A Nest-Like Birdhouse Cottage at The Homestead in Glen Arbor

Floridians Jill and Dean Bosco are the first to tell you that, unlike so many other folks who have second homes here, they had absolutely no ties to Michigan before they sent their children to camp here—and subsequently bought a cottage in Glen Arbor at The Homestead. The couple, looking to give their kids a broader summer experience than they could get in the South, found a camp here, and decided to give it a try. As it turned out, their son and daughter both fell in love with the camp—and Jill and Dean fell in love with Northern Michigan. “We ended up renting a place at The Homestead,” Jill says, “and we both said, ‘This is the most beautiful place that we have ever seen.’”

The Boscos loved the Glen Arbor resort so much they decided to try it in winter and found they were as enamored with the off-season as they were with summers. When the cottage next door to their rental went up for sale, they purchased it.

The couple’s original thought was to rent out the cottage for most of the year until they had more time to spend Up North. But once they spent a little time there, they did a sharp pivot. “We said, ‘Nope, we love it out here. We’re not renting it,’” recalls Dean. That decision shifted their design priorities from doing enough to the cottage—built and last updated in 2000—to please renters, to completely re-doing it to make it their own. “And that’s kind of when Pandora’s box opens,” Dean says.

The couple hired Glen Arbor designer Karen Van Nort to oversee a complete refresh of the cottage. “We probably wouldn’t have done as much as we did without our relationship with Karen,” Jill says. “Karen understood our style—and along the journey she became someone very special to us.”

The result is a home with a modern coastal feel that plays up the views of Lake Michigan over the treetops—and the birds that call those treetops home. “I feel like it’s our real-life birdhouse,” Jill says. “We set out our bird feeders, and now we are a runway for the birds. It is by far my favorite part of the cottage. It’s just a total joy.”