We’ve been talking about, and looking for, a “retirement home” for several years and have been driving our friends and family nuts every time we commit to a different part of the country.  We’ve considered dozens of areas and looked at many homes, but none were quit right.  Today we finally got to spend our Date Day at our new home in Dune Acres.  We think the story of how we found the house is interesting and decided to share it.

The Search

Throughout the process, our search criteria remained pretty consistent.  We wanted a slightly smaller home than we have today, but still big enough for the boys and their families to spend time with us in the future.  One with big open spaces, a decent amount of land and lots of privacy.  Finally, we had to be on a lake and within walking distance of the beach.

We considered Savannah, but neither of like the snakes and humidity.  The traffic around Nashville was too crazy and Virginia just didn’t feel right.  We would love a place in Maine, but it’s too far from our families and the winters are pretty tough.  We thought of everything and even considered buying an abandoned ski resort at one point!  Every time we considered a new area, we found a reason not to move there.

Then, it happened.  We were driving home from one of our Date Days at the Indiana Dunes and decided to explore a little.  We took a turn onto Mineral Springs Road and found ourselves entering Dune Acres for the first time.  We immediately fell in love with the area.  The “town” is comprised of about 150 homes on 500 acres of land, nestled inside the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.  It’s wooded and rugged and sits right on Lake Michigan.  We had a Brigham Young moment and declared, “This is the place”.

Now that we had a location, it was time to find a house.  We called our trusty real estate superhero, Vickie Wilson, and put her on the case.  Between August and December of 2017, we looked at every house available in Dune Acres.  Some were too old or needed a lot of work, some were too expensive, and some were “just not right”.  We loved one of the town’s original log cabins.  It was built in the 1920’s and sits right on the lake, but it was a little too small for us.  Several other places were interesting as well, but none were perfect, and we kept asking to see more.  At that point, we were positive that we were starting to drive Vickie a little crazy.

Summit House #1

On a cold day in early December, Vickie took us to see a house on a street we had not visited before.  It’s called Summit Drive and gets its name because it winds through the trees to the top of the highest dunes around and offers spectacular views of the lake.

The house had just come on the market and had all the qualities we were looking for.  We pulled into the driveway and saw a wonderfully modern style house with large decks overlooking the lake.  Theresa was mesmerized before we even went in.  The inside of the house was open, bright and clean, had giant windows overlooking the lake and a grand staircase connecting its two levels.  We poked around for a while and left feeling rather good about the place.  We talked about making an offer, but before we knew it, the house was pending sale with another buyer.

The holidays were a little less jolly as we mourned the loss of a great house.  Fate, however, had other plans for us and the house was back on the market in early February!  The potential buyer’s financing had fallen through at the last minute and we were back in the game.  We quickly made an offer (and several counter offers) and settled on a price.  All we had between us and a new house was the home inspection.

Vickie, the aforementioned super-agent, introduced us an equally super inspector and we were off and running.  We followed Eric around the house for 4-hours as he poked, prodded and inspected the hell out of the place.  There were a couple issues with the roof and some evidence of mice, but nothing we couldn’t handle.  We were feeling good until Eric discovered that the front wall of the house appeared to be a little bowed and that none of the windows on that side would open.

To be safe, we decided to request a structural inspection of the property before going forward.  This is common in the dunes as it’s rather complex to build a house on top of a constantly shifting pile of sand.  To make a long story short, the owners refused to let us do the structural inspection, so we had to walk away from the house.  Theresa was devastated and felt like her dream of living on the lake was slipping away.

Summit House #2

About a month later, another house became available on Summit and we decide to take a look.  This house was on the lower end of the street and the first thing we noticed was the “other” house sitting regally (but still unsold) on the dune above us.  Turning our backs to what could have been, we contemplated our potential new house.

The house was Prairie Style – something we both love.  It had two stories and multiple levels of deck overlooking the lake (only in the winter when the trees were bare though).  It was warm and inviting and even had an indoor pool.  Nathan immediately picked his room and declared this to be the house for us.

We liked the house a lot, but realized it would need a lot of renovation before we could move in.  We would have to gut and enlarge the kitchen and build a new master suite.  We were on the edge, but after visiting the house a couple more times we decided to make an offer.  Nate and Alex were super excited to think about swimming in the winter.

