Ted & Brenda

People often ask us, how did you end up buying a vacation house at Stone Lake in the Village of Cassopolis, Michigan?  Especially since at the time we bought our first Stone Lake vacation home we lived 600 miles away in Maryland.  Well, here's how it happened....  

As a young married couple with our first baby, we moved from Michigan to the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC in late 1983 for better employment opportunities.  Within a few years both of Ted's siblings and his parents -- originally all from Ohio -- ended up moving to the Washington, DC area.  We raised our two children in Maryland, Jessica and Christian, and life was good.  However Brenda missed her Detroit area family very much, and from the very beginning, we both agreed that some day in the future, we'd move back to Michigan.  By 2008 we were empty nesters, and decided it was time to start looking for a home in Michigan in which to retire.  The housing bubble had burst at that point and real estate prices had tumbled - another good reason to look for property.  Well during the intervening years one of Brenda's sisters -- her identical twin Kathy no less - had moved from the Detroit area to the Chicago suburbs.  Brenda was torn on where we should buy a house:  Near Detroit to be with most of her family -- but be 5 hours from twin Kathy.  Or buy a house near Chicago -- but be 5 hours from her 2 other sisters, her parents, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews. Brenda was perplexed.  That's when Ted came up with the idea of looking for property halfway in between Detroit and Chicago.  At that suggestion Brenda exclaimed, "But there's nothing in between!"  Ted's response:  "That means we might actually be able to find something we can afford, maybe even a small house on a lake.  Then we'll only be 2 1/2 hours from Chicago -- and Detroit."

So that's how we ended up purchasing our first Stone Lake vacation house in 2008 - what we eventually transformed into the Woodlands Lodge - in Cassopolis, Michigan, which is almost exactly halfway between Detroit and Chicago. Over the years we enlarged it and made countless renovations. It has been available as a vacation rental since the fall of 2009. In 2010 we purchased an additional 48 acres of woods at Stone Lake, including another 150 feet of lake frontage, on which we built the Knotty Pine Lodge. In 2016 we purchased our 3rd Stone Lake vacation home which after its extreme makeover became the Cedar Lodge on 100 feet of lake frontage. In 2018 we built what is now our flagship vacation property, the Blue Spruce Lodge, on 340 feet of lake frontage on Stone Lake. Over the years we've gained invaluable experience in owning and managing vacation rental homes that delight our Guests, simply by following the Golden Rule. Nearly 50% of our reservations are with repeat Guests, many of whom return year after year.  We've developed special friendships with many of our Guests.  

We invite you to stay in one of our vacation lodges and Escape to Stone Lake yourself!

Sincerely, Ted & Brenda