How Close Is Heaven?
According to MapQuest
Chicago is only 8 Hours from the house, that's not too far to go to Heaven.
Sioux City 2 Hours 45 Minutes
Des Moine's
Euclid Avenue 3 Hrs 28 Minutes
Phoenix, AZ 23 Hours +
Los Angeles, CA Under 26 Hours
Minneapolis, MN Under 4 Hours
Mankato, MN Under 3 Hours
Washington, DC Under 20 Hours
St. Louis, MO Under 10 Hours
Dallas, TX Just at 14 Hours
Omaha, NE Under 4 Hours
Ontario, Canada Under 16 Hours (I've drove for over 25 years, if I would have known these places were so close I would have visited them.)
Miami, FL Under 28 Hours
New Orleans, LA Under 20 Hours
Here is a Whole Lot of Information About the House (None of it really does justice, you need to make an appointment to see it to really appreciate it.
The following ramblings are my pitiful attempt at describing this gorgeous home. It is nestled in a very nice, out of the way area with close proximity to everything you need and will want. Two hours from Sioux City, two and one-half from Des Moines, three and a quarter from Omaha, 2 and a half from Sioux Falls.
The pictures below give a hint to its' splendor (be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them, then just use your BACK button to continue to the rest.)
Here is a beautiful home:
A Home Warren Buffet Would Approve Of
A dream home in North Iowa on Lover's Lane, just off Highway to Heaven on picturesque Silver Lake. Beautiful 3115 sq. ft. newer brick home with a 923 sq. ft. attached garage. House is only 20 yards from the lake for fisherman (dock included), 15 miles from Emmetsburg’s new Wild Rose Casino for gamblers, and 20 miles from Spencer for shoppers. Call 641-357-6253 for info and appt.
Lake information can be found here:
http://www.iowadnr.com/fish/fishing/lakes/sil74s.htmlThis is more of what the house has to offer: Beautiful Brick home with 35 Degree Pitched Shingled Roof with Premium shingles and raingutters all around the house. Home comes with 60 foot long dock with T-style end with seating for fishing off of.
Master bedroom suite and Second Large Bedroom with Sitting Area (Equivalent of a Master bedroom).
Formal dining room with closet for tablecloths and seasonal items and hose reel for CENTRAL VAC hose and attachements.
HUGE living room with vaulted ceiling with remote controlled skylight (very large for entertaining guests)
Sunroom with wall to wall windows and 3 Sliding Patio Doors.
Eat-in kitchen with Patio Door. Kitchen with Grape Decor with Custom Tile above counters for a splash guard and Mexican Tan Tile set at an angle throughout kitchen and down hall.
Antique Maple kitchen cabinets, with drawer slides in all of them (easy access to items at rear by sliding out shelf). There are kitchen cabinets with all the usual space and the floor cabinets have the sliding shelves. On the east side of kitchen with the Wine glass rack are more antique maple cabinets with the sliding shelves (a very substantial pantry). These sliding shelves are such a great idea, the person that invented them should go straight to Heaven.
In the corner is the Lazy Susan style cabinet with rotating shelves.
Of course under the sink is where mother always put her cleaning supplies and just to the left of this cabinet is a cabinet with slideout garbage can (no more ugly old garbage can taking up space in your kitchen). And next to it is the end cabinet that is curved towards the wall next to the patio door that looks out to the lake.
Oh for all you guys and gals that have washed dishes for years without a view, now you get to lookout to the lake while scrub-a-dubbing those dishes. And if you prefer, rinsing the chunks off before putting in the dishwasher.
Large Deep Sink with Disposal and spray-head in faucet
Electric range and oven set in the Kitchen island with flat glass topped stove, range top vent with Microwave built-in above stove with antique maple cabinets with storage for all your spices and flavorings on each side with access from each side of island.
