Stayed here with my extended family one week in July. This is an outstanding property. Booking was easy with excellent communication from the owners. After booking we had access to the most thorough (digital) house guide I’ve ever seen from a short-term rental, detailing all the areas and features of the property and local area. On arrival the house is impressive with plenty of parking in a big front yard with horseshoe drive. It's immediately clear the owners take tremendous pride.
The house itself is very well appointed. It came with a lovely welcome basket and plenty of all the essentials we needed in the kitchen and baths including the key basics like towels, dishes, utensils, glassware, cookware, and TP. The beds and furniture were really nice and comfortable. Everything struck a nice balance between homey and stylish. Up a small spiral staircase is is the lookout tower room with a pullout couch and a lovely view.
The main floor has 3 br, 2 with their private bath, and 1 common bathroom, each with showers. The forrest room also has a futon. Also on the main floor was a big kitchen and dining area, family room with TV, and a large deck overlooking the backyard. Downstairs is an impressively appointed bar, large theater room with about a dozen recliners and projector TV system, and a game room with tons of board games and a couple pinball machines. Also there are two bedrooms downstairs, both with ground floor windows, and a shared bath with shower. Downstairs also has direct access to a patio with an excellent large grill (with propane provided), patio furniture, outdoor games and a cool firepit (plenty of firewood provided).
The house sits on a large wedge-shaped lakefront property with good privacy. In the back you’ll find steps down to a beautiful pier. We rented a pontoon and there is a boat launch less than a mile away and a public beach. It was easy to access and tie up at the pier. Fun fishing off the dock, caught plenty of little bluegill, perch, crappie, and a bullhead. Kids also jumped in and out of the water, not sandy bottom but steep and deep enough that they had fun. We also found 4 private beaches around the lake, each with sandy beaches and swimming platforms, that you can access by car or boat (owners provide association passes). There is also a couple of association features (pools, golf, lodges, sledding hill) that we didn’t end up using but are only ~10 min drive from house.
Recommendations: We had 14 people including some younger and older kids and sleeping arrangements were a little tight. If your party is all adults I wouldn’t recommend more than 5 couples. If you do a lot of cooking you may want to bring a few coolers because the fridge/freezer space was a little tight for large groups (the wine cooler in the bar downstairs helps). There is great internet and lots of smart TVs (roku and amazon fire) but no standard cable or satellite TV, so come prepared with your subscriptions/passwords and you may need to ask the owners for assistance if some features are locked or you want to install new apps.
We’d return in a heartbeat. Great property. Well appointed. Excellent owners. Also check out the pecan rolls at the appropriately named slice of heaven bakery nearby!