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Kyle Miller
If Without this lake, what would I do?.................................................................... 14 May You can try to stop it, but you can’t...................................................................... 19 Force I’ve forgotten my own advice................................................................................. 22 Home What exactly does that word mean?................................................................... 26 Youth About my son, on his birthday............................................................................... 30 Cancel Culture Well, here goes my career....................................................................................... 35 The Test It’s easier than the ACT........................................................................................... 38 Endless Summer Who could wish for such absurdity?................................................................... 43 Expensive Nice things cost more.............................................................................................. 46 Wind Spring is muddy and it’s windy and that’s that................................................ 51
Cover art an original work by Neal Aspinall. Magazine title, Summer Homes For City People was borrowed from a 1898 real estate brochure called “The Story of Geneva Lake,” written by F.R. Chandler, under the auspices of the Lake Geneva Village Association. This magazine was printed by David Curry of Geneva Lakefront Realty, LLC. Any questions relating to this magazine or to future advertising may be made directly to dave@ genevalakefrontrealty.com. Reproducing any of this content without owner consent is prohibited. This magazine is published for information and entertainment purposes only. Geneva Lakefront Realty LLC is not responsible for any claims, representations, or errors made by the publisher, author, or advertisers. For specific details, please consult your attorney, accountant, or licensed Realtor. Geneva Lakefront Realty LLC is a fair housing broker and limited liability company in the state of Wisconsin. Listings are subject to prior sale or price change.
Building Lifestyles Through: Design, Contracting, and Property Development. 262.248.9210 EngermanContracting.com
T he las t t i m e I wat e r -s k i e d I was an overconfident twenty-something. I succumbed to peer pressure and decided to ski behind a large open-bow boat. I was never good at skiing, and that ill-fated attempt on that wavy summer afternoon cemented my status as a terrible water-skier. I haven’t water-skied since. Still, I hope you enjoy this original cover and perhaps find the inspiration to try your hand at skiing one last time. The good news today is that you’re reading the 12th issue of Summer Homes For City People. If you’re reading this and I’ve written it, that means we’ve survived 2020. In what was a difficult year for many, Lake Geneva proved once again that it is a market for all seasons. Our lakefront and lake access inventory was absorbed quickly as buyers rushed to find both freedom and solitude around these shores. Anyone and everyone who already owned a piece of this prized market made full use of their properties, which meant new inventory didn’t present in its typical fashion or quantities. This increased buyer demand and evaporation of supply forced our valuations to all-time highs, fueled both by these simple market dynamics but also a vibrant and robust stock market. I was honored to lead our local real estate market once again, closing more than $68,000,000 in sales during 2020. That tally is the highest ever sales total by any Walworth County agent in history, surpassing the previous record high that I set in 2016. As I write to you today, my sales volume since 2010 has eclipsed $420,000,000, a figure that leads the market by the widest of margins. I’ve been thrilled to continually represent the finest properties our Lake Geneva market has to offer, including the superlative legacy estate offering on Snake Road that you’ll read about on page 8. For buyers seeking to make sense of this nuanced and challenging market, I offer articulate, intelligent advice to help guide their purchase decisions. In an increasingly competitive market, having an experienced agent help guide your decisions couldn’t be more paramount. I do hope you’ll enjoy this new issue of Summer Home For City People. There are some different themes this year, notably an increased appreciation for the concept of Home. I wish you the best and brightest of Lake Geneva summers, and in the event that you need any real estate guidance, I’m here to help.
David C. Curry Geneva Lakefront Realty, LLC 323 Broad St Suite 1S, Lake Geneva, WI 53147 | 262.245.9000 | dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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F E AT U R E D
• LISTING
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FOR SALE OFFERED AT $20,750,000
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F E AT U R E D
• LISTING
VILLA HORTENSIA
FOR SALE OFFERED AT $20,750,000
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here were six lakefront estates on Geneva Lake designed by famed architect Howard Van Doren Shaw. Astonishingly, all of these homes are still standing to this day, a testament to the refined, livable nature of these classic residences. These legacy homes are the homes we know and love. Alta Vista. House in the Woods. Aloha Lodge. Allegheny. And Villa Hortensia. The latter of which was designed by Shaw and built for Edwin Swift in 1906. The estate was named Villa Hortensia, in honor of Swift’s wife, Hortense. Shaw collaborated with legendary landscape architect Jens Jensen to ensure the grand home settled confidently and quietly into this massive wooded site. The finished home was Mediterranean in style, blessed with classical arts and crafts details, and boasting a spacious domed entry hall spanning nearly the width of the first floor. On the second floor, a similarly grand vaulted hall served to access the lakefront bedroom suites. A distinctive Spanish tile roof set against a stucco exterior marked a timeless and significant landmark on Snake Road.
