, sits at the property’s back edge, overlooking the crescent of private sand beach below like some silent stone sentry.
“I do some pottery on the wheel in the basement,” Kathleen adds. “The kilns are in the garage.”
As we sit down at the dining table, talk turns to the advantages of the setting and how lovely it is to host parties against the backdrop of the lake.
But storybook happiness is not achieved by hosting grand soirees. Kathleen spends far more time discussing simple joys such as kayaking along the shore, looking for beach glass and gazing at the lake on a cold winter day.
“We love this place,” Kathleen says. “It’s just perfect for us.”