My mother loved to drink coffee at her octagon shaped wood table, looking out the sliding glass door to the lake. Usually, as regular as clock work my grandpa's dog Max would come up to the door looking for a cookie or graham cracker (he usually expected 2). Mom said, "Max probably hits every house in the neighborhood every morning for his treats."
There is a desk tucked in corner of kitchen that you use to catch all the paperwork that would end up on some people's kitchen table (I inherited this kitchen-table-filing cabinet system from my parents, but they designed a kitchen with a place for it.) There is a file drawer there also with cabinets above all in Antique Maple. Antique Maple has a slight pinkish tint that is just gorgeous.
105 Gallon Hot Water Heater with Pump on Hot Water Line to make hot water instantaneous at all faucets.
Laundry room with built in Ironing Board And Sewing Room Area. Mom's dresser set along this wall just across from the sewing area and laundry, (no more washing your clothes and then dragging them through three rooms in order to put them away.) All three bedroom doors are within 20 feet of the washer and dryer. Next to this area is a walk-in closet with eye level shelves and rods for hanging your outfits, this room is in a horseshoe shape so that is about 10 feet down each side with about 6 feet of width. Across from the laundry area, right inside the Master Bedroom door on your left is a five foot wide by 8 foot plus tall Linen Closet.
Next to the walk-in closet is the where the bed went, mom had a king size bed with an Oak wall unit with his n' her lights above and shelves at the headboard area. On the opposite wall was three 36" wide Oak bookcases approximately 80 inches tall. In front of this she had a nice chair and ottoman and her TV.
Across from the walk-in closet is the Master Bath, complete with heart shaped Jacuzzi tub, and toilet of course. There are three cabinets that are twenty inches wide each and go clear to ceiling. In between two of these cabinets is a dresser my parents had at an earlier house, on top on each end is his n' her sinks set into the top of dresser. The dresser was specially prepared so no need to worry about water splashed. There is a mirror stretching the length of this dresser with tulip style light bar above. There is Mexican tan tile on the floor here.
Rounded corners for all drywall corners throughout house (To prevent fall injuries)
Large wide hallways for plenty of wheel chair accessibility (my parents designed the home for the eventual wheel chair or a jerry-chair my dad would have ended up in, he passed away before living in their dream home, and my mother passed away while staying as a snowbird in Arizona so there is no need to worry that anyone's ghost might be haunting the place, if you might believe something like that. And who could blame someone for getting creeped out that way. No need to feel bad for me, I know where my parents went, prayerfully we'll all go there.
Ceiling fans throughout, with energy efficient Trane heat pump and Central Air Propane heating with 1000 gallon propane tank.
Large 2 car garage (Deep enough to pull another car in behind first, so actually more like a 4 car garage) Dimensions 30 feet x 30 feet (923 Sq. Ft.). Garage has ventless style LP heater with thermostat. Garage sink and cabinets for cleaning fish or game or for a cleaning up before heading inside. Central Vac is mounted on wall out here for easy dumping of trash. A pulldown staircase for storing more items above garage, as if anyone would need more storage but hey some people are pack rats (quit looking behind me) hehe. Attached garage with large concrete driveway for 4 autos 2 Automatic garage doors, and doorways to outside at both ends of garage (Front and Back) Doorway to Kitchen with half bath immediately inside on the left (to prevent tracking clear through the house) Hall closet on the right for all your coats.
Front Door with Oval Stained Glass with Another Large Hall Closet and Tiled Entrance Way Entering into Livingroom Next to the Hall closet by garage is a small room 10 feet by 15 feet where my mom had her slot machine, computer desk, bookcase, and 2 nice wingback leather chairs.
When you enter the livingroom from the hallway just mentioned, to the immediate right is where mom had her Thomasville Hutch and Diningroom table with 6 chairs. In the corner is the closet where mom kept her table pads, table cloths, Central Vac hose and attachements.
