Get To Know: The Chateau
No matter where our family goes or what we do, we always come back to the place we originally found a home in Alexandria: The Chateau. Taking it back all the way to the 80’s, our family started making the short trek to Alex just to escape from the hustle and bustle of city life during the summer months. We always went as our little family to stay on the east side of Lake Louise in a house that we rented. We could spend all our time sprinting around outside and experiencing the happiness that comes with freedom and letting loose. Every once in a while, we would head up during the big holidays. One of the biggest things that kept bringing us back was that when we were there we were home — because we were together.
The Old Chateau
Even better, Carolyn and Tracy’s grandmother lived just on the other side of the lake where there happened to be something new and exciting going on. Some folks from a different part of Alexandria had quite literally picked up a house and parked it right down the road. They began renovations but eventually the house was left abandoned and unfinished. Dick and Judy saw this as a new opportunity to create the Lake Home of their dreams. They got to work along with their daughters who begrudgingly - and lovingly - also helped.
The years continued. We trucked along renovating to get our dream until we realized that costs were adding up so we had to get creative! We began renting the home for guests to come and stay (essentially making us a VRBO before it existed!). Throughout the next 20 years, the house saw so much life which led to it being such an integral part to our family history. Unfortunately, in 2004 disaster struck in the form of a pipe bursting in the top floor, decimating the house that meant so much to our family.
Looking on the brighter side of things, Dick and Judy turned this tragedy into something beautiful by flipping the disaster into a foundation to build their dream lake home. When rebuilding, we decided to incorporate big windows overlooking Lake Louise, a 4-seasons porch, bedrooms with bathrooms connected to them, a state of the art kitchen and most importantly a large living room with open space for the entire family to sit in together. The Chateau was created out of love and a vision for visitors to spend actual quality time with their favorite people.
The present day Chateau facing Lake Louise in Alexandria, MN
Since then, our family has taken this to heart and celebrated events ranging from Carolyn and Jose’s wedding to Maggie’s virtual college graduation and every holiday in between. We love getting to come together and annoy each other just enough that sometimes we forget why we even missed one another! Then, on your way home it’s hard not to smile because all you remember is how fun it was to be together. You sit there and think about how awesome the next time will be.
Downstairs Living Room of The Chateau
The Chateau was built both times as a labor of love and has seen 3 generations of our family so far. Our hope is that our guests find this happiness on vacation in their home away from home.