There’s a running joke at Lakefront that Mike is always the first one to bust out his heated Milwaukee vest. The minute it dips below 40, he’s plugged in. The crew gives him a hard time about it every year.
That’s the kind of thing you can do with Mike. He’s family — Andrew’s younger brother — and he can take it.
Mike officially joined Lakefront in 2023 as a carpenter and assistant project manager, and today he’s one of our project managers. The honest truth is that hiring family could have been one of our biggest mistakes — but instead, it has strengthened both our family and our team. Here’s how we got here.
Before Lakefront
Mike spent nearly ten years in home automation before Lakefront — smart lighting, AV, and whole-home systems — managing projects across the US. That experience gave him a strong understanding of how high-end homes function once they’re built, not just how they’re assembled. He also gained a solid understanding of both the rough and finish stages of construction through the lens of home automation.
That mix of technical know-how and on-site experience gave Mike a real head start when he came to Lakefront.
The Thanksgiving Test
When Mike first considered working with us after moving back up North, we didn’t rush. We had a lot of honest conversations. We wanted to be sure — because the worst possible outcome wasn’t “this didn’t work out at Lakefront.” It was “this didn’t work out, and now Thanksgiving is weird forever.”
A lot of people will tell you not to hire family, and we’d heard enough of those stories ourselves to take the warning seriously. So we talked. For a long time. Not because we doubted Mike — but because we knew that if we were going to do this, we had to do it carefully.
We built one rule into the foundation from the beginning: if something is bugging you, say it. Don’t let it sit. Don’t let it turn into resentment that comes out sideways three projects later.
It’s not always easy, but it works. And one of the biggest things we’ve learned is that hard conversations get easier the sooner you have them.
The Honest Version
Initially we braced for hard. We expected awkward moments of friction — and there’s been some, because problem-solving with people you love can bring out the same friction as problem-solving with anyone else. But when we stick to our rule (above), we work through it.
The reality is that our team is stronger than it was before Mike came on. He brings personality to the room. He keeps team meetings fun. He speaks up, and he gets other people talking. As Lakefront has grown across multiple jobsites, he’s stepped into the kind of culture-carrying that used to happen naturally when we were one crew — like our tradition of bringing birthday donuts, often decorated with a single flaming shim. Small stuff, but it adds up. The team feels held together in a way that doesn’t always happen as a company grows.
On Your Project
If Mike is the PM on your project, here’s what that actually means for you.
He cares in a way that’s hard to teach. If something needs to get done before the day ends, he’ll stay late to make sure it happens.
Over the years, he’s built strong relationships with our team, suppliers, and trade partners — electricians, plumbers, drywallers, HVAC crews — and those relationships make a real difference throughout a build. Communication is smoother. Coordination happens faster. Unexpected challenges are solved before they turn into major delays.
Most importantly, Mike works to create a building experience that feels organized, collaborative, and genuinely enjoyable from start to finish.
Cheers to Three Years, Mike!
Bringing Mike on could have been a hard lesson. Instead, it strengthened our family, our team, and the way we build homes together.
Three years in, we’re proud to have him here — heated vest and all.