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This 12,000+ square foot estate home has been lovingly cared for by its current owner and proudly still possesses many of its original features. The design is largely intact, with those grand lakefront terraces, original oak floors, and much of the original woodwork and detailing. Shaw paid special attention to capturing the bright and bold southern lake views, orienting each room to face the water. The 20 plus acre site has a staggering 502’ of level lakefront, with two piers, a private launch, and rare privacy from the shore path. The thrill of winding down Snake Road to the understated yet impressive entry of Villa Hortensia is as memorable as any approach on this lake. There are no cottages to pass, no associations to avoid. There is only the expansive, rolling countryside to the north and the marquee legacy estates on the lakefront to both the east and west. Once on property, you’ll find a stream (controlled through a reservoir system engineered in the early 1900s and still in use today) that dances around and under the nearly one half mile of private, wooded driveway. A lovely in-ground pool flanks the sunny west side of the home, while a family favorite clay tennis court occupies a private shaded stretch of the level rear lawn. That lawn, it should be noted, is one of the defining features of this estate. A small handful of elite properties on Geneva will afford this sort of acreage, but few, if any, can boast this quantity of level, usable landscape. An original stone wall graces the
western boundary of this rear lawn, creating this ideal table that once hosted greenhouses for growing flowers and vegetables. Original outbuildings include a highly coveted three bedroom guest house and auxiliary garage with more living quarters above. While the current owners have enjoyed this property for more than two decades, they have decided it is time to pass the stewardship of this legacy estate onto the next fortunate owner. There are lots of nice homes on the lake. There are very few legacy estates of this caliber. This is your chance to secure one of the rarest bits of real estate in the Midwest. $20.750MM Video available at genevalakefrontrealty.com
WWW.SNAKEROADESTATE.COM
David C. Curry, GRI 262.745.1993 dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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SUMMERTHORNTONDESIGN.COM
Sleepovers perfected
If
Without this lake, what would I do?
This morning, I decided to do the thing I’ve done for nearly all of the past 24 years worth of mornings. I woke up, cleaned up, dressed down, and drove to my office. The direction of my drive has changed over the years, but little else has. Some years I would drive in from the east. Other times from the north. At first from the south. And now, finally, from the west. This morning, as I drove from that latest direction, through the distant trees I saw the shimmering lake. This is not unique, as I see that lake shimmering quite often and have not only grown quite fond of it but also quite accustomed. I expect it to be there because where else could it go? And I expect that glittery shimmer on a daily basis. But for a moment, I imagined what it would be like if there were no shimmering lake through those trees.
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until 3 pm, which would be a nice amount of sleep I suppose. Then the kids would come home from school and I’d be there mowing the lawn and it wouldn’t seem so different. I’d have the entire mid to late afternoon to do my household chores and attend to the business of life, and then I’d have dinner and relax for a while. If there were sports on TV, I would be able to watch most of those, except late fall World Series games that last late into the night. I’d have to buy access to some sort of streaming service so I could continue watching those games even after I arrived at work. I could easily live that life like millions of other Americans.
If there were no lake, would I be driving in from the west? Would there be any reason? I wouldn’t have an office in this little town if it weren’t for that shimmering depth, that is obvious. Or is it? Perhaps I’d still be here, still selling real estate, but I’d be selling little cottages that people lived in on Mondays, and sometimes I’d sell the larger subdivision homes, too. But there would only be that one subdivision to sell, because there wouldn’t really be any people here. Where would they work? I suppose at industrial jobs of some variety. On an occasional drive from the Driftless, I see a Rayovac factory in the middle of nowhere. Maybe we’d have one of those, too, because we’d definitely find classification under the Middle Of Nowhere tab.
