I gave it five stars because the owners are very nice, love their home, and make every attempt to accommodate their guests.
This may be the perfect home for you but you should know what you are signing up for before clicking the button.
The rental process is involved. First, you get a call from the owner to verify your number of guests and the nature of your stay. After passing approval from the owner, you receive a 9-page contract and two documents to cover the rules and requirements. You are required to sign, initial, and mail that along with a deposit check back to the owners. You must also leave a check on the counter for their cleaning service. Once they receive your deposit check, they mail you a key.
There are rules, instructions, cleaning requirements, noise warnings, labels, and check-out instructions taped up at multiple places around the house.
I would imagine this home was built in the early 2000’s. I am guessing that they have made very few updates since then. The shower downstairs is one of those old fiberglass “all-in-one” installs. It’s the kind where everything is sloped so that water cannot pool anywhere; the soap, shampoo, and any other plastic item take a swift downward plunge onto the shower floor toward the drain. And none of the shower heads in the house work properly. They all need updating.
The décor in this house was overwhelming to put it mildly. There was a bear or a moose on every table. There are antler lamps, antler chandeliers, and moose Knick Knacks EVERYWHERE. The tables, mantels, counters, bathrooms, walls, window seals, railings, doors, cupboards, and floors are all covered in bear-themed stuff. And there are strict instructions not to move anything.
You can only have 8 people in this house, yet there are enough moose plates for 40 people! Moose and bear plates, cups, glasses, and serving dishes fill the cabinets. There is no place to set your purse down, or a surface on which to open a laptop. The counters are so full of gift shop fodder that you can’t even put a bag of groceries down without bumping into something. It’s like a crowded gift shop.
Beyond the feeling that we were staying in our grandparent’s over crowded home with everything thing they ever owned, there were animal heads hanging everywhere. For our non-hunting, animal-loving family, it was horrifying. This is way beyond an iconic moose head over the mantel. There are dead raccoons, deer, wild boar, bears,