Frontier Construction LLC is Ripe in the Land of the Sleeping Bear

By Norm Wheeler
Sun contributing editor
Another chapter in the story of ambitious young locals starting up their own business features Joel Diotte, 33, Matt Diotte, 32, Jeff Cook, 32, and Pete Stern, 36: the Frontier Group LLC. Now affiliated with ICF Energy Star Homes, the Frontier Group is constructing a spec home in the Timber View Ridge Development just over the hill east of the Dunes Golf Course on the north side of M-72. Using the most recent materials and methods in super energy efficient homes, they use foot-thick ICF foam prefab blocks that are filled with six inches of reinforced concrete. “This enables an insulation value far beyond what is possible with traditional stick construction,” explains Jeff Cook. “It performs at the equivalent of an R-50. That’s matched by the 17 inches of insulation in the ceiling, also R-50.”

Joel Diotte adds, “Energy Star homes have zero vapor transfer or air infiltration. It’s a totally sealed building envelope. I think this is the future of building because of rising fuel costs and the depleting sources of quality wood.”
“As an Energy Star building partner we’ll have this home rated by a third party to test for compliance,” Matt Diotte continues. “There’s a point system for the walls, heating system, and the make up air system. Because the building is so tight there’s an air exchanger as well.” The home also features domestic and in-floor hot water heat from a boiler rated at 98 percent efficiency. Designed by the four men, the comfortable two-story house has an open floor plan with a walk-around kitchen island and dining room, a living room with a cathedral ceiling, and a master bedroom suite, all above a ground floor containing a huge recreation room and extra bedrooms. There is plenty of triple pane sliding glass, and a porch that hangs in the trees in the wooded setting. It should be finished by mid-July.
In order to join in with his boyhood friends in the Frontier Group, Jeff Cook left a job as a food broker in Grand Rapids to come back north. “I saw the need for homes like this in Leelanau County,” Jeff remarks, “and we all grew up together – we’ve been friends since grade school.” Matt and Joel Diotte started building homes four years ago, and the brothers have served as fine stewards of our natural environment basically since they were toddlers. At the tender ages of six and seven, Matt remembers, he and Joel helped their father Kip plant a forest off of Trumbull Road. The two boys are now full grown, as are the trees they created. They both graduated from Glen Lake and are Leelanau County lifers. Joel and wife Angie have a young family here, and Matt still moonlights as a waiter at Funistrada. Pete Stern operated his own painting business before joining the Frontier Group. “Pete also does construction – everybody does everything – and Pete provides the important comedic relief,” Joel laughs.
The Frontier Group’s spec home can be seen off N. Hermies Pass on Misty’s Trail in the Timber View Ridge Development. It is listed by Bob Ihme with LVR Realty LLC @ 334-6100. To contact the young men of Frontier Group LLC go to www.frontier-construction.com or call 231-409-1769.