This time the negotiation process was easy, and before we knew it we had an accepted offer.  Cue the seller’s worst nightmare, Eric, for the inspection.  After his usual 4-hour tour, we sat down and went over the results.  There were a few issues that needed to be addressed, but nothing that worried us.  Eric again recommended a structural inspection, which this owner agreed to.  The inspection found nothing major and we were finally moving to the next step.

Then, a funny thing happened.  We were having lunch in Crown Point, on one of our Date Days and were talking about the house.  As we talked, we came to the realization that neither of us were as excited about the house as we were letting on.  Theresa was settling on this one because she was afraid of losing her dream of seeing the lake and being able to walk on the beach everyday and Tom was settling on the house because he thought Theresa loved it.  Neither of us were looking forward to the renovations and realized the house would not be perfect for us, even when they were completed.  We decided to let the owner know that the cost and complexity of the renovations were too much and that we were going to find a lot and build our dream house.

Summit Lot #1

After getting near closing on two houses only to walk away at the last minute, we thought Vickie might fire us.  It turns our we had nothing to fear.  Vickie was our agent when we bought our first house, helped us to find the lot where we built our second home and has been a friend for over 25 years.  She was as invested in our search as us and always said; “going to see houses in Dune Acres is like taking a day of vacation”.

In mid-May, Vickie found us a lot for sale near the top of Summit Drive and we were off to hopefully see our new homestead.  On the way to the lot we passed both houses from our recent past.  We felt sorry for backing out of the house with the pool and hoped the owners would soon find a new buyer.  As for the first house (still on the market), we thumbed our noses as we drove past it and higher up the dune.

We arrived at the lot and met real estate agent Mark.  He was a great guy and taught us a lot about building on the dunes as he walked us around the property.  We learned about building codes, special conditions and the need to build some pretty extreme retaining walls.  The lot was ok but would only have a view of the lake if we built at least 3 floors and Tom was generally scared about the complexities of building in general.  We had a quick discussion and decided to tell Mark (and Vickie) that we didn’t want to build after all.  We were back to square one.  As we left, we asked Mark to contact Vickie if he came across any house that he thought we might like.

All Roads Lead to Summit

“Well”, said Mark, “I do have a new house going on the market today that you might like.  It hasn’t hit the listings yet, but I can call the owner and ask her if I can bring you by”.  We don’t know if it was luck or fate, but the house was only a quarter mile away.  The last house at the very top of Summit Drive.

Mark called the owner, Sharon, and she said yes so, we went to see the house.  To say we were impressed is an understatement.  The house is Prairie Style and sits on top of a dune with incredible views of the lake on one side and a valley on the other.  There’s a trail with a less than 10-minute walk to the beach and more privacy than we ever expected.

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Inside, the home was open, welcoming and beautiful.  We didn’t say anything to each other as we looked around, but both of us felt like we were seeing something special.  We left the house and decided to make an offer while we were driving home.  Two weeks later, we had an accepted offer and called in Eric, for hopefully the final time.

Eric did his thing, found a couple of minor issues and told us the house was amazing.  Bill, the other owner, was there for the start of the inspection and shared with us the results of a recent structural assessment they had completed.  No issues!  After the inspection, we asked the owners to fix a couple things and they did.

We closed on the house on July 31 and celebrated by having breakfast with Bill and Sharon.  They have another house in Dune Acres, which they will now live in full-time and we are sure they will become good friends.  We won’t move in full-time until Nate finishes 8^th grade in the spring, but until then we have a great place for Date Days and family gatherings in general.  Tom is especially fond of the 14’ table on the patio that can seat the entire family and Nathan loves that he has his own floor (with elevator access).  Theresa likes to stare out at the lake and walk on the beach.

Today, we officially took ownership of the house.  As we drove up Summit Drive, we talked about how blessed we were to pass on the other houses and how we ended up with exactly what we wanted.  We pulled into the driveway, the key to the house worked, and it was official.  We spent a little time in the house then walked to the beach, sat in our beach chairs and couldn’t believe we were home.

Serendipity.

Aug 2018

Our New House

Dune Acres, Indiana

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