Decorah House- Airy, modern, full of natural light, 5 blocks to downtown

Welcome to Decorah House, a private and beautifully renovated stay on the second floor of our historic brick house in a quiet neighborhood just five blocks from downtown Decorah. The space is bright and full of natural light and filled with plants. The apartment sleeps three, has a beautiful bathroom with tiled shower, and a lovely front living room and kitchen. Walk to Pulpit Rock Brewing Co, La Rana Bistro, Impact Coffee, Oneota Food Coop, Hotel Winneshiek, Vesterheim, Convergence Ciderworks, and so much more.

We've put six years of hard work into this amazing house and we're excited to share it with you! We're two guys in our 30s and love Decorah. Whether you're here to visit one of the breweries, trout fish, mountain bike, visit your kids at Luther, or just trying to unwind, we think you'll love everything about Decorah and the house. In addition to welcoming travelers to Decorah House, we've welcomed guests to our other overnight rental Trout River Log Cabin for the past eight years. We know what it takes to be exceptional hosts and we'll do everything we can to ensure you have a great experience.

The Decorah House stay occupies the second floor of our 1850s brick house. The apartment, including the entrance and heating and cooling systems, are completely separate from our part of the house. We've taken covid seriously from the beginning and want to ensure you have a safe and enjoyable experience.

The space is bright and full of natural light, and sits perched overlooking the Oneota Valley. The unit consists of a large living area with adjoining kitchen, a spacious bath, and large bedroom. The bedroom has a queen bed and there's a queen size blow up mattress to accommodate a third or fourth person. Paul has restored old buildings going on fifteen years. He eats, sleeps and breaths old buildings, architecture and design. We've put so much work into making the space just right, and we think you'll agree.

In the main living space you'll find two orange barrel chairs with accompanying hand made shaker style walnut end tables, a sugar maple butcher block dining table made from flooring from a local landmark school, and Persian rugs. The floors are beautiful reclaimed doug fir from a catholic priest house that was recently demolished. All the woodwork, the butcher block countertops and tables, maple cabinets, maple vanity, shaker end tables (basically everything you see) were all made by Paul in the second floor of our garage workshop. During the day Paul's a high school industrial arts teacher and teaches several furniture making, design and construction classes.

The kitchen has a high quality European brand stainless steel gas range, small refrigerator, and deep-basin stainless steel sink. The kitchen is stocked with quality cookware. We also supply organic coffee and a french press. The kitchen is pretty small, but adequate for light cooking.

The bedroom is spacious and overlooks the forested bluffs of the Oneota Valley. And to boot there's a spectacular 200 year old bur oak tree that sits right outside the bedroom windows. The bedroom has a firm queen bed, a reading area, and clothes closet. A third or fourth person can be accommodated on a queen size blow up air mattress. Linens and bedding are provided.

The spacious bath has a floor to ceiling subway tile shower. The bathroom flooring is Marmoleum, a traditional petroleum free, linseed oil-based linoleum invented in Britain in the early 1850s that's made to look like marble. The hand made vanity is sugar maple with a white oak butcher block top. Bath towels, Nature's Gate shampoo, conditioner and body wash are provided.

The house was built in the early 1850s by Decorah's original founding family, the Days from upstate New York. When their son Claiborne built the house a few years later, the village of Decorah wasn't more than a few log houses and a saw mill. Claiborne was the entrepreneurial type, serving as Decorah's first postmaster. He also owned a lumberyard and built several houses around town. Today it survives as one of the few remaining structures of the period. Ever since Paul was a little kid he's had his eye on this house. And when it came available, we jumped at the opportunity to buy and restore it. Of all the buildings representative of Decorah's early settlement period that remain standing, this house is probably the most intact and best preserved. It's an incredible piece of local history.

You'll have access to the entire second floor of the house accessed through a separate entrance. Once inside the entryway, the staircase takes you up to the apartment. We live downstairs and our unit is accessed through a separate entrance on the side porch.

We have a friendly dog Mabel and a kitty Ethelbert. Both have never been upstairs, but note that we live downstairs. The unit is heated and cooled with a ductless heat pump, so the air between upstairs and down is separate and doesn’t mix.