Where There is Smoke There is Atmosphere!

Our family of six walked around the property and examined the condominium from every angle. Our four children, Michelle 42, Adam 40, Sharon 39, and Laura 38, were quick to note the pleasing effect of the surrounding woods. It reminded us all of our initial experiences in Door County.

We had owned an “A” frame deep in the woods in Liberty Grove for thirty years. We bought quickly one weekend when my wife and I visited Door County for the first time from the Chicago area. We were taken in by the obvious change of pace, the woods and the mood of the locals. We came to rent for the weekend and wound up buying from the owners without looking at any other property or seeking a realtor’s input.

We christened it “Vienna” after the Billy Joel song:

It was very small with a loft area, a small bedroom on the first floor, two small closets and a walk through kitchen. The bathroom with a shower was about eight feet square. We all enjoyed the unique compactness of it, as we made it accommodate four youngsters plus our friendly Irish setter – Harvey Wallbanger, on two or three weekends a month from June through September, and as we became more comfortable, my wife and I would come up for long weekends or a week at a time – depending on the availability of babysitters. We later discovered it was less than 400 square feet sitting on an eight tenths of an acre wooded lot.

There was large front deck you could get a glimpse of Lake Michigan in the summer through the leafy woods, of course in the fall and winter the frozen lake was clearly visible. The wintertime was my favorite time to visit. The stillness and pristine beauty of the woods when brushed or buried in snow was an elixir to my soul along with the perfume of fireplace smoke.

It was heated by baseboard electric heat and a Benjamin Franklin stove. It was comfortable in the spring, summer and fall, but in the winter months we had to have a fire built in the stove a day ahead of our arrival plus turning up the baseboard heat. It wasn’t winterized which, when we bought in the summer, didn’t make any difference. It was an “A” frame in the woods like in our dreams – we were not concerned about winter comfort.

In the winter the heating combination was needed 24/7. We kept it warm enough by burning lots of wood, even though some winter trips we had to stagger across snow drifts to bash in the snow blocking the doorway. The delicate fragrance of burning wood added intensely to the wintertime atmosphere.

Our first Thanksgiving, we had our children (yes, and Harvey, too) our next door neighbors, an older retired couple, plus the now-friends we bought “Vienna” from and their two younger children for a total of ten happy but cramped individuals. We cooked the turkey in a Weber grill on the front deck—there wasn’t enough room in the cabin.

We kept the “A” frame about ten years until business took us to Bucks County area of Pennsylvania. We returned to Illinois several years later and were drawn back to Door County. This time we planned ahead and rented a cabin north of Sister Bay on the bluff overlooking Green Bay. It had baseboard heat with a large wood burning fireplace in the living room. It had been winterized and air-conditioned. A snowy winter atmosphere with a crackling fire was still addictive. After two years, we sold our home in Illinois and moved full time to the cabin on the bluffs. We stored our furnishings.

We searched northern Door County for over a year. We finally chose a two-unit condo, part of a heavily wooded development above the Baileys Harbor post office.
Our children and now grand children visited and watched the build out with mounting expectation. They approved the tile and wood flooring combinations, the sun porch. They commented about the plastered chimney instead of a Door County stone fireplace. We explained it was the look that complimented our furniture. They especially liked the second bedroom and trundle bed in the sunroom and looked forward to using them. All in all they applauded everything.

They visited frequently over the summer while the condominium was being finished. In September we moved from the bluffs and their official first visit was Thanksgiving. All four adult children and significant others plus our three grandchildren experienced the warmth and camaraderie of a Door County family Thanksgiving.

One night we were sitting around the fireplace and I admitted to them the only thing I was dissatisfied with in this new home was the gas fireplace. We had asked to replace it with a wood burner, but zoning would not OK it. I sighed how I missed the burning wood aroma both indoors and out.

My oldest daughter Michelle looked startled, “What do you mean?”

I responded “Without the woodsy fragrance in the air, it was as if the gas fireplace is a TV picture. In Door County the fireplace fragrance has become synonymous to me with the wonderful winter atmosphere. The gentle whiff of smoke sets Door County apart from the rest of civilization for me.”

She rolled her eyes, “Well, Dad that is too bad for you but it is a blessing for me. Did you know I had to air out all our clothes for a week after we got home? The smoke – or whiff of smoke, as you call it – left us with a terrible stench. You never noticed it since you lived in it as your normal way of life! Ugh.”

I must have looked like I was going to faint as they all nodded their heads in agreement. They all chimed in as one “Dad, Dad, it’s OK. We like that wood fire fragrance too, but please, please, not so much atmosphere!”

We have been in Door County since we bought the "A" frame in the late ‘70s – full time since 2004. When we lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania most falls, we would return for Thanksgiving in a rented home with kids and grandchildren.