Lake Home and Cottage Builders in Brooklyn and the Irish Hills, Michigan
Strouss Construction builds and rebuilds homes on the lakes around Brooklyn, Michigan and through the Irish Hills, and the family has been building in Jackson County since 1949. Building here is not like building on a flat lot in town. Columbia Township land rolls, lots run down to Clark Lake, Wamplers Lake, Vineyard Lake and Lake Columbia, and plenty of the older houses started life as summer cottages that people have kept adding onto. Many sit on narrow frontage with the water on one side and the road on the other, so a rebuild or a second story usually makes more sense than pushing out, and there is very little room to stage material or park equipment. Outside the village it is acreage in Columbia, Norvell and Liberty townships, where a walkout basement is often the natural answer to a sloping lot.
Narrow frontage changes everything
A lake lot with the water on one side and the road on the other leaves almost no room to work. Where material gets staged, where equipment parks and which direction the addition can even go are decided by the lot before the design starts. On most of these, going up or rebuilding beats pushing out.
Cottages that became houses
The lakes carry cottages from the forties, fifties and sixties that have been added onto repeatedly, often without much of a plan. Opening one of those up means finding out what is actually carrying load and what was framed for a summer place rather than year round living. That is where the surprises are, and it is why the first walk through matters.
Septic near the water, and the grade
Rural sites out here mean well and septic instead of village water and sewer, and septic placement near a lake takes planning. The ground is glacial and hilly outside the village, so the grade often decides the foundation, and a walkout basement is frequently the natural answer to a lot that falls away toward the water.
Scheduling around race weekends
On the big Michigan International Speedway weekends, US-12 and the routes around Brooklyn carry heavy traffic, so we plan deliveries and concrete pours around them. It is one of those local details that only matters if your builder does not know about it.
What Customers Say
Mike & Laura Rogers
Strouss Construction built us a beautiful custom home that we have been in for two years now. The quality of work, attention to detail, and commitment to our needs have been fantastic. Dan Strouss and his team were an absolute joy to work with.
Leslea Little
When we were looking for a builder for a new home, we toured a couple of Strouss homes. The build quality and attention to detail was very impressive.
What You Get
Common Questions About New Homes & Barndominiums in Brooklyn
More on New Homes & Barndominiums, or see how we work in the other towns we build in.