Michigan Log Home Repair Project: The Granot Loma Restoration

The Granot Loma is a fifty-room log lodge near Marquette, Michigan, with 5,000 acres of woodland, his-and-hers wine cellars, a nine-car garage and a “gentleman’s farm and barns”. It was a massive restoration effort took 6 months, replacing one-third of all the logs. Owner, Tom Baldwin says, “There are lots of new log house builders, but few people restore old log houses. It’s a lost art. Now, you can’t tell the difference between the new and the old. It’s pretty amazing what you can do with a chain saw.”

Located on a point, Lake Superior buffeted this lodge on three sides for sixty years. It was handcrafted in saddle-notch, full scribe style. Over the years the logs had shrunk, allowing air and water to infiltrate. Settling also contributed to the log deterioration. American Log Restoration used several hundred Michigan white pine logs that were fully cured and dried. They used a drawknife for peeling and adapting the logs to blend into the structure. This lodge was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This work was featured in Architectural Digest – The International Magazine of Interior Design and Architecture – in May of 1995. The article is Granot Loma In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula – A Classic American Retreat on the Shores of Lake Superior.