Haus Das
HOME & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE
LIFE IN THE COUNTRY House with all the ‘wants’ gives Catharine family a place to call home OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
features
Haus Das
11
At home IN ELLIS COUNTY
Life in the country
Catharine family builds home to blend in with rolling hills
8 Hunter’s Hideaway A home on the Saline River provides the perfect escape for game hunters
4 • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net
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Haus Das
Published and distributed by The Hays Daily News 507 Main, Hays, KS 67601 HDNews.net (785) 628-1081
Publisher Patrick Lowry plowry@dailynews.net
Advertising Director Mary Karst maryk_ads@dailynews.net Designer Gayle Weber gweber@dailynews.net
Contributors Diane Gasper-O’Brien • Writer Dawne Leiker • Writer Raymond Hillegas • Photographer Steven Hausler • Photographer Tiffany Lovelady • Creative Services Juno Ogle • Creative Services Dave William • Creative Services
Account Executives Joleen Fisher Sandra Harder Eric Rathke
Online Edition at HDNews.net Created by Pixel Power Haus Web design division of The Hays Daily News pixelpowerhaus.net Das Haus is published by The Hays Daily News. Copyright © 2011 Harris Enterprises. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Das Haus is a registered trademark of The Hays Daily News.
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Q&A Q:
What’s the difference between a “salesperson” and a “Realtor”? A: A salesperson is someone who holds a license to sell real estate. A Realtor is a salesperson who is a member of the State and National Board of Realtors. A Realtor takes pride in their profession and attends training provided locally and by state associations, therefore, a Realtor has the most current information regarding legal issues and marketing trends. REALTOR is a trademark and real estate professionals, who are Realtors, adhere to a code of conduct, professional standards, and abide by the REALTORS Code of Ethics. When looking for a new home, do I need to call the Realtor whose sign is in the yard? A: Generally speaking, NO. You can interview and select a Realtor of your choice to help you find a home. The Realtor you select can show you any home that is listed no matter whose sign is in the yard. Even a home that is a “For Sale by Owner” can be shown and negotiated with your Realtor if the seller agrees. So if you are shopping for a home and want to see a house, no matter whose sign is in the yard, let your
Q:
Realtor’s corner
With Sue May & Lynelle Shubert
Realtor make contact with the listing agent or seller. Each transaction is unique, but we buy and sell homes everyday so we are familiar with the process and paperwork. My Spouse & I are getting ready to purchase a home— it has been suggested that we get a home inspection. The property appears to be in good condition— why should we spend money for an inspection? Won’t the appraiser tell us if there is a major problem with the property? A: Appraisals and Home Inspections are different. An appraiser’s job is to estimate the current value of the home and to compare it to the sales price. An inspector evaluates and gives the buyer an impartial evaluation in a detailed report on the physical condition of the structural and mechanical systems. He or she identifies items that need to be repaired or replaced and can estimate the remaining useful life of the major structural and mechanical components. Spending a few hundred dollars on a detailed inspection report may save you thousands if something major is found, such as a cracked heat exchanger on a furnace. This is not only a moneysaver— but could be a life saver.
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What should a homeowner do to prepare their house prior to listing it for sale to obtain the best price and quickest sale possible? A: You’ve heard the old saying “You can only make one first impression.” That also holds true for your home when prospective buyers are shopping. • Your very first impression is “curb-appeal,” your front yard and home should be clean and neat on the outside. • Appeal to their senses. Allow as much “light” as possible- natural & other. Have potpourri or air fresheners. • Make space. Clean out closets and basements. Pre-pack items you won’t need. If the basement and store room are full, rent a storage unit. Store rooms that are over flowing don’t give the buyer the opportunity to see how much space you really do have. • If you have outdated carpet or the walls are in bad need of paint – go ahead and replace the carpet and paint. A buyer can’t always look past these items. • Hire a Realtor for the best & quickest sale- after all it’s what we are trained to do.
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H
unter’s ideaway
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roviding a home away from home for hunters, the owners of Riverview Road Outfitters, 20 miles northwest of Hays near the Saline River, treat visitors “like family.” “They’re just going to be part of us while they’re here,” said owner Jim Desbien. With four guest bedrooms on the second level, each with private baths, and two bedrooms in the walk-out basement, the sunlit, rustic home offers many amenities plus
8 • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
an unequaled river view. When Jim and Paula Desbien purchased the property that now houses Riverview Road Outfitters in 1997, it had served as a dumping ground for several decades. Originally the townsite of Wiles, small remnants of the nearly century-old town remained on the property. All that remains today is a slab and a few stone posts. Although Desbien said he was inclined to purchase a different quarter section, his wife Paula “saw
hunter’s HIDEAWAY
By DAWNE LEIKER
photography by Steven Hausler
something in it I didn’t.” “I saw there was a view of the river,” Paula Desbien said. “It was an old pasture ... and the view enticed me a little bit. “I just got up here on the hill and walked around and looked down and thought ‘this looks like a good spot.’ ” After removing 14 hot water heaters, seven trailer loads of iron, dozens of tires, old corrals, and filling in several hand-dug water wells, the property began to take shape. DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net
“I just got up here on the hill and walked around and looked down and thought ‘this looks like a good spot.’ ” Paula Desbien homeowner As he surveyed the deep green hills, springing back from July’s hundred-degree temperatures after a few nights of drenching rains, Desbien said, “I’m sure glad my wife talked me into buying this. Looking at this piece here ... all I could see then was a lot of work.” When the home was built in 1999, Paula Desbien envisioned making it a bed and breakfast. After the Desbiens moved in the first day of the millennium, Jan. 1, 2000, she began plans to develop a ladies retreat. Turning their home into Riverview Road Retreat, Paula Desbien provided stress management classes, meals, pedicures and pampering for women two weekends a month for four summers. Then Paula Desbien began to find her duties as an occupational therapist working for the Stockton, Palco, and Plainville school districts, as well as Hays Medical Center, began to take much more of her focus. DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net
OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011 • 9
“We’ve had a great time and just love it out here.” Jim Desbien homeowner “She got awfully busy ... ended up working three to four jobs as needed, whenever they called her,” Jim Desbien said. Thoughts of developing a hunting guide business had been taking shape in Jim Desbien’s mind during that time. Just as he got to the point of working on some advertising, he was approached by deer hunters who were being guided on adjacent land. They asked if Desbien was interested in doing any guiding. “Well, by the way, I am,” he said. “I’d like to start next year.” He has been hosting those hunters every year since. In addition to deer hunters, Desbien also guides some turkey hunters and pheasant hunters, and has a controlled shooting area which can extend the hunting season. He hosts hunters from Louisiana, Colorado, Texas and Kansas. Developing vegetation conducive to a wildlife habitat, Desbien worked with staff of Kansas Wildlife and Parks and the local conservation office. He chose to plant Conservation Reserve Program grasses, shrub thickets, alfalfa, pasture and intermixed a few grain crops. As he gave a tour of Riverview Road Outfitter’s home in August, Desbien pointed out his “pride and joy,” the home’s walkout basement featuring a game room. “It’s my favorite room,” he said. “It’s called the game room for more than one reason. ... We play a lot of games here, and of course, the game we have (displayed) here. “It’s come a long ways from what it was. ... We’ve had a great time and just love it out here.”
