Fall at Moose Lodge
A fall setting sun gives everything a slightly orange tone to everything.
It's fall at Moose Lodge once again, and today marks the second-year anniversary of my stepping foot in this house for the very first time. I remember it like it was yesterday, and the moment I parked in the guest parking lot and walked the footpath to the front of the house, I realized this was it—this was the house I wanted after looking at over 10,000 houses online and over 60 in person after long nights of weeding down lists and screening out homes at the last minute. This was a no-compromise search, and did it ever pay off!
This house is one of those places that, when I come home from somewhere else, I still stop to admire the look. One UPS driver came to the door and said it was the most astonishing and delightful surprise in her delivery career. This was coming from a woman with more holes, ink, and dye than Woodstock.
We had someone here to quote us on some electrical work, and the second he got here, he said, “Oh, I finally got to see the Bass Pro house!” I asked how he knew, and he said the house had been talked about in contractor circles for years.
When an architect builds their own home and they know what they are doing, they can do absolute magic and create an aesthetic sense that is difficult even to articulate in a drawing. They have to be on the site and there to make sure it is carried out and even adjusted as their eye catches something.
I first walked in the door, made a right into the dining room, and said to my realtor, "This was the house." I didn't need to see a thing, but I walked the place twice just to admire it. I bought the house without ever having walked the property or stepping foot in the backyard until I attended the final inspection. I didn't care. I was buying a piece of art, and I knew it. Tom Jowett is now on his own after retiring from Bass Pro, and you can find his remarkable sense of design here. Not only is he fantastic at his work but he and his wife Judy are wonderful people.
As promised, I've not changed a thing other than to give it the very best care I can. In fact, we've upgraded fundamentals: network, switches, AC, all basics, and we've painted and stained and maintained the place to keep it perfect. The new fiber line gets buried in the next day or two! The biggest hurdle was the high heat plant damage from the summer of 2022, but it's minor. Outside of that, it keeps getting better, but there is always something to do here.
When I bought the house, I projected that this would be where I did my best work, and it's proven to be true. I've written close to two million words of content since I moved here among six blogs and hundreds of long answers on Quora. I knew it would be the place to do great innovative work for clients as well, and it's been a fantastic home base. I hope to spend my old age here and keep working for a few more decades, if I'm so lucky. I’m so glad I found Moose Lodge!