Birch Lodge Bed and Breakfast

Birch Lodge is now offering bed and breakfast stays in the historic Birch Lodge.   Each spacious room has a private bath, queen bed, and mini-fridge.   All rooms have their own thermostats, and air-conditioning.   Rooms are limited to two persons, no roll-aways or cribs are available.

  Rates are $150.00 per night, and do come with breakfast of your choice, or leave it to us to do something special for you.

  Two rooms offer lakefront views, most rooms have a private sitting room.   This is intended as a place to unplug in a quiet space, and although limited Wi-Fi is available, no TV’s are in the lodge.  If you need a movie, you can choose one to play in the DVD “vintage theater room” off of the upstairs lobby.  No smoking, candles or cooking in the rooms please. 

As a guest, you may use boats or kayaks, play a game of pool and listen to the jukes in the old Birch Bar, stroll down to the beach, or simply pull up a chair on the porch or upstairs balcony and enjoy the lake breezes.  A perfect setting to unwind after the day’s adventures.

 If you would like to book a room, please send us an email to birchlodgemi@gmail.com with your dates and we will let you know which rooms are available. All stays are by advance reservation only.

Room 1 is downstairs, lakefront.  It has a queen Old Hickory log bed and down filled club chair, ceiling fan, sitting area with log loveseat, and mini-fridge and private bath.

Room 1 Sitting Room

Room 2 is across the hall from room 1, it is ADA friendly, with wide doorways, and grab-bars in the spacious bath with transfer bench in the tub/shower.   There is a wheelchair ramp at the west lodge door for easy access.   It has one queen bed, mini-fridge, and a private sitting area. 

Room 2 Sitting Room

Room 3 is upstairs, lakefront.  It has a queen bed, ceiling fan, and private bath and sitting area with mini-fridge. 

    

Room 4 is upstairs across the hall from room 3.   Full of light, this room has one queen bed, ceiling fan, mini-fridge and private bath.

Room 5 is upstairs, just one door down the back hall.   It is quiet, private, and has a corner setting with  ceiling fan, private bath, sitting room with desk and mini-fridge.

Room 5 Sitting Room

BIRCH LODGE B&B OPEN FOR GUESTS

BIRCH LODGE B&B OPEN FOR GUESTS!!!!


We FINALLY opened the lodge to guests two weeks ago, with five suites ready for your northwoods vacation!  Lakefront suites are $150.00 per night.  Please contact us at birchlodgemi@gmail.com or give us a call at 906-569-3351 to discuss availability. 

An Innkeepers Dream….

 

View from Birch Lodge Porch

Historic Birch Lodge is for sale.   We are open for business as usual, but would like to find the next owners who can take it to its FULL potential.

Ideally, we feel the lodge needs serious innkeepers and an excellent chef to give it wings.   Michigan Bed and Breakfast law now states that owners may provide “meals” at no additional charge to their guests.   This is exactly what I feel would work so well at Birch Lodge.   Offer three excellent meals for the guests staying at the lodge.    Excellent food is, frankly, something that is rare in the Upper Peninsula, and we have a great location for it.  Half an hour above the bridge, the property is set nicely back from the road, and has a fantastic waterfront placement, and historic appeal. 

  The lodge is full of “commons” space, the old Birch Bar, the front lobby, the upstairs lobby and deck as well as the 100’ front porch.  The rooms are spacious as well.  It is truly a unique property…there is no other like it.

Birch Lodge Lobby

Up until the early 1980’s the kitchen did turn out meals for the guests.   The kitchen is large, with plenty of prep space, and does have triple sinks, newer refrigerator and gas stove, and a great old commercial Garland gas stove, (it no longer meets commercial code, but this is not required for a Bed and Breakfast… which falls under residential code).  

  

  The dining room is large and full of light with lovely antique tables, and china. 

  Many people would like to see the old Birch Bar open again, but I feel this would be a mistake.  It would require extensive commercial code modifications, and I feel would negatively impact the quiet peaceful atmosphere which is a large part of the charm here.   I do, however, think it may be possible to get a license to serve fine wine and beers to guests staying at the lodge to accompany their dinner and still stay within the Bed and Breakfast code requirements.   

Right now the lodge has five rentable rooms with baths, and three more rentable rooms are ready and waiting for baths to be added (the future baths have been begun).   We have also created an owner’s suite with bath upstairs over the kitchen.    The motel is fully renting with eight lake front units, and there is an old log cabin, which with updating could be used as a rental as well. 

