Anam Cara Cabins: Reserve a discounted week in one of our future yet-to-be-built tiny cabins.

First a little background. When we built our cabin on Lake Medora, we purposefully built it small, knowing that it would not be able to accommodate our entire family of four children, their spouses and their own multiple children. That would have required a much larger cabin and instead we wanted a small, energy efficient, sustainable cabin that would be perfectly suited for the 97-98% of the year when we had no need for a larger space. That means that when family gathers, or when we want to gather with multiple friends, some of us must camp out…or find housing alternatives. We love camping, but that can be limiting…especially in winter.

So we’ve decided to build some tiny cabins that can accommodate overflow. We definitely have the space to do so with five separate legal parcels totaling 12 acres and a half-mile+ of shoreline. Now that we’ve got a bit of experience building magical cabins, we’d like to construct additional small cabins that will be perfect for accommodating our children and our friends, but can also accommodate guests who share our appreciation for the Keweenaw and gorgeous Lake Medora.

The cabins will be either one or two bedroom cabins with a sitting area, dining table, small kitchen, bathroom, and stove or fireplace. They’ll be built for year-round use and will be mini-versions of our main cabin: simple beauty, hand-made lighting, lots of light, built with thoughtful intention but also with playful creativity. We’ll follow the same guiding principles we used to build our main cabin and Point House: they’ll be comfortable, inspiring and magical and will blend into the beautiful surrounding environment. Each cabin will have its own fire ring, picnic table, lakeside deck, and a canoe or kayak. Each will have access to our hiking-biking trail, the dock, and the entire property with the exception of the immediate fenced-in area surrounding the main cabin.

Our plan is to construct a single two-bedroom cabin on each of our Lots 8, 7, 6, 5 and a one-bedroom cabin on Lot 4 where our main cabin is. We would have started the construction process already but the Township of Eagle Harbor, where our property is located, has a pending Short Term Rental ordinance that has been in development since June, 2021 and this has put us in limbo because we can’t build these cabins unless we are also permitted to rent them out as short term rentals. Until we can be guaranteed of receipt of a permit for our planned-for short term rental cabins (in the event Eagle Harbor passes a Short Term Rental Ordinance) we will not be able to proceed further with architectural design (beyond our current preliminary designs) nor with further site development, permitting and construction.

But we will press forward on this project because honestly, while we love sharing our main cabin, it’s also our personal retreat, and we don’t know how many years we will be renting it out. Sharing our cabin has certainly been a great experience, but we’re also taking it year by year. These tiny cabins will serve as a long-term alternative - for family, friends and guests. And for pet lovers, the good news is some of these cabins will be pet friendly.

If you complete the following short form, we’ll keep you apprised of developments and you’ll be eligible for potential early-bird discounts: Interest List

For those of you who’d like to lock-in discounts with a small refundable deposit: the projected rates are $2450/week for the one-bedroom cabin and $3150/week for the two-bedroom cabins. We are setting aside a total of four weeks at a discount of 30% for the first guests who pre-reserve these cabins. (The discounted weekly rate for the one-bedroom is $1715 and the two-bedroom it’s $2205.) You can reserve specific designated weeks or leave your weeks open; once we get closer to occupancy you’ll be first in line to specify your week/s. Each week requires a 20% downpayment to hold your reservation, but if at any point you change your mind, your reservation is 100% refundable and we will not collect any downpayment until we are assured we will be receiving permits for short term rental of these cabins. There is no limit on the number of weeks you can reserve, as long as the total maximum quota has not been reached.

Because we own five separate legal parcels, we are legally entitled to build a total of eight tiny cabins besides our main cabin and Point House but our plan is a total of 4 two-bedroom cabins and 1 one-bedroom cabin. At this point we are making available eight weeks pre-reservable for each cabin, for a total of 40 available weeks between all five cabins. Although your reservation will be allocated to a specific cabin - either a one-bedroom or two-bedroom cabin - you can use your reservation for any of the other one-bedroom or two-bedroom cabins that become available on a first-come, first-available basis. For example, as soon as we build our first one-bedroom and two-bedroom cabins, you can allocate any of the week/s you’ve pre-reserved for any of the one-bedroom cabins to the first cabin that’s been built. We anticipate that we will have the first cabins available by spring of 2025, if not sooner. To get on our list: Pre-reservation