The livingroom is around 20 feet wide and 25 feet deep with a set of French double doors separating it from the Sunroom, Sunroom is 10 feet deep and 20 feet wide or long, mom had a nice large white wicker sectional on the northend and a nice wicker dining table with glasstop on the southend with a recliner and endtable, and mom's vibrating lounger. It would look lovely to have a nice deck placed here, but it also is nice to have traffic directed at sliding glass door in Kitchen where there already is a nice concrete deck. There are three sets of double sliding doors in the Sunroom. (When I say double sliding doors, I mean both sides slide open to reveal a nice large opening.)
The front entrance opens to a short tiled Hallway about 8 feet long with a Hall closet with bifold doors for all your guests coats. To the immediate right is the Hallway going to the bedrooms and Master Bedroom, the door on the left is the guest bathroom with glass doors to shower. The Hallway here is carpeted as are the bedrooms. The first door on the right is a nice bedroom that fits a queen bed with room for a dresser and chest of drawers and it also has a closet. At the end of the hall is the larger bedroom, it started out going to be a dialysis' room for my dad but when he passed away, in order to keep taxes down mom had the sink removed and the toilet, it originally had a wood vinyl flooring but somewhere since has been carpeted. This room has a closet and a nice indentation where the sink and cabinets were to put a nice TV amoire. The room could handle a Kingsize bed with dresser and chest of drawers easily with room left over for a pooltable.
My mother, to the uninitiated may have over-done it on closets but she knew from 50+ years of homeownership that "you can never have too much storage". When I get the chance to slow down and build my own house I think it will be an exact replica of this beautiful home.
Crawl space under entire home with 4 feet of clearance, great place for extra storage. RV parking area on southside of house. Concrete Deck/Patio 10 feet x 25 feet, off Kitchen, with concrete ramps made for wheel chair accessibility right to the dock. Landscaping: 8 Large trees on water's edge around 30 to 40 feet in height. Bluegrass established on all sides of house.
Lake Frontage Located on a cul-de-sac
Rural property
Electric service
Telephone service
Internet service
Private water supply
Every bedroom is wired for TV, as well as the livingroom and mom's slot room, and there are signal boosters in the crawlspace.
Extra Picture 25 (Brighter Shot of Master Bath Vanity)
I remember removing this from my parents old house, from the upstairs Master Bedroom. The dresser weighs a ton, of course mom suggested we remove all the drawers and the doors. (It sure is amazing how light something that earlier was soooooo heavy, can get.)
Extra Picture 24 (Otherside of Island)
To the left, above the picture frame is glass faced cabinets (to show off whatever). On the underside of that cabinet are those fluted wine glass holders (they hang upside down). Maybe that is what the glass faced cabinets are for, so you can see that 18th Century vintage wine bottle.
Next to this cabinet on both sides are the floor to ceiling cabinets, these were for pantry items. The cabinets are equipped with sliding shelves: http://www.shelvesthatslide.com/ Great examples shown here. The whole kitchen's lower shelves are equipped with these sliding shelves.
Extra Picture 23 (Looking to Catch Some Fish?)
The first Northern Pike I ever caught was off the dock of my grandfather's just 80 yards south of the dock for this beautiful home.
Extra Picture 22
Here is the otherside of the red front door, the entryway is tiled with a beautiful mahogany red tile.
The entryway closet is not done justice with the photo, it really is huge. Maybe you can makeout the double bifold doors.
On the far upper-right is the door chime and below it the remote for the skylights plus hall light.
Extra Picture 21 (Another Livingroom Shot)
There are nice accent lights along the west side of the vaulted ceiling.
Extra Picture 20 (Livingroom towards Sunroom)
Plenty of outlets throughout house.
(I am gaining a real respect for house photographers, it is definitely a LEARNED profession. We've taken loads of pictures but this livingroom just hasn't been photographed well yet.) There is a nice vaulted ceiling, the room is easily 25 feet wide by the width of the house if you include the entryway and the Sunroom.
Extra Picture 19 (Another View of Kitchen)
This is another shot of Kitchen, it shows the back-splash tile between upper cabinets and counter. My mom sure loved grapes, there are tiles that have grapes, and the border paper next to ceiling has grapevines and the rugs have grapes.
