Owners list renovated Mona Lake home for $975K

Phil and Jil Nehra weren’t house-hunting for their family of nine in 2015, but a “what the heck” stop at an open house on Mona Lake one day sealed the deal and they realized they had to have this ranch-style beauty.

The Nehras — he’s a salesperson for Muskegon-based Action Industrial Supply Co., and she’s a now-retired insurance billing professional with Shoreline Allergy in Norton Shores — were out on a supply run for their home on Phil’s birthday eight years ago, when they saw a sign for an open house. Curiosity took hold, so they stopped inside.

They immediately saw the place’s potential. Even though “a house for Phil’s birthday” wasn’t on their shopping list, they went home and put their previous place up for sale so they could buy the property in Norton Shores on Mona Lake. They closed on the purchase in June 2015 for $270,000.

This is their fourth unplanned flip in the past two decades, Jil Nehra said. Each time they’ve traded in a house, it’s been spur of the moment.

“We have not gone through many houses. We just usually find the ones we want and end up buying them,” she said.

Keep up with all things West Michigan business. Sign up for our free newsletters today.

Built in 1964, the Mona Lake home boasts about a half-acre lot, more than 3,000 square feet of living space, a showstopper kitchen and plenty of room to spread out, three beds, two-and-a-half baths, a heated two-car attached garage, a giant deck overlooking a large backyard and a long staircase leading downhill to their dock on the lake.

It’s also a 10-minute boat ride to Lake Michigan via the Mona Lake channel.

When the Nehras got together 20 years ago, they blended a family of seven children, ages 6 to 15. Now, all of the children have flown the nest, so the Nehras don’t need the large family home.

They recruited their son-in-law, Ben DeMuro, a Realtor with Re/Max West in Muskegon, to list the house for $975,000 on July 26.

Nehra said after selling, she and her husband plan to build a smaller house for themselves in Norton Shores to live in during the summer while spending a few of the winter months in Florida.

Nehra said the house was in “good shape” when they bought it, albeit out of date. An elderly couple named the Bytwerks previously owned it, but John Bytwerk had died, and his widow was ready to move on.

A tidbit for fans of the “Barbie” movie — “It had a hot pink dining room,” Nehra said, laughing. She said it had to go.

During the first five or so years they owned the place, the Nehras did a floor-to-ceiling renovation and modernization inside and outside the home.

They ripped out 20 large trees from the backyard — leaving the stumps and root systems in place to prevent erosion. That’s because when they bought the property, the view of the lake was entirely obscured.

“You just couldn’t see the lake, and that’s the point of living on a lake, is to see it,” she said.

They also built a large back deck, and now, every single room on the back of the house has sliding doors that open onto the deck overlooking Mona Lake.

“If you want to get up and walk out in the morning, you can get up and walk out to the deck. It’s benefited (the property value), and it looks great, and it’s kind of fun,” she said.

Indoors, the biggest change they made was to convert the enormous former living room into a kitchen.

“When we bought the house, the (sellers) had a baby grand piano in (what’s now the kitchen), a dining room set, a full living room set, and it was a very large room,” Nehra said. “So when we were doing our renovation drawings and all that, my husband finally said one day, ‘Why don’t we just flip the living room and make the living room the kitchen because we have a big family?’”

Nehra said it was the best design decision they could have made, as the kitchen turned out to be “by far” the most-used room of the house.

“The kitchen area, with the fireplace in it, is spectacular. When it’s colder and the fireplace is running, and everybody’s there eating Sunday dinner, that’s what it’s all about,” she said.

The new kitchen has an unusual layout, but it works, Nehra said.

The front half is where the food preparation happens, with all the appliances, countertops, pots and pan storage, and room for a small seating area. Then, there’s a large brick chimney wall with a wine rack on the food prep side and a fireplace on the other, effectively dividing the kitchen in half.

The back half of the kitchen overlooks the lake and contains a coffee bar area and a massive, custom-built island that is 5.5 feet wide by 13 feet long and can seat about 10 people.

Adjoining is a dining room, which seats another eight-plus and flows into a living room that can accommodate seven or eight comfortably. Part of the living room used to be a three-season room, but they took down an exterior wall to bring it fully indoors.