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life in the
country Rolling hills offer Catharine family the perfect setting for home story by Diane Gasper-O’Brien
photography by Raymond Hillegas
A
home in the country, near his family farm in the rolling hills where the deer and the antelope play, seemed like only a dream. In this case, it’s wild turkeys instead of antelope, but that dream became reality for Tom Meis six years ago. Meis was tending to his cattle herd on his land 5 miles northeast of Hays about seven years ago when he began thinking about what it would be like to spend all his time there. >>>
At home IN ELLIS COUNTY He and his wife, Janette, had purchased 455 acres of land not far from Tom’s family farm near Emmeram in Ellis County a couple of years earlier. “We had been looking for some land to do some ranching, an extension of what my dad and uncle and me do,” Tom said. “We’re all weekend farmers, and this was for sale.” Tom said it was a larger tract of land than he had been anticipating, but it was only 8 miles away from his uncle’s farm, and there were lots of hills, trees and wildlife. 12 • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
“We wanted this house to be a lot of things. ... We think we got most of those things.” Tom Meis homeowner “The location was close enough to my uncle’s farm and close to Hays,” Tom said. “We could fish and hunt and do whatever we wanted on our own land.” “So why not build a house here?” Janette asked Tom one day. “I was resistant at first,” Tom said. But not for long. “It’s just so beautiful,” Tom added. “We just couldn’t resist it,” And so began the planning of the “perfect” family home for four; the Meises are the parents of two
sons, 12-year-old Nick and 9-yearold Zach. They paged through magazine after magazine, taking notes — mental and written — on what they liked about homes and began designing their three-bedroom home with a walk-out basement. “We went through hundreds of pieces of paper,” Tom said. “We wanted this house to be a lot of things,” he added. “We took what we liked from a lot of those homes and incorporated them into ours. We think we got most of those things.” DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net
For Tom, that was wide open space and windows, lots of them, so he could see the countryside from any part of the house. Janette got her wishes, too — a large kitchen area with a walk-in pantry featuring shelves from the floor to the ceiling and a laundry room made specifically to her liking with shelves and laundry baskets for every member of the family. “You don’t necessarily like spending a lot of time in here, but you do,” she said while showing off the family’s laundry room. “So you might as well have it be handy for you.” Where the Meises do spend a lot of time when they are at home — both work in town and are busy with their two active sons — is on their decks. “We like to watch the sun set here,” Tom said from the double doors of the couple’s upstairs bedroom, “and watch it rise from the other deck.” 13 • DAS HAUS
That “other deck” is a large one on the east side of the house that Tom spent a lot of time getting “just the right height.” From that deck can be seen the rural water tower that supplies water to the small town of Catharine where Tom grew up and the church steeple of St. Catherine Church where the family still attends services — and a lot of countryside in between. Much thought went into the outside of the home, tucked in among the hills. In keeping with its natural surroundings, the bottom part of the house is lined with limestone. The top half is covered with green siding “to blend in with the countryside,” Janette said, and the roof has grayish-blue shingles. “It kind of makes the house blend in with the hills,” Tom said. “That’s what we wanted.” A lot of planning went into making the home energy efficient — what else would you expect from Tom, the chief financial officer of Midwest Energy — with blown-in foam insulation and an all-electric heat pump system for heating and cooling. 14 • OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2011
DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.net
Stone used for the landscaping, which Tom said is an ongoing project, was taken from an old limestone barn on the north end of the property that had to be torn down. Tom said one of his favorite parts of the day is in the evening, “sitting out on my deck and watching my Red Angus herd.” At the same time, one could find Nick riding his ATV around the property, Zach fossil hunting and Janette busy at the kitchen sink, above which sits a large wooden plaque that says it all for the family: “A day in the country is worth a month in the city.” “Plus,” Tom added with a laugh, “we can get to Walmart faster than a lot of people in town.” The Meises like to entertain, both family and friends, and they especially enjoy seeing people’s reactions to the setting for the first time. “It’s always fun to have new people out here,” Tom said. “They see things, and it makes you really reappreciate it all.” 15 • DAS HAUS