(Len Villano)
DOOR COUNTY LIFESTYLES: Stone Quarry Home
Home to be featured in House & Garden Walk
One might say that Mitch and Mary Heinrichs live between a rock and a hard place.
They built their Fish Creek home on the site of a former stone quarry. The couple feels it is only natural to be captivated by the look of the rock. What has surprised, as well as delighted them, is the number of onlookers and guests they have welcomed to their “quarry house” since its construction was completed in December 2008
And on July 26, the home will be one of five properties open to the public during the Ministry Door County Medical Center Auxiliary’s House and Garden Walk. About 1,500 people participate in the event — the Auxiliary’s largest annual fundraiser (see related story).
“We never anticipated any of this. It sure has been exciting. We were just building a retirement home and not looking for anything more, but the popularity of it has really been something,” Mitch Heinrichs said.
Heinrichs recalled that he and his wife were immediately attracted to the four-acre property characterized by a wide open rock bed with a wall of stone butting up to a wooded area.
“We pulled in and saw the lot and what was for sale. It was just beautiful. And we both looked at each other and said, ‘We can do something with this,’ and we fell in love with it,” Heinrichs said.
And what they did with the stone quarry was build a 4,200 square foot tri-level home. Rocks (dolomite limestone) harvested from the quarry adorn the façade of the home, which has a French manor architectural style. Stones also completely cover the house’s turret.
Inside, a focal point in the den is a 35-feet-long portion of quarry wall left in its natural state. The room’s floor is the actual quarry surface.
In addition to the den, the home has on its first level a living room open to the kitchen, a sunroom and powder room. Three bedrooms and two bathrooms are situated on the second level, while the third floor has a game room and art studio.
An 1,100 square foot carriage house, perched over the garage, is available to vacationers who want to experience accommodations on a former rock quarry.
Heinrichs, a former ceramic tile contractor, designed the home and served as its general contractor and builder. His team included family members, subcontractors and others.
“We just love it here. And it has been a fun project to see how a house goes together,” Mary Heinrichs said.
Matt Heinrichs, a tile contractor, installed tile for flooring and bathrooms. Tile floors have hydronic heating, and the kitchen is finished with cherry cabinets and a granite backsplash and countertop.
Meanwhile, Mitch Heinrichs’ craftsmanship shows in the design of the wrought iron stair railings. In the powder room, he installed a Kohler sink (painted with tropical fish) in a three-foot-around locally found birch tree stump. The birch-vanity is topped by quarry stone, and Heinrichs embellished the edges using his tools.
Eye-catching military artifacts decorate the light and bright home — from red British uniforms to sparkling armor and French Kepis in Heinrichs’ art studio.
“I’m a military history nut,” he said.
He is also an oil painter, and some of his paintings as well as art by other artists make up the couple’s collection.
“We’ve been able to get more paintings on the walls. My wife has a ‘honey-do’ list, and we work away on that,” Heinrichs said.
The couple recently checked landscaping off the list. They installed a pond with fountains as the center point of the driveway. It’s accented by a garden with colorful annuals and more.
“Of course, everything is rock, but we were fortunate to have some subsoil for planting,” Heinrichs said.
Heinrichs recently talked more about the upcoming House & Garden Walk and the “quarry house.”
Q. Why are you participating in the House and Garden Walk?
Heinrichs: It’s a fund-raiser for the hospital. And the small amount we can do to help raise funds is so important up here to a small community. And it’s fun. It’s fun to work with the local people. And you meet more people.
Q. Tell me more about the type of construction.
Heinrichs: The kind of construction we did is called ICF — insulated concrete forms. What it is are great big Styrofoam blocks that have two and one-quarter inches of Styrofoam as the walls and supports going through every six inches. Every block is four-feet long. As you set one in, you lock the next one in and put rebar in. We had five cement pourings for the walls. We had three trucks come to deliver the lumber for the entire house.
Q. What changes do you make to the original home plan?
Heinrichs: The pantry was not originally where it is now. And I had the staircase going down the wall, and Mary suggested that we do a landing and turn it.
The ceilings were too high in the bedrooms. We dropped them to 12 feet (from 18 feet). Then, we added lighting (at ceiling height), which gave more interest.
Q. What green building practices were used?
Heinrichs: The ICF walls are probably insulated at an R-47. I obtained my windows by asking a builder friend if he had any left in his “bone pile.” They had an entire stock of windows in their stock room — all thermal pane. I was able to get them at a massive discount.
Q. What is the focal point of the home?
Heinrichs: Most people come in and notice all the natural stone.
Q. I also see military headdresses, uniforms and art.
Heinrichs: The small oil paintings (in the bedroom) are by a good friend of mine, who is a military painter from North Carolina. The uniforms are original British uniforms, and I have a few more French uniforms.
I probably have 3,000 or 4,000 miniature toy soldiers. My dad started buying these for me in the 1940s. Some of the artists are spectacular. You wait for the miniature to breathe; it looks so realistic.
And I started collecting the hats and the helmets. If you have a helmet, there will never be a helmet like it. It may have a couple dents, as they were protecting something as they rode into battle.
Q. How do you describe the decorating style?
Heinrichs: I would say it’s personal. I refinished and redid trunks. And we use them as end tables and accent pieces. My original degree was commercial art.
Q. What’s the home like for entertaining guests?
Heinrichs: It’s great and convenient. People can sit in the living room and talk. And we can be preparing something in the (adjoining) kitchen and we are all together.
Donna Marie Pocius writes about home interiors and other subjects. Contact her at donnamarie@dcwis.com.
