Feeling at home …

Clockwise from top left: Cookie and Joe Cooreman, Jaryn Steenhoven and Bob Lustfield showed off their homes (and a “man cave”) at Saturday’s 2024 Balaton Fall Home Tour. Photos / Per Peterson

From the spacious kitchen and a 32-by-32 great room, to a large east-facing deck off the living room, there is plenty to admire in Bob Lustfield’s 1,664-square foot house out at East Bay.

The home, however, was missing something at this year’s Balaton Fall Tour of Home. Actually, it was missing someone: Bob’s wife, Wendy, who lost her battle with cancer in May 2022 at  age 48.

“She helped design this,” Bob said. “We built this in 2018 … I’d say 90% of all this is things she picked out. It was so easy. Everyone said, ‘If you can survive building a house together’ … I told her if I hate something I would tell her and same for her, but 99% of stuff, it was, ‘Do you like this?’ and I was always, ‘Yah.’ That was our whole relationship; we never had an argument in 12 years.”

See more in this week’s paper!