Lured by the lake to the house of their dreams

Joe and Denise Wypiszenski drove past Port Washington on I-43 “a million times” while traveling from their home in the Chicago suburb of Naperville to visit family in the Green Bay area, but they never stopped in the city.

That all changed in May 2023 when they were house hunting, looking for a house located on a body of water in a community with amenities that wasn’t too far from an airport.

“I was looking on the internet and I saw a dot on the map,” Denise said. “I zoomed in and it was here.”

The next day, the Wypiszenskis looked at a lot in the Prairie’s Edge subdivision, and within 24 hours they bought it.

Now, the couple calls Port home, and they couldn’t be happier.

“We love it,” Denise said. “We love walking to downtown every single day. We love the lake. We love the community.”

The couple live on Seanma Wynd, a road that runs along the Lake Michigan bluff, in a four-bedroom house with stunning lake views.

“The morning is so beautiful,” Joe said. “We get the sunrises in the morning and the moonrises at night and it reflects off the lake. It’s phenomenal.

“Deer come through there and turkeys — we didn’t see too many of them in Chicago.”

Right now, the land between their house and the edge of the bluff is colored bright yellow, filled with flowering plants dotted with bird feeders.

“This time of year, that yellow is stupendous,” Joe said.

The Prairie’s Edge subdivision, east of South Wisconsin Street in Port Washington and atop the bluff south of the We Energies power plant, is the city’s largest and newest, marked by distinctive white buildings and street names that are Gaelic — for example, Seanma is a word used in Ireland to refer to grandmother and Wynd refers to a lane that is usually smaller than a road.

The subdivision, which is still being built out, will have 281 homes — 57 houses, 156 apartments, 32 condominiums and 36 assisted and memory care units in a senior living space, and commercial space that includes Lakeside Alliance Church, Portside Investment Company and Thrive Fitness & Therapy, which is under construction.

Once they bought their lot, the Wypiszenskis checked out the various floor plans offered, then worked with an architect from Lakeside Development to tweak the design and create a finished space in what would otherwise have been an unfinished basement.

They started building in November and moved into their new home in August 2024.

“It literally fit everything we asked for,” Denise said of the floor plan. “We wanted one great room with a kitchen, dining room and family room, and this fit the bill.”

The house is open and airy, with a neutral color palette that allows the views of the lake to take center stage. The black windows frame the views, giving them the appearance of art.

“Look at that,” Joe said, checking out the vistas from the large family room windows. “It doesn’t get old.”

The walls of the home are white, set off with light-colored wide plank flooring. Accents of brown, grey and taupe can be found.

The biggest surprise comes in the four bathrooms, where bold, patterned tile is laid on the floors. Their daughter Riley Genzler, who lives in the Chicago area and is a designer for an architect, selected them, Denise said, adding, “I don’t deal with color well.”

Just past the door of the house you’ll find a double office hidden by barn doors where dual desks allow the couple to work back-to-back — Denise worked in financial services for 33 years and owns a technology company for the financial services industry that she recently sold, and Joe is an engineer who now has a handyman business.

The nearby kitchen is bright white and features a large island, stainless steel appliances, including a beverage fridge and a KitchenAid range, and clear glass pendant lights. 

The living room, complete with a fireplace, is opposite the kitchen, and in between is a large dining room table. 

“We spend a lot of time here,” Joe said. “We love the blue colors out there.”

“It’s a little different show every day,” Denise added. “One day the sunrise is red,  one day it’s orange, some days it’s pink.”

Sliding doors lead from the dining room to the deck, where a grill, table and sitting area beacon the couple to take in the view.

Steps lead from the deck to the ground below.

The principle bedroom suite is also on the first floor, as is the laundry room, something Denise said was a priority for the couple.

“We wanted to be on the main floor with the kids upstairs,” she said.

Although the bedroom doesn’t have a lake view, that’s OK with them, the couple agreed.

“We get up and sit on the deck or in the living room by the fireplace in winter,” Denise said, enjoying in the lake views while they’re there.

Riley and her brother Tyler, who is in investment banking for the aerospace industry and lives in Pittsburgh, each have a bedroom with a sitting area and en suite on the second floor, but only one of the bedrooms has a lakefront view.

“We always say who’s going to stay the longest or who gets here first gets that room,” Denise said.

The lower level is the recreation area, with a pool table, shuffleboard, a bar and plenty of comfortable chairs and tables. .A large television graces one wall, and family photos are found on the opposite wall. 

There’s also a bedroom with en suite there, supplemented with a sauna.

There’s still decorating to be done, Denise said, but for now the couple is concentrating on enjoying their new house and hometown.

“We’re still exploring things,” Joe said.

Denise added, “Port has festivals all the time, great stores and restaurants. It literally fit everything we were looking for.”