Owen Priestley and Lauren Traficanto-Priestley spent an entire summer driving throughout Michigan every weekend to find the perfect summer home. They were unsuccessful in those road trips, but then the phone rang.
“We looked all over Michigan. We were just never happy anywhere and we almost gave up,” Owen said. “But then our real estate agent called us and said you must get in your car and come see Barron Lake. It’s very hard to find a place here and this place is going to be gone in a couple of hours.”
The problem for Owen and Lauren is that they were already two hours away. “We jumped in the car and drove up immediately,” Owen said. “Our agent was right; it would have been gone.”
Before they knew it, they were signing on the dotted line and the house they named “Lily’s Pad” (after their dog) on Lake Shore Drive would be ready for them to enjoy some summer fun.
“What sold me was the fact that you have your own little beach and you’re right on the water,” Lauren said. “A lot of the houses we saw have a lot of stairs to go up or down to get to the water. This was very accessible, and I hadn’t seen a lot like that. Plus, every house we looked at needed like hundreds of thousands of dollars of work. This one did not.”
Owen, who immigrated from Ireland, and Lauren, live and work in Chicago—Owen works in technology and Lauren is a Realtor. “I’ve been in real estate for almost 16 years now. What sets me apart from other real estate agents in Chicago is if someone has a vacant home, I stage it for free. I’ve got a whole warehouse full of furniture. It’s a lot of work but I love it,” she said.
Their busy schedules don’t always leave room for rest and relaxation so finding a place on a small lake in Michigan was on their bucket list.
“When we are at the lake, I love to get up early in the morning and sit on the deck with a cup of coffee,” Owen said. “The quietness and the shade of the trees and hearing the water come in and out—it’s just very, very relaxing.”
They both feel very fortunate to have found the home they did and on this lake.
“It’s just a two-to-five-minute drive down into the center of Niles and there seems to be a lot of investing in the last few years. I think I counted seven new stores that opened, like a new Pilates place, a comedy club, a bicycle store, a few new restaurants. Unfortunately, we did lose the Italian coffee shop, but we got a tea shop and a new coffee shop, so we came out on the plus side. And I heard there is more coming,” Owen said.
“I think we got incredibly lucky with Mishawaka being just 20 to 25 minutes away with just about any restaurant or store you want,” he said. “However, if you just want to sit by the lake and pretend like nothing else in the world exists, you can do that, too.”
Not that being from Ireland is a prerequisite to rooting for the Irish, but Owen and Lauren are happy to be so close to Notre Dame. Owen’s brother, traveled from Ireland to earn a master’s degree in education from Notre Dame. They have visited the campus and had tickets to most of the games last year. The Notre Dame home football games are also a reason why their home, which they rent out through Airbnb, is pretty much booked all fall.
Handling the rentals is something Lauren takes seriously to protect their home as well as the lake and the neighbors.
“We have very strict rules on noise because we don’t want to interrupt the neighbors,” Lauren said. “I’ve even told the neighbors, if it gets too loud, please call me. We’ve never had any issues. And our guests know if they bring a boat with them, they must follow the rules of the lake. I got those rules from the Barron Lake website, printed them, and posted them on the fridge.”
Living full-time two hours away can be worrisome, but not when you have wonderful neighbors like Owen and Lauren have.
“One of the things I’m very grateful for around here is the community and the neighbors,” Owen said, with a nod of agreement from Lauren.
“We do rely heavily on the kindness of the people around us and we try to return that in any way we can. Our neighbors to the side and Bob across the road have been incredibly helpful. Our next-door neighbor has a wonderful garden, and she talks to our guests about the native species she’s growing. We get such nice comments about our Airbnb and people say it’s the kindness of the people on the lake.”
As for hosting guests, they just had a visit from Owen’s sister and family, who live in London. “One of the things I really like about Barron Lake is its accessibility. We have family and friends who live in different parts of Illinois and it’s easy for them to visit for the day. Now from London it was a little more of a trip for them, but we’re very lucky this year is the first time that one of the branches of my family could come visit, and it was great,” Owen said.
To make the trip even more memorable for his sister and family, Owen and Lauren rented a pontoon. “Normally we don’t have a boat, so this was a new experience for us. I tied up the boat last night for the first time and checked on it eight times in the night to make sure it was still there,” he said with a laugh.
They look forward to spending more time on the lake with family and friends, and Owen looks forward to fishing. “I learned to fish here last summer for the first time, and it was a lot of fun. I did catch some fish, but nothing worth photographing. I do, though, look forward to doing it again this year.”
And, they’re looking forward to making many more memories on the lake.
Story as told by Owen and Lauren.
Written by Jodi Marneris. Barron Lake Association. June 2024
