Michigan House Envy: Lakefront splendor in St. Clair Shores

As Michigan's glorious summer season opens, this house and this location embody one view of the good life.

It's a sun-flooded home on the shore of Lake St. Clair, a wide summer porch across the back of the house, pocket perennial gardens and pools, a boat dock out back and boardwalk at the edge of the water that connects neighbors in the little lakeside neighborhood.

When they bought the home about 13 years ago, Suze and Al Godin completely redid the inside and the landscape.

On the lake side, they added a 25-foot-long screened porch that faces the water. There's a fireplace out there and vinyl covers for the windows, so they use the porch year-round, says Suze Godin.

Moving in from the porch, the next space is a 41-foot stretch that's the family room, breakfast room and kitchen. In this long space, the lakeside walls are all floor-to-ceiling Andersen windows. These look directly into the porch, so the rooms share the same lake view.

The new kitchen combines antique-finish black cabinets with an eight-foot pine island, room enough for four people to pull up and snack comfortably. It has an oversized Thermador stainless steel range, two Thermador ovens and a big white porcelain farmhouse sink — an extra-deep sink with a porcelain apron in front.

They added a butler's pantry, where glass-front doors show Suze Godin's collection of her mother's and grandmother's fine dishes. Both the kitchen and butler's pantry have a Bosch dishwasher.

There's a bar at the end of the dining room, where more glass-front cabinets show off her fine crystal and a little nickel-finish sink and faucet provide water.

A two-way stone fireplace faces the living room and the family room. The main floor has two half baths.

“I call them the ladies' powder room and the men's powder room,” Godin says. Guess which one is bigger.

The Godins also redid their landscape with evergreen trees, stone walks, raised perennial gardens, stone patios and decorative pools. One of these combines a small pool with a stream and a waterfall next to a stone patio down near the lake.

The lakeside boardwalk that connects neighbors is a nice asset, she says. “You don't have to go out to Jefferson to borrow a cup of sugar.”

As you'd guess from the way they remodeled, the couple likes to entertain friends and give parties.

“I can sit 29 people, which is absolutely amazing to me,” she says.

But now they want to move nearer the grandkids and do it again, she says.

“We're ready for another adventure. We want to do another house.”