On those early spring days where the afternoon warms just enough to be moderately enticing for a handful of minutes, I could go for a walk with my family. I don’t do that now very often, so I don’t know why I would do it then, but I imagine I would. If the lake weren’t down that road a ways, where would we walk? And if the roads didn’t ring the lake in some sort of directional pattern, what would the roads do, exactly? Would they just run in perpendicular lines until the town faded to the countryside and one or two of the more important roads continued on towards the next town? Or would it be like Riverside, Illinois, where the roads are curved because someone read that curved roads would reduce crime? Would we even have crime, in this little town, so long as the battery factory stayed open and no one found need to vent their particularly aggressive consternation? I can’t be so sure.
I wonder if I’d work there. If I did, I’d probably need to arrive before 8 am. Maybe not, because I always wondered what third shift would be like. I imagine I could make good sense of it, after some time of adjustment. I’d listen to "Daysleeper" by REM but I’d really feel it. I’d try to be disciplined so I could come home and eat some breakfast, which would feel like dinner, maybe. Then I’d sleep from 8 am
What if I couldn’t sit at a desk for a while and then when I became bored or otherwise antsy I couldn’t drive around the lake and catch glimpses of it for all of those different vantage points? Would I have anywhere to drive? Would I just drive around town, or would I do the sorts of things I hear about in country songs, where I’d drive to get some mud on my tires? I suppose we’d have to have some sort
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of swimming hole, maybe a dammed up creek that we’d drive to at night and turn our truck lights on so we could see Brad swinging from the rope we tied to the Cottonwood with that huge branch that reached out over the puddle. I wouldn’t mind that, so much, although the mosquitoes would be intolerable. Thankfully, the lake was still there this morning
and not only was it there, it was shimmering and as bright and as bold as ever. Piers are going in. Boats, too. In some ways, it might not feel like a normal Monday, but as long as I get to see a bit of that lake, that’s my kind of normal. Originally written April 20, 2020. Things were strange, and I needed to find comfort in the familiarity of this place.
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Interior design by The Design Coach
B U I L D I N G M E M O R I E S YO U C A N C O M E H O M E TO
401 Geneva National Ave. S, Lake Geneva, WI | www.lowellcustomhomes.com | 262.245.9030
Cabinet Designer: Natalie Spiniolas
Photographer: Josh Zuelke @joshzphotography
Cabinets:
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KYLE MILLER
May
You can try to stop it, but you can’t.
Corona is everywhere and no one should leave their homes. If you do, you might get it, which is to say we’re all going to get it, because who can stay in their home forever? Some say open the restaurants, but at 25% occupancy. I say what sort of restaurant can make any money at 25% occupancy? Someone else says some revenue is better than no revenue, and I say that revenue without profit is meaningless. People are saying all sorts of things, but the halt of March turned into the pause of April which has turned into the movement of May. May cannot be stopped. My birthday is in May. Some people celebrate their birthdays. I don’t celebrate mine. I want to, but I don’t. There’s something morose about birthdays, or at least about mine, and it rarely has me feeling particularly jovial. It’s probably because of the movement of it all, the lack of any ability to pause the years. They tried to pause 2020, and they did it for a while, but then April turned to May and this kid is riding his bike on the sidewalk right now without a mask on. How easy it was to follow instructions during the miserable spring months. May laughs at your rules. The lake this morning has turned the page from spring to summer. I can see it in the waves. There’s a softer, mottled look to them this morning, and that look is the look of a summer morning. Spring morning waves are crisp and shimmery, like cut diamonds rolled in fresh snow. But summer waves tend to have softer edges to them, more roll than break. They’re approachable. I hadn’t noticed these waves yet this year, but this morning there they were. Summer wave. Unavoidable, unmistakable. My eye grows more critical with each passing year, but it is also more certain. The lake today looks like summer, because May is a march of
progression that begins with an unwanted snow and ends in the earliest of summers. My pear trees blossomed last weekend. In the snow, they blossomed. My apple trees aren’t there yet, but they will be soon. This weekend, I’m betting. Who could be sad about birthdays or quarantines or safer at home orders when the apple trees are blossoming? Why do some pretend that there is no reason to go outside until the infection risk has passed? Have they not seen these blossoms and noticed the lake turning from sharp to soft, from spring to summer, from worse to better? Who could pretend that this machine can be stopped? Who would wish it stopped? The landscape trucks are full of mulch this morning. Mulch for some, lawn mowing for all. I hope people realize they shouldn’t apply weedkiller on their lawns until June, so the honey bees don’t all get killed. I hate that no one seems to be aware of this. Dandelions are fine in May. The sound of weed whips and dirt digging shovels follows me this morning, on my drive to Lake Geneva and back again to my office. The only sound more prevalent is the sound of hammers, those workers hammering and striving to finish their jobs before the important next Holiday. They can get away with excuses in January and February, and then the CDC gave them an excuse for March and April, but now? There isn’t an excuse left, because May won’t listen. Stay home and ignore the lake this summer? Not a chance. Originally written May 12, 2020. Corona was in full swing, but so was a young summer, and there was a decided mood switch underwa
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Force
I’ve forgotten my own advice.