 We have worked hard and poured ourselves into getting this old gal back on her feet.  There is a great deal of interest in lodge stays, but we simply can’t do it all.   We need someone who can now make her run.     It would be a great place for a couple with adult children, or possibly an extended family business.   Are you that chef?   Is this your dream too?   If so, let us know...serious inquiries welcome...the property is listed with Mackinac Properties.

Birch Lodge the Bed and Breakfast.....2015 Additions

 Because of the lack of help and a VERY busy motel, we did not open the lodge for booking online as a bed and breakfast.   However we did allow stays for those who inquired, for periods when I felt we could handle the extra business.   We didn't want to over commit to what we could handle without additional help.    We started out last year with two rooms downstairs....the "Dr.'s suite, a large lakefront bedroom with a private sitting room and bath, and "Ada's" suite across the hall, which is handicap friendly....also a large bedroom with private sitting room and bath. 

In July we had the front stairway handrails made code compliant and were able to open the three rooms we had ready upstairs....

Room 3 is lakefront suite with a queen bed,

new private tiled bath,

and private sitting room with two recliners overlooking the lake.

 

 

 

  Room 4 is across the hall from Room 3, and is a large light filled bedroom with queen bed and private bath.

Two large windows overlook the back of the property, and a large window at the side of the room by the comfy chair overlooks the lake.

I love this spacious vintage inspired tiled bath.

Room 5 upstairs is a corner suite off the back hallway.

It is an interesting corner layout with a large bedroom with queen size bed and Morris recliner,

a tiled private bath,

 and a small private sitting room with comfy chair and bookshelf

 overlooking the log cabin and woods.    We also worked on getting the upstairs lobby furnished with new rugs in addition to the original furniture which was stored in the attic.

and a new Bradbury and Bradbury Arts and Crafts Wallpaper Frieze called "Birchwood in Twilight"

  which I decided to frame on the wall.    We also purchased some vintage theater seats and refinished the floor in the other corner room off the upstairs lobby

to begin putting together our DVD theater room....shopping now for the TV and movies!



This fall we also refinished floors and began to move furniture in the rooms over the old Birch Bar.   These rooms are waiting for bathrooms to be added before they will be ready.  Room 6 will be a beautiful lakefront room with queen bed,

  private sitting room and bath.  I am shopping for furnishings this winter!    Room 7 is across the hall and has twin beds and

three large windows, with a lake view from the side of the room.  Will also be adding some finishing touches and well as the bathroom!

 Depending on our help situation,  2016 will have at least Rooms 1-5 available as bed and breakfast stays at least on a limited basis.  Please email us if you are  interested  birchlodgemi@gmail.com.   And visit us on Facebook!

 

 

 

 

 

Birch Lodge Sneak Peek into 2015

View from upper deck, Birch Lodge, Trout Lake, MI

When we closed last fall, we were working away on the upstairs suites.  We have new queen mattresses for all the rooms, and with their floors finished, we started "playing house", moving furniture back down from the attic and choosing furnishings for the rooms.   The three upstairs suites are not able to be rented until we redo the stairway, but I thought you might like a peek at where we are....

Upstairs Lakefront (over Dr.'s Suite) :

Upstairs Lakefront

Upstairs Lakefront

Upstairs Lakefront in progress

Across the hallway, and over the Ada's Suite is a room without a sitting room, which is one of my favorite rooms, filled with light, again, these rooms are not fully furnished yet...just wait!

Bedroom, 2nd floor

Bedroom, 2nd floor

Bedroom's private bath

Off the back hallway, on the corner of the lobby is our "Corner Suite", with a private bath and sitting room. This was where I was going to house our housekeeper last year, until I found she couldn't work for us!    Will post better photos and updates in the spring....stay tuned!  

Corner Suite in Progress...

Corner Suite

The future rooms upstairs over the Birch Bar are on hold while we focus on getting these rooms open.  However, we also made progress on creating an owner's suite as well.  Upstairs over the kitchen, we bumped out a couple of partition walls in bedrooms on both sides of the hallway to create a sitting room, and bedroom with a large closet.  We will have our own bath, and there will be an upstairs laundry area....not done yet.  We have added a door across the end of the upstairs back hallway to allow us more privacy.

  Once we get moved there, we can set our sights on reworking the cabin for rental...which will take a LOT of work.....ALWAYS...to be continued.....