Island Roots

Chad and Nicole Waffen have three rules at their Kelleys Island lakefront home.
1. Every visitor must paint a rock to leave in the rock garden.
2. When the Pelee Island ferry goes by (twice daily), you have to offer up a cheer.
3. Your presence at happy hour on the upper deck is required.
No. 3 is sort of silly, Nicole admits, because why anyone would want to be anywhere but the upper deck at that time of day is a mystery.
The deck is a modern-day widow’s walk rising above the island’s trees, with views of Lake Erie — and its memorable sunsets — from all sides.
Sunset on the deck is one of Nicole’s favorite times of day at the house. She has seen lots of sunsets on this island — she’s been coming here since she was a child — but she never tires of them.
Nicole’s family owned Fresch’s Island House Restaurant, and Nicole worked there occasionally on summer breaks. Chad’s first time on the island, meanwhile, wasn’t until 1998 when he, Nicole and their friends traveled to her parents’ cottage for a post-prom party. 
While after-prom on an island may sound great to teens, it’s a less appealing idea to parents, which is why Nicole’s father wrote a letter to the parents of every child coming, assuring them their children would be safe in his care.
Chad and Nicole’s relationship grew stronger — as did their love of the island. They were married in 1997 and built their first cottage on Kelleys in 2001, across the street from Nicole’s family. It was a nice enough cottage, with three bedrooms, but lacked a view of the lake. So when a waterfront lot became available in 2006, the Waffens put in their offer the second the listing went live — and successfully bought the lot for $250,000.
Nicole, who has no design or architectural background, nevertheless designed their new house by hand on graph paper back in 2007, seven years before she and her husband, Chad, hired Krueger Group, a Cleveland-based company, to build the home.
“It’s funny building on an island because you have to time the construction right because all the equipment comes by ferry,” Chad says. “Contractors don’t want to bring their trucks over in the fall because they don’t want to get trapped by an unexpected storm.”
In the fall of 2014, the cement foundation was poured, and construction began in earnest the following spring. 
Having sold their first cottage to finance their second, the Waffens became homeless on their trips to oversee construction, but they made it work. “We camped out in an empty skeleton of the house or in our 1974 VW camper bus,” Chad says. “It was an adventure.”
The finished home includes all the pieces that Nicole put on paper, including a bedroom for each of their three children — Jakob, 20; Kade, 18; and Avery, 17. Each room also has an extra built-in twin bed in anticipation that, one day, their kids will have their own families to bring to the island. “That was the core of the design,” Chad says.
Their master bedroom, meanwhile, is also on the second floor, connected to the upper deck by a spiral staircase. It’s an oasis for Nicole. “I could just live in my bedroom,” she says.
The lake home is built for family, friends, relaxation and long days enjoying the outdoors. The lake is the focal point, of course, and the home’s large side porch — complete with rocking chairs and a table that can seat 10 or more — overlooks the water. You can often find their dog, a 3-year-old golden retriever named Finn, lounging there after a swim.
Visitors can get even closer to the lake — on top of the water, really — on a deck the Waffens built when they first bought the property. The space is outfitted with padded chaise lounges built to sink into. Nearby, hammocks hang from trees, kayaks wait for their moment in the water, and an outdoor shower finishes off the lake house feel. 
The grassy backyard is plenty big enough to accommodate their children’s friends, who are known to pitch tents and spend the weekend. In fact, life has come full circle. Both their sons have asked to host after-prom parties at the lake house — Jakob in 2016 and Kade just this May.
When he first heard the request, Chad knew exactly what to do. He found his father-in-law’s letter from 30 years ago, copied it, signed it and sent it to the parents of his son’s friends.
With memories like those, the couple never considered anywhere else for a vacation home. In fact, Chad’s fascination with Kelleys and the other Lake Erie islands runs so deep that he authored a book called “Ohio’s Lake Erie Islands,” which he researched by visiting almost every island in the Western Basin. 
Kelleys, measuring more than 4 square miles, is the second-largest of the islands. It has just more than 300 full-time residents — a number that swells to more than 5,000 in the summer months.
“Kelleys Island is where we want to be,” Chad says. “The roots we have here can’t be replaced.”
Their lake house is a reflection of their love for the island — and for life, travel and, most of all, family. 
There’s the “map room” with maps from the island and their travels; the media room with tchotchkes of orange VW buses, mostly gifts from friends; and the desk tucked under the stairs that Chad built using wood from an eastern red cedar, a tree native to the island.
  Look closely, and you’ll notice the vanity in the master bathroom is crafted from the old lanes of a bowling alley in nearby Port Clinton — a place Nicole remembers visiting as a child.
Both Chad and Nicole say their favorite detail, however, is in the kitchen — a wall made of recycled barn wood the couple collected over the years from old homes and even a chicken coop encountered on their travels around the United States.  “They were just piling up around the house,” Chad says. “Each has its own story.”
So the couple cut the wood into pieces and created the mosaic that serves as the wall behind the kitchen breakfast bar. It’s a simple but remarkable piece of art. The Waffens look at Kelleys Island in the same way — remarkable because of its simplicity.
“This is a place where people wave at each other when they walk down the street,” Nicole says. “This is a place where we come as a family and rarely have a reason to watch TV or get on our phones. We play cards. We go for kayak rides. We’re just together. This place is family life, for us.”