We post a lot on our website about different aspects of building a custom dream home, from finding a lot to how long the design/build will take to what the overall process looks like and lots of other aspects of home-building and home-owning. We also share photos of our work in the gallery (Really great-looking photos, check them out!)
In this article, we focus on a home we built for the Boos family. The home is featured in our gallery, but this is more about the family’s story, and a boyhood dream of living in a cabin in the woods.
Dan Boos and his wife Nancy have always loved the Brainerd Lakes Area. Dan grew up taking fishing trips to Leech Lake, and Nancy spent a great deal of time at a family cabin on East Twin Lake in Nisswa. The two even had a cabin of their own on Stony Lake in Hackensack for 19 years, though their primary residence was in the Twin Cities.
When Dan retired in 2016, they knew it was time to make his dream—living on a clear, pristine lake amidst towering pines—come true. They didn’t have to go far: just west on the other side of Highway 371, they found a great plot of land on Ten Mile Lake.
The lot was once part of a horse camp for girls and included several other cabins. The 11 current owners of that property formed their own small association. It’s an unusual model for lake homes, but provides access to amenities that the community shares, such as pickleball and tennis courts, as well as trails through the woods that provide year-round hiking, snowshoeing, and Nordic skiing.
With their lot selected, Dan and Nancy came to Dotty Brothers, having seen one of our jobsite signs at one of their neighbors’ properties. They had a very specific vision: a small cabin in the woods, one that did nothing to distract from the beautiful setting and did everything to blend into it. They were also adamant about not creating rooms or spaces that they wouldn’t use.
These two primary goals drove the design process, a focus that really paid off. The home has two bedrooms, three bathrooms, and 1563 square feet of extremely efficient space on the main floor and basement, with no sprawl. There is also a spacious loft that sleeps three and a heavily used screen porch that adds 217 square feet of indoor-outdoor living space.
The build began in November and took ten months to complete, with much of the initial excavation and construction done in the depths of a tough winter. All the finishing work was done in the spring and summer, but that’s another place where Dan and Nancy’s vision and our design/build process paid off handsomely.
Because the design was so tightly focused and smaller than many of the custom dream homes we build, the interior design elements are of extremely high quality. The fireplace is really two fireplaces: a gas fireplace for the great room, and a traditional wood-burning fireplace for the screen porch.
You can see the lake from almost every corner of the house, and the deck uses a modern cable railing to keep people safe but basically disappears from view.
The home itself is a showcase in craftsmanship, with wood, stone, and metal highlights throughout. The chimney caps and parts of the roof are made of metal, the windows are red brick, and the siding is a mix of cedar, timbers, and stone. It blends perfectly with the environment but is also striking.
That same commitment to quality continues inside the home, too, with luxury wood flooring, gleaming appliances in the kitchen, and sculptural light fixtures. The inside of the house feels like it's wrapped in wood, on the ceilings and walls, with gorgeous millwork and trim. This rustic warmth is mixed with modern features like subway tiles.
The overall result is a smash hit of a custom dream home that is charming, modern, and comfortable. In fact, it’s been so popular that Dan and Nancy later had us design a garage with living quarters above it. The plans are ready to start the build when they are! That gives them space to store the cabin toys and a little wiggle room to accommodate guests when the invite list expands.
If you’re ready to start talking about building your dream home, we can do for you what we did for the Boos family: a custom design/build that meets your needs with style and grace. Contact us at dottybrothers.com and we’ll help make your dream home your real home.
