If you like Lake Superior, you'll really like a home in Silver Bay that just hit the market.
The log house is set right on the water, built on ledge rock in a private cove.
You can't get any closer to the lake without getting wet.
"Standing on the deck, you feel like you're in the bow of a ship — you're that close to the water," said real estate agent Mike Lynch, Lakes Sotheby's International Realty.
The rugged North Shore setting was part of a resort in the early 1900s, according to Lynch. When the log home's owners bought the 3.7-acre property with 250 feet of shoreline in 1983, there was a rustic Swedish fishing cabin made of hand-hewn logs, perched on the ledge rock.
Wild raspberries were growing in abundance on both sides of the driveway, so they dubbed the place Raspberry Cove. The owners used the old fisherman's cabin as their vacation home for almost 20 years. When they retired in 2002, they decided to move Up North full time and build a year-round home on the site.
Rather than take down the log cabin, they consulted with engineers and incorporated it into the foundation of their new home, Lynch said. They built their log home on top of the cabin, which became a lower-level guest cottage.
The upper log home was built by a Montana-based custom log builder using beetle-kill lodgepole pine logs from British Columbia, according to Lynch. The trees were killed by pine bark beetles, resulting in extremely hard logs that don't shift or shrink like standard logs.
The 4,340-square-foot home features huge windows and sliding-glass doors that frame sweeping views of Lake Superior. The main level has an open floor plan with the great room, dining room and kitchen part of one large space. There's a stone fireplace, and heated, polished concrete floors. "They look like marble," said Lynch.
Raspberry was used as an accent color inside the home, a nod to the wild berry vines on the property.
Raspberry Cove has three bedrooms and three bathrooms, including a main-floor master bedroom, a loft and the guest cottage on the lower level. There's also a porch and a detached four-plus-car garage.
The owners, who want to move closer to their grown children and grandchildren, have put the property on the market, priced at $1.399 million.
Mike Lynch, Lakes Sotheby's International Realty, 612-619-8227, has the listing.