Years ago, I wrote often about the need to whittle out holes in our schedules and dedicate that time to the enjoyment of this place. It was the time of our lives, after all, and if we didn’t enjoy ourselves what were we really doing here? I’d use my father as an example, but there were others like him. Those too focused on the business of every day to enjoy any of it. To this day, my father is unable to enjoy anything. Just yesterday, during a Father’s Day lunch at his lakefront home he disappeared for a while with my son. To do what? To move something heavy. A dresser. Or a ladder. It didn’t matter, it just had to be done, and at that exact moment, or so his busy mind determined. I saw this sort of behavior back then and I hated it. I warned you not to do it. I tried to tell you about a better way. But then something happened. I slowly forgot my own advice. Genetics are strong, and even as I write this my father drove past the office in his truck on his hurried way to somewhere. For something. For what? No one can be certain, including him. But whatever it was, or is, it has no choice but to be done. As much as I worked to not become that, I have indeed become just that. My work is consuming, even if relatively unimportant. In a world where everyone is obsessed with their own importance I don’t find my daily effort all that important. Busy, yes. Important? Nah. Yet here I am, pulling this thing forward or being pulled by it, unsure which is true but in motion nonetheless. I wrote often back then about the need to force relaxation. I wrote that we like to think relaxation comes easy and is indeed the preferred state of being, but that this is actually untrue. What a myth it is to assume that we want to be still. There is no satisfaction in rest. What we want is to grind and churn and produce, that’s what we really want. We want to be in perpetual motion, because that should get us closer to our goal. The goal? Just to have more. More of this and more of 22
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that, and we’ll quietly trade our time for more of something less important. This was my thinking back then, and I swore I wouldn’t let it happen to me just as I hoped you wouldn’t let it happen to you. In case you hadn’t noticed, this year we’ve had an exceptional string of weather. Clear days and cool nights. It’s dry, which is both rare, nice, and troubling for the farmers. But I’m sick of worrying about the farmers. I like the dryness, the corn be damned. This run of days have had me checking the calendar to see just how much of my summer I’ve already missed. After all, before last Friday I had only been on a boat once, and had jumped in the lake only once. A terrible and shameful admission for someone as theoretically devoted to this thing as I am. So last Friday, on the heels of a busy day of sweat and toil, I decided that the boat needed me. I decided that I needed to motor to the middle of the lake and jump in. To rid myself of the effort that had been dominating my June. And so I did. And it was as freeing and relaxing as I remembered. I tend to do a lot of things. I work seven days a week. On the days that I am not working here, rare occasions find me working at my cabin. Working from a trout stream. Working and wading, fishing and hiking. It’s all still physical work, after all. Or I go somewhere else. Working to get there and working while I’m there. Last week, I snuck out to my cabin with my son to fish for the day, and this for the first time in a month. We drove up late one afternoon and immediately went fishing. We fished until 10:30 pm, ate a gross frozen pizza at 11 pm, and went to bed. The next morning I made an espresso and sat on the deck with a laptop. I responded to the business of the morning and for a moment sat and watched two blue jays tussling in the trees. A millisecond later I decided that I should be on the tractor, grading the driveway that had been rutted by the heavy spring rains. After that was accomplished, I hauled firewood to the
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patio-side stack, and I refilled the bird feeders. I did these things while a normal person might have sat for a while on that peaceful deck and listened to the birds. I am incapable of taking time to listen to the birds. But I have a boat, and the water temperature on this lake is a perfect 76 degrees, and from now on I’m going to force myself to take advantage of
those conditions. It might not be in my nature, but it’s one of the few things in this life that truly brings me peace. Originally written June 22, 2020. It was obvious to me that I needed to heed my own advice.
