Living the Dream
Everyone has a dream; unfortunately not everyone gets to live it. We are Rick and Debbie Horner, a couple fortunate enough to be able to live our dream here in Northern Michigan. Ever since we met in the late 70’s, we dreamed of living in Northern Michigan and enjoying the outdoors in the area around The Sleeping Bear Dunes. We both were introduced to the area as children by our parents. Rick’s Grandfather built homes on Glen Lake in the late 40’s and his parents honeymooned there in the late 50’s. Debbie’s parents vacationed in Honor on Morel hunting trips. Like most people it isn’t surprising that we both fell in love with the area and its lifestyle! Dreams aren’t fulfilled by accident or coincident. Ours is the product of our parents instilling a good work ethic in us that is simply to show up on time, work hard and respect others. Combined Rick and Debbie have 40+ successful years each as a Product Designer and Developer and a Travel and Flight Operations Manager respectively. The key to our success was staying true to our dream while staying focused on hard work with great companies and colleagues. The life lessons we learned from working with and for great people are priceless.

After over 15 years of looking for property in Leelanau and Benzie Counties, we bought our dream property on Rush Lake in Benzie County in the Mid 90’s. The thought of living up north and starting a woodworking business in the woods on Rush Lake became our driving force. Leap forward 20 years later and early retirement opportunities for both of us, we took the big leap and bought an existing home with a separate building for our woodworking shop on Little Platte Lake. What began as a concept is now a reality 40 years later as Rush Lake Hardwoods LLC. We know our parents are looking down on us with pride and big smiles!

So the slogan “From Concept to Reality” is not just our dream, but we hope it is what we can provide for you as well!