Mary Bernier

Some people call it the “Stilt house,” and others call it the “High Water House,” and its owners, Tom and Krista Gardiner, prefer the latter.

Built on metal stilts that vary in height according to the topography of the land, the modern, modular house on Main Road overlooking Washington Harbor was designed by Charlie Lazor of Lazor Office in Minneapolis and constructed in Farmington, MN, before it was brought by ferry to the Island.

“It was a house planned during the pandemic by going online and looking at different modular designs,” says Tom. “We saw Charlie’s designs and really liked his approach”.

But once they found the design, they had trouble finding someone to build it. The first contractor they hired embezzled some of their money. They say it is a long story, but the builder went to prison for multiple fraud cases. But they lucked out with the second contractor, Nomadic Shack, who rescued the project and finished the build in Farmington, MN, and had it delivered in four pieces via truck to the Island in 2022. Both Ted and Jim Jorgenson were instrumental in preparing the site and completing the build onsite.

Since then, curious onlookers have slowed down to stare at the un-
usual construction.

The house is actually three different modules, all on metal stilts, put together using connectors. The largest module contains a kitchen, dining, and living area, as well as the master bedroom and bath with indoor and outdoor showers. The light wood used inside is primarily white cedar and Douglas fir. A second module has two more bedrooms and a bathroom, and is accessed via a connector, essentially a hallway that the couple has turned into their office. The third module is an outdoor screened living room with swinging daybeds hanging from the rafters.

“One of the design goals was to preserve the native landscape and topography”, says Krista, who is an artist and designer. They worked with a couple of landscapers to remove invasives and restore the property with native species that would support local wildlife.

It was Krista who first brought her husband to Washington Island. She spent her childhood summers with her grandparents, Ernst and Heddy Eller, who had a home at Northport overlooking the ferry dock. Her grandfather delivered mail to the island for many years and was known as the “Mayor of Northport”. The Ferry Line later bought her grandparents’ property, and the house has since been torn down, but the garage, along with a couple of rental cottages, still remain.

Early in their marriage, Tom and Krista began visiting Northport and Washington Island with their young children and fell in love with the quiet and beauty of the Island’s water and landscape. Krista is also related to Jim and Margaret Young, architects who also live on Main and first welcomed them here. Jim is the one who coined the term “High Water House”, and he’s still trying to convince Tom and Krista to suspend a boat from the side of the deck so it looks like it’s a dock (ha, ha).

Then residents of Santa Rosa Beach, FL, where they raised their two daughters, they began working with Butch Gordon to find a home or lot on Washington Island. They purchased their lot on Main Rd in 2019, just prior to the pandemic.

The couple owns a boat club business, which is an alternative to ownership called Nautical Boat Club, which allows members to use a variety of club boats for a monthly fee. Nautical Boat Club currently has 30 locations nationwide. They work remotely so they can manage the business from just about anywhere and currently split time between FL and the Island.

The “High Water” looks over the old Irish fishing village, where the homes, stores, and docks were perched right on the harbor and deteriorated over the mid to late 1800s due to waves and weather. Homes built in the 1900s were set back further from the lake to prevent damage from changing lake levels. It is plausible that this new “High Water” house built high on the beach in the 21st Century signals a new trend of lakefront homes providing protection from higher Lake Michigan waters predicted in some climate
change models.

But that is far from the minds of Tom and Krista as they sit on their high deck among the trees with the water sparkling below them. Despite the beauty and safety from high lake waters the house provides, they admit that building and transporting such an unusual home to the Island did have its difficulties.

In spite of it all, they say “We would do it all over again. The island is a magical place with special people.”

Submitted by Karen Yancey

Birdwatchers returned to the Washington Islands Birding Festival sponsored by the Washington Island Art & Nature Center once again for three days in the middle of May. Low water levels kept them away from an
excursion to Plum Island, but plenty of warblers, woodpeckers, raptors, hummingbirds and water fowl were on display throughout the 23 square miles of Door County’s largest island.

A total of 54 birders were led by seven expert guides to places like the Potato Dock, Percy Johnson Park, Schoolhouse Beach, West Harbor, the Jackson Harbor Ridges, and a very special backyard.

Again this year, great bird photographers shared their photos with the Observer for our readers to enjoy. Tim Sweet, Steve Waldron, and Monica Novak documented the joyful avian encounters.

Tim Sweet contributed to this introduction to the photos.