Below the exquisite hanging Kitchen light is a folding table that is a family heirloom (not really) but my mom had a beautiful octagon walnut table beneath the light with three Kitchen chairs and a beautiful Settee http://antiques.search.ebay.com/settee_Sofas-Chaises_W0QQsacatZ63581 couch along the South wall. It too was white with (would you believe a grape motif?)
I don't know if you will make it out in this photo but there is a water spigot to the right of the Kitchen sink faucet, it is hooked up to the reverse osmosis unit below sink. There is a shared-well for this little neighborhood of 8 houses. Only expense is should the pump go bad, then that is shared.
Extra Picture 18 (The Garage)
This is not the best view, it does show back garage door (opening to patio/lake). The door next to it where water softener can be seen on left (partially) and the humongeous 105 gallon water heater (nicely insulated). Out of site but in that same little room is the hot water line pump that circulates hot water to all the faucets so you get instant HOT water at any faucet. Also, same room is the trapdoor that allows you access underneath the ENTIRE house, there is a 4 foot crawl space under the entire house so should you (and that is an awful big should) need access to anything or if you need to run High Speed Cable (too late, cable is run through the entire house).
In the middle of photo is the LP heater that can keep that little dab of snow melted off your vehicles running towards the drain (yes, there are drains in the garage floor). Those are very good heaters, in the unlikely event that your electricity is knocked out during a raging blizzard that heater can keep the whole house thawed out. The white cabinets have a built-in sink for cleaning your fish or pheasants.
In the upper right of the photo is the pull rope for the attic ladder, (you know the one... like Chevy Chase fell through in the movie "Christmas Vacation" when he was reminiscing after being locked in the attic to old family movies.)
Extra Picture 17 (View from Patio)
Another angle, shot from ramp off patio.
Extra Picture 16 (Kitchen Island)
This is a great shot of Kitchen Island, with glass topped stove, oven and microwave/rangehood.
Extra Picture 15 (View from the Kitchen SInk)
Well if you are going to do the dishes, instead of using that Super-Quiet dishwasher, you can't ask for a nicer view.
Extra Picture 14 (Dock)
On the right is 1/3 rd of the dock (it is mounted on a old corn conveyor so you can hook it to the hitch on yours or a neighbor's pickup and back it in the lake. It freezes here so to keep the dock from bustin' up you want to be able to pull her out, and it don't get any easier. There are support legs that are easily lowered to make dock super-steady after she's in the water.
The lil' gray shed straight ahead in the photo is history, my grampa laid claims on it when it was decided she clashed with the house.
Extra Picture 12 (Sunday Sunset)
They say, "A Picture Paints a Thousand Words"... enough said.
Batman?
My nephew Willie is clearing the place of a dead Elm tree, too bad there's no fireplace (but my parents learned that those aren't very efficient if you don't use them all the time, too many drafts).
On to Batman. One of the first things I read about when I got online back in the mid 90's was about how great bats were at cleaning up bugs. A single bat can eat upto http://members.aol.com/bats4kids2/food.htm 1200 insects per hour. Go Batman Go!
I don't know if there are any bats in it yet, but I read that it may take upto 7 years for a colony to start. More info here http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&as_qdr=all&q=+%22buy+a+bat+house%22&btnG=Search
Extra Picture 11 (Another Lakeside Photo with Great Detail) Click on Photo to Enlarge it
Didn't recognize that that was a gas can for mowing on the left in the lawn. My photo shows the vertical shades on the sliding doors clearly.
Extra Picture 10 (Facing North West)
I think I already did a similar picture but you are welcome to compare clouds.
Extra Picture 9 (Red Door)
This is Your Front Door, I love those ovals.
Extra Picture 8 (Facing the South West) Sunnier Day
This is a Sunnier day photo facing the South West.