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Home
What exactly does that word mean?
“I’ll be home for Christmas,” so the song wishes. I’ve been struggling to find some Christmas cheer this year. Why it’s been a struggle I’m not quite sure. I’ve been in my office this afternoon trying to capture some of that old magic by listening to a rather calming play-list of Christmas songs. Whether or not the music is working is yet to be determined, but I’m betting against it. “I’ll be home for Christmas,” promises one of the songs that we all know so well. Other songs remind us of the reason for the holiday and others talk about roasting chestnuts, as if anyone aside from street vendors in Paris actually do that. But the one about being home for Christmas, that one is onto something. If we’re going to study that song, the first and last thing we need to figure out is what the singer means by home. What is home? If you answered something about it being where the heart is, we cannot be friends. If you said it’s where you hang your hat, please show yourself out. And if you answered the question in the way that many seem to be answering it lately, by suggesting that home is, in fact, wherever income taxes are the lowest, then you’re hopelessly vapid. Home, it’s such an interesting word, and it’s a word that we’ve manipulated and mistreated. Home, it seems, isn’t a house at all. At least it isn’t to me. I grew up in my parents’ house. It was my home from birth through age 18, and it was my parents’ home for eight years before I was born. It was the home my parents brought each of their four sons home to after checking out of the hospital. It was the house that my brother died in when he was less than a year old. It was the house where my younger brother angrily punched through the glass front door when my older brother and I locked him out. The house that my mother read us bedtime stories in, using inspired character voices. It was the house that I grew up in, and in that, it will always and forever be my home. But today I have my own family and my own four walls 26
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that I now consider to be home. One of the great maturations of my life occurred when I no longer considered the house where I currently lived to be a temporary shelter. Times were I’d live somewhere until it had appreciated, a forced increase in value created through my own sweat and toil, and then I’d sell it and move on somewhere new where I could do it all over again. My current house has become my home, but is it really home? To me, it isn’t. Home is where I’m from, and whether I’m living in that old brown Dutch colonial near the lake or a white modern farmhouse in the country, home is the space between. Home is the Bay. Home is the county. Home is here. It’s in this office where I type and it’ll be on Geneva Street later when I wind down towards the water, maybe in time to catch the sun setting low over Conference Point, but probably not. Home isn’t four walls, it’s the place you’re from. That Christmas song isn’t about a house, it’s about a place. A great tragedy of our time, something that is blindly celebrated but shouldn’t be, is the geographic mobilization of the wealthy. The great exodus has begun as families move from one state to another, fleeing high property taxes or high income taxes or both. Others flee simply because they see others fleeing. They flee something that they know in favor of something new. Fleeing is all the rage. If you’re not fleeing, you’re a frog in a pot of water, or so the flee-ers condescend. They make the decision based on the math, on the lifestyle, on the number of days that the sun shines. They move because they can, they move because they feel like it. They move because their youngest daughter is a really good skier and, well, and that’s reason enough. There’s a Whole Foods in the new town and a private school around the corner. It’ll be great there, they say as they pack their last bag and head to New Town, USA. Freedom, here they come. As long as we’re together, we’re home, the wife repeatedly whispers to herself as they cross the first of several state lines.
