Barefoot House

A hidden treasure on Lake Minnetonka’s Casco Point is a work in progress

By alecia stevens

Photo by John Christenson

It all began with the ironing board. In 1982, Suzy Swanson had a houseful of five children, two adults, and various animals. She needed a place to set up an ironing board other than in the middle of the kitchen in the cramped 1971 walkout. One idea was to open up the kitchen by adding an adjacent family room. The other was to reconfigure the back entry and laundry area to provide room for the ubiquitous ironing board.

Of course, most homeowners would have simply moved to a larger home, one better suited to the changing needs of the family. But Kent and Suzy Swanson weren’t budging. Their home sits on Lake Minnetonka’s Casco Point, on land once owned by Suzy’s grandparents. She fondly recalls the idyllic family summer home that once occupied the property, the screened porches filled with cousins, and a 180-degree view of the water, with too many memories to ever sell to a stranger.

Photo by John Christenson

They also knew that a family room addition just beyond the kitchen would require the skills of an architect. After two interviews with perspective candidates, they called a referral, Mark Nesset, for an initial interview. “Mark just listened,” Kent recalls. “He was very quiet and when he left, we weren’t sure how it went. Then he got back to us the next day and said, ‘This is what I heard you say.’ He had written it all down and gotten it just right.” He also had a solution for the ironing board.

The Swansons hired the Excelsior-based architect for that first remodeling project and it marked the beginning of a relationship that now spans three decades. They’ve called on Nesset each times they wanted a change; he’s now worked on 14 different areas in the house. Children grew up, married, and had children of their own, and Nesset was present for it all. Now considered an extended family member, he is invited to the weddings. “This is a house that grew up around a family. Not the other way around,” he explains. “It also grew up with my practice and experience in the field. I’ve really never had another project like it. You couldn’t ask for better clients.”

What is notable is Nesset’s steadfast commitment to honor the tradition of the original 1970s-era home and the people who live there—artists, collectors, and musicians. To this day, one would not be surprised to find a barefoot mom with a long skirt cooking lentils from Diet for a Small Planet. The home retains a character that most would have altered by now—this decade an English manor; the next, a modern box. Nesset offers yet another compelling reason to leave well enough alone: “This home is of the site, not on the site. You can barely see it from the lake.” This point is appreciated. Suzy notes, “This is an example of architecture that helped to define how we live, and it always suited us. Mark just kept improving it.”

Photo by John Christenson

After the 1982 family room, designed to capitalize on the best views of the lake, and a screened porch, they made the necessary changes to the laundry area. Somewhere in there, they created an office for Kent on the lower level with a view of the lake. In 1993, when a bulging art collection got too large for the house, the Swansons wouldn’t dream of parting with any of it; instead, they asked Nesset to design a gallery-like entry to display it. Today, it is filled with personal favorites—the work of painters, furniture makers, and weavers. At the same time, Nesset opened up the owners’ suite by combining two bedrooms and remodeled a bath with a spectacular view.

About this time, he also designed a studio for Suzy’s growing passion, ceramics. A painting major in college, she had always loved art. In 1985, as a Camp Fire girls leader, she enrolled the group in a ceramics class at the Minnetonka Center for the Arts and learned to throw pots right along with them. “I saw the personality of each girl in her piece of pottery,” she remembers with tenderness. The opportunity for such personal expression was exhilarating, and she never left the art form or the center; she now shows her own pottery there. Her home studio’s purposeful clutter is punctuated by imaginative mementos. A Chinese dragon kite, a gift from a daughter who spent time in China, fills the lofty ceiling.
At some point (dates are “loose”) the powder room was remodeled, then filled with the Swansons’ collection of etchings from around the world. A furniture designer built the countertop by hand from a block of walnut. In 1999, the Swanson-Nesset team became intrigued with fiber-optic lighting, so they added “stars” to the dining room ceiling. At night, with glass walls overlooking the lake surrounding the diners, it’s uncertain where the starry night ends and the interior begins.

Photo by John Christenson

In 2005, they decided to take on the lower level, remodeling a bath, creating a hallway of handsome storage built of African-striped mahogany, and adding a media room—fondly christened Casco Point Starlight Theatre, a reference to the latest incarnation of fiber-optic magic in the ceiling. The room is intimate, yet spacious enough to host “chick flicks” each month when Suzy invites girlfriends and serves chocolate and wine. Three paintings by Mexican artist Marco Alvarez lend distinction to the walls in the room. Nesset and Suzy worked on the lower level project as a team, as they often have throughout the years. “What is so great about Mark is that, even though it is his project, he never forgets that we are the ones living here,” she says.

At a time when many of their friends are moving permanently to cabins on lakes, far from the city, or to condos in warmer climates, for the Swansons, this is “it.” Kent waxes poetic from his favorite spot in the house, a chair in the corner of the living room. “We are surrounded by beauty here, from this very spot. This kind of beauty is important for the soul,” he says. Suzy nods in agreement, understanding that their souls are intricately entwined with the land, three generations of memories, an architect who is now a friend, and with the artists whose work adorns the surrounding walls.

Alecia Stevens is a Minneapolis interior designer and frequent contributor to Midwest Home.

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