Extra Picture 7 (Facing the South West)
This photo is a little dark but if you have ever lived in Phoenix (like I do) you envy those that get to experience a few dark days.
On the right is the LP tank for your energy efficient heating. The Trane Air Conditioner is next to the first window on the right (that window is off from the laundry/sewing/built-in ironing board room).
The two windows are off the middle-sized bedroom (the one with room for the pool table).
Then the next window going left is the other bedroom, the front door entryway, dining room window, garage entry doorway, garage doors.
On the far left is Melvin and Carol's house (grandparents), then their neighbors in the barely noticeable white house.
The shared driveway is white limestone, with about 150 yards to main concrete road
(it really is called "
Highway to Heaven". )
Extra Picture 6 (Dining Room)
Here is the Dining Room, the closet on the left holds linen for table and the pads that mom had covering her beautiful Thomasville table. Her Thomasville Hutch set between the scalloped lights on the right. *Notice the warm air return in the upper left of the photo, after years of suffering through cold air and warm air returns placed in the wrong spots my parent had these placed right where they should be throughout the house.
Extra Picture 5 (The Heart-Shaped Jacuzzi Tub)
Here's that beautiful jacuzzi tub, with tiled back-splash and the Mexican Tile in the Master Bath. The house has a 105 gallon hot water heater so this tub will be billowing those
romantic bubbles for you and your honey in no-time.
Extra Picture 4 (Gorgeous Dresser Turned Vanity)
Here's that great dresser my mother loved so much. The top was specially lacquered to prevent any water problems. His n' Her sinks, full width mirror with light bar above. The three center drawers are still functional (top one needs a new handle).
The lights are from a scallop light just inside the Master Bathroom door and the light to the left is actually the bottom of a mini-chandelier that sets above the heart-sha[ped jacuzzi tub.
The cabinet on the left goes from the floor to ceiling and there are three (yes, 3) of the same sized cabinets in this Master Bath.
Not visible in this photo is a walk-in shower that requires no shower curtain, and was made large enough to wheel a wheelchair through. (The shower floor is sloped towards the drain.) Also not visible is the The jacuzzi tub and "the throne".) This Master Bath has Mexican Tan tile everywhere except in the shower, in the shower is a smaller green Malacai tint tile.
Extra Picture 3 (Sunset at Shangri La)
"Red at Night, Sailor's Delight!"Recent sunset at your new lakehouse.
Extra Picture 2 (Front of House View Towards North West)
This photo was taken from the southeast side of the house.
First two windows from the left are the southside of house letting great light into the garage (there are also two windows of the same size on the west side of garage not shown here).
The garage doors are next as you view from the left, then the door to the garage.
Right to the right of this door is the window from the computer/library (slot machine) room. My mom had her computer desk on the south wall and the slot machine on the north wall.
To the right of this is the window at the diningroom.
Viewing from the right side of photo to the left is the second largest of the bedrooms (room for king-size bed, dresser, chest of drawers and A Pooltable).
The second window from the right is the smallest bedroom (chest of drawers, dresser with mirror, queen-size bed with room for a small bench and dressing mirror, at least that's how my mom had it decorated).
Notice the long concrete driveway, plenty of room for all your guests cars.
Extra Picture 1 (Lakeside of House View Towards North East)
The white door on the right goes to the garage. This photo is from the lakeside of the house on the southern end the house. While it isn't completely clear in the photo the top of the ramp on the left side opens onto the concrete patio (Approximately 25 feet long by 10 feet deep). The first sliding door on the right side is at the kitchen, excellent view of lake and dock area from kitchen table.
The window in the center of the picture is above the kitchen sink.
The three sets of sliding doors from the left are off the Sunroom, the doors slide from both sides. The third set of sliding doors from the left side of picture opens onto concrete patio.
Not very visible at the top of the roofline on the left side of photo are the skylights, one for Livingroom and one for Master Bath.
The tree in the picture is a nice 80 foot tall Cottonwood across the driveway in front of the house.