KYLE MILLER
It’s just that I can’t see how it could be true. Home isn’t a series of places. It’s one place. My wife moved here from a town far away, and I have no doubt that she feels our home to be her home. But is it actually home? When we travel to a faraway land, after some time she’ll say she’s ready to go home, by which she means our home in Walworth. But when she’s at home in Walworth and she says she wants to go home, she means the little town where she’s from. There is no other home. There are other homes, places where we’ll live for periods of our life, but when she tells somewhere where she’s from, it isn’t the immediacy of the present address that she recites. No matter what changes in our lives, that never will. I fear we’re stealing a sense of permanence from our children by chasing a few more days of sun or a few points less of taxation. Are we so soulless that we have no concept of home anymore? Do we value dollar bills more than everything else? I live in a high tax state. While Illinois gets the headlines, the truth is that I pay a higher rate of income tax in Wisconsin. My tax-loving governor would happily raise my taxes even higher, and if he were to do so, what would I do? If my taxes go up, would I move? To ask the question is pure foolishness, because no matter what happens to this state it is my home. And I will not abandon my home because I want to save a few dollars. I would not leave my home out of financial expediency.
I often imagine a day later in my life when my children are grown. I picture my children out in the world, pursuing their own dreams and following their own paths. I can see them vacationing with their spouses and their families on a tropical beach or on a snow covered mountain. I imagine them striking up a conversation with passersby, and I can hear the conversation in my ears just as clear as if it was happening right in front of me. I am committed to the concept of home, to the importance of place and to the stability that it provides because when someone, someday, asks my kids where they’re from, I want the answer to be simple and singular. I don’t want the answer to be a story that starts in one state and finishes in another. I don’t want them to say when I was 14 my dad moved us to another state so he could save 3% of his AGI. I’m from Williams Bay, Wisconsin, they’ll say. It’s a small town in southern Wisconsin, and on summer afternoons I’d swim from my grandparents’ pier, and at night my dad would grill chicken thighs on an old metal grill that my mom called his donkey cart. In the winter, we’d ski at Alpine Valley and on the drive home, the sun would set through the twisted trees that line the edges of the harvested corn fields, and it was absolutely perfect. Originally written December 22, 2020. Maybe I’m too narrow minded, but I think home matters.
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440 North Wells Street, Suite 100N, Chicago, IL 60654 | TheLuxuryBedCollection.com | 312-874-5627
Youth
About my son, on his birthday.
What is it about youth that we so envy? Do we envy youth because of our own unique memory of it? Is it that we can imagine a time in our own lives when we had muscles that could lift the heavy things and eyes that could see the small things? Is it that we remember what it was like to have freedom? Freedom over our unimportant schedules, freedom to drive and to play and to explore the things that we didn’t yet know? Or do we wish for those days when we were more attractive and fit, our faces smooth and bright? Our eyes clear and brimming with excitement for whatever it was that came next? Is it something so basic as that? Is it something physical that we miss, or is it a free state of being that we know we will never, ever, recapture? My son turned 17 today. I don’t know what time he was born, but I do know that it was a Sunday morning and Roger Federer was winning Wimbledon on the television in the recovery room. I’d like to tell you that I was full of pride and wonder back then, but I really wasn’t. I was full of dread and worry. I didn’t feel responsible for very much until that day. I didn’t worry about my ability to raise a son, as I had my own father to give me clues as to how I should, and shouldn’t, raise him. But I did worry. A lot. Today, I sit at this desk and I think about my son. I think about his first 16 years and his next 16. I think about what he means to me. I think about the times I’ve had with him and the times I’ve been a great dad, which may or may not pale in comparison to the times that I’ve been a bad dad. My wife would remind you that I’m a bad dad very often. That I yell at him when I shouldn’t and I praise him when I shouldn’t. That I don’t choose my words wisely, which may very well be true. She doesn’t see what I see, or at least understand what I understand in the way that I understand it. I understand my own job as a father in a way that I find difficult to articulate.