The kitchen also flows out onto the back deck, where the patio furniture they’ve been using essentially creates another dining room for six to eight people as well as another couple conversation areas with rocking chairs.

All those seats have been put to good use, Nehra said, noting that they have 40 people in their immediate family alone, and they’ve often hosted holiday gatherings with the full group.

DeMuro, the Nehras’ son-in-law and broker, described the place in the listing as an “entertainer’s dream home” for its abundance of gathering space.

“It was built around entertaining and openness and enough space for all of our families,” he told Crain’s Grand Rapids Business. “The island in the middle is massive; you can fit so many people around the island and just have so much laughing and game time and hooting and hollering and basically family fun.”

As a ranch-style home, the bedrooms are also on the home’s only floor.

The Nehras decided they wanted a room the grandkids could play in that’s separate from the main living areas, but they didn’t want to sacrifice a bedroom. So they turned the former primary bedroom at the front of the house into a combined TV room/toy room/bedroom featuring a Murphy bed that’s perfect for overnight guests.

“That was our master bedroom to begin with, but we wanted to be on the lakeside in our master bedroom, so we flipped that,” Nehra said.

For the new primary bedroom on the far corner of the house, they created a beach vibe, with a rich wood-grained floor and wood-paneled wall behind the bed and deck access by a slider. There’s also a dresser and a TV flanked by twin closets — “my husband’s a big TV guy,” Nehra said.

Next door is the third and smallest bedroom, which is carpeted, has a small closet and features just enough room for two small nightstands and a dresser.

The Nehras redid all of the bathrooms with modern fixtures, plumbing and tile. The ensuite primary bath features a honeycomb tile heated floor and walk-in shower, geometric mirrors and honeycomb light fixtures, and a wood sink atop a four-drawer cabinet.

Another full bathroom is painted forest green below the picture rail and off-white above, with contrasting styles of white tile for the floors and shower, a marble-grain counter with a large mirror and contemporary chandelier-style light fixture above.

There’s also a half-bath on the other side of the house off the kitchen that’s soft taupe contrasted by the black, brown and white sink fixtures.

The home is completed by a mudroom, laundry room and storage closet accessible from the garage, near the kitchen.

In the front yard, there’s a shed that mirrors the design of the house that the Nehras had custom-built by Amish builders and delivered in one piece.

“The shed is there because we needed space for the riding lawn mower and all our patio furniture,” Nehra said.

DeMuro said he’s hosted showings “every day since it was listed” but had no written offers as of Tuesday, Aug. 1.

He said Muskegon County has very few old homes of this size that have been renovated to this standard, so it’s likely at the top end of the usual price range for lakefront homes in the county.

“A lot of houses that come up on the lake either need a lot of renovation or someone’s lived there for 50, 60 years, or they were recently renovated,” he said. “It’s usually a hot-and-cold situation like that, so you just have to find some middle ground and say, ‘OK, if this house needed everything done, what would that look like? What would it cost?’ And then kind of look at that future state and come up with a fair price (factoring in the cost of renovations).”

When asked how much money they spent on renovations, Nehra said she doesn’t have an estimate because they did the work so gradually between 2015 and 2020.

DeMuro said he feels this “special” property is a one-of-a-kind find in his favorite part of the state.

“This house is the ‘dream’ in West Michigan,” he said. “I think the secret is getting out on Muskegon, especially with people being able to work remotely. A lot of the showings from out of town are saying, ‘Hey, we want to move this way.’”

Nehra said whoever the buyer is, she hopes they give the home its due.

“I really hope whoever the next owner is, is somebody that appreciates the entertainment value of the house, because it was redone just for the purpose of entertaining our family and friends, and I hope that would continue on,” she said.

More from Crain’s Grand Rapids Business:

Former 1940s Grand Rapids carrot farm offers ample acreage, private lake for $1M

Owner aims to hand off Spring Lake ‘bootlegger house’ turned family paradise for $1.79M

‘Scandinavian modern’ home boasts city views for $1M

Heritage Hill Victorian lists for $950K after conversion back to single-family home