32 | MAY 18 • 2023
HOME
A
ll I knew was that I want-
ed a house on a lake, with
Birmingham schools and didn’t
want a subdivision,
” Mindy Roberts says
of her house hunt in the early 1980s.
So she found a street on a map that fit
that criteria and prowled it for two years
until she found something affordable.
“I saw a man sweeping out his garage,
”
she says. “Someone told me he was going
to sell so we went up and said we’ll write
a check right now, without even going
inside.
”
The house on Walnut Lake was
more like a cottage, with an unfinished
Michigan basement and walls that were
Over the course of
30 years, a lakeside
cottage transforms into
a waterfront dream
home, one of six on this
year’s Temple Israel
Sisterhood House Tour.
Here’s a sneak peek.
LYNNE KONSTANTIN
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Lake
Life
Details
The Temple Israel
Sisterhood House tour
is back. The 27th tour
will feature six homes
in the community 10
a.m.-4 p.m. May 31.
$30 advance; $35 on
the day of the tour. For
tickets, (office losed
on Wednesdays);
temple-israel.org/
sisterhood
TOP: The eat-in kitchen space doubles as a dining room, with a table that swivels to seat more guests.
“Their old layout was restrictive in terms of how they could entertain family and friends, and the kitchen was
really narrow,” Weinstein says. “It’s still narrow, but we made it bigger and gave them more function and
storage space. We wanted this to be casual but elegant. We didn’t go all the way to the ceiling with cabinets
so that it would look more like a furniture wall with thin waterfall legs framing it.” A lighter wood palette,
with European white oak flooring and blonde cabinets, adds to the lakeside vibe. The tall cabinet hides
one of two refrigerators; this one, storing mostly beverages, has a handle on the left side so that it can be
reached from the table. ABOVE: When Roberts toured Weinstein’s home, one of the first things she noticed
was her Fornasetti collection and she felt a kinship. “I also love Fornasetti, but never had a place to display
it,” Roberts says. “I’m really not fancy, with fine china, but I love this and wanted to show it.” Tom Myers of
Gallery Steel in Waterford gave the collection a home with a pair of steel cabinets. The island and counters
are topped with durable Cristallo quartzite, providing the look of marble without staining or etching. The
mirror-tiled backsplash from Ann Sacks picks up the color of the cabinets while adding some shimmer.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MARTIN VECCHIO