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I’m trying to raise him so that when I’m no longer here he won’t have to wonder what he should do. I don’t want him to be faced with something that he never learned to face. I want him to learn from my mistakes without having to painfully endure them himself. I don’t want him to be fearful of his future. I want him to embrace it and hold onto it and strangle the potential out of it. I know parents are always proud of their child. I’m proud of my daughter, as she brims with the same endless potential. But the reasons I’m proud of her are very different than the reasons I’m proud of my son. He works hard and is diligent. And in Curry fashion, he procrastinates. Maybe he’s just honing his ability to perform under stress, at least that’s what I was thinking last Sunday night when he was in front of me at my office working late into the night on a college assignment that was due that very evening. I’ve tried to help him find a path forward, and I’ll admit to you that the path I’ve tried to pull him down is a path to success that I’ve learned from my own life and my encounters with some of the most successful individuals this world can offer. My son hasn’t always embraced that path, because if you acknowledge expectations then you also must acknowledge the real chance of failure; but he increasingly appears to understand that a particular path is necessary. In a world where many have taken to protesting the path because it’s hard and it requires discipline, my son appears close to at least understanding its importance, and that’s plenty enough for me. I’ve watched my son grow up, and from this vantage point I find it to be such a curious spectacle. I don’t feel very far removed from the events that he’s going through now. In a very real way, I am still very much the boy that he is today. I see him struggle and I see him succeed, and with every setback I feel immense pain and with every victory
I’m overwhelmed with relief and joy. Because of him, I can see what it is that we envy in the young. It isn’t the smooth skin or the muscles or the light in their eyes. It’s the potential. At some point, we follow a path and we become what we’re going to become. I know there are folks who reinvent themselves later in life, but I see this as a rare and unique event. Most of us arrive at where we’re going fairly early in life, and we spend the rest of our days wondering what it might have been like to do, or to be, something different. I chose a path at an absurdly young age, and I’ve spent all of my days since trying to make the best of it. Today, you’d be hard pressed to claim that I haven’t done exactly that. But whatever I’ve become and whatever I might yet be aren’t materially different. My son, at age 17, has all of the opportunity before him and an
endless vat of potential at his disposal. I know that some fathers choose to be envious of their children and that potential, or that success, perhaps because they can so clearly see their own mistakes and missteps, and I cannot fathom entertaining such a bitter disposition. Here’s to my son Thomas on his 17th birthday. To his remarkable effort so far and to the extraordinary, limitless potential that I see in him. I can imagine no finer future than one in which I’m lucky enough to have a front row seat to watch him earn his place in this world. Originally written July 4th, 2020. I don’t feel very old until I look at my son (or look in the mirror).
SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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D.SMITH
Cancel Culture Well, here goes my career.
What a terrible time it is to be a man or woman of conviction. We aren’t allowed to like anything anymore, because if we like something then that means we hate something else. Why do you eat pineapple? Because you hate mango? Bigot. This is how the new world works. And I’m sick of it. I’m sick of hiding my feelings behind carefully chosen words. I’m sick of having to make everyone happy. I’m sick of pretending that everything is the same and everything is good and nothing is bad. I suppose I’m really nothing more than tired. Tired of this political climate. This cultural climate. This muzzle that I have over my mouth at all times leaves me itchy and breathless and riddled with anxiety. I feel as though whatever I say will offend someone. Someone will hate me for it. Someone will love me, but they’ll have to keep that to themselves for fear of being ostracized. To speak your mind is to become the villain of this disjointed movie we’re in. I, for one, cannot take it anymore. I hate pontoon boats. There. I said it. I hate them with the fire of a thousand hells. I think they should be banned. I think they should be gathered up like so many books at the order of a dictator, and burned. Except this time I’m the dictator and the only thing I don’t want people to know is what a pontoon boat looks like. I don’t want them to know what they feel like. I want to live in a world where no one knows what it is to ride across waves in your living room, complete with carpet and couches and a nearby sink in case you need to wash your hands because they’ve been touching the boat you’re in. You can try to silence me. Big Pontoon can try to cancel me. The pontoon woke will take their business from me, and all of this is fine. I cannot sit here, pretending to be a man of conviction, and let my pontoon hatred burn internally. It must be known. The disclosure is freeing. Of course, this puts me at odds with some of my favorite clients, and any sensible Real Estate
Person would never risk the alienation of his own carefully and painfully cultivated client base. But who am I if not someone who refuses to see the wrong and not strive to make it right? Oh, your pontoon boat has several engines and it can go 60 miles per hour? This makes it even worse. Better a pontoon boat with a single 35 horse two stroke Evinrude than a screaming rocket ship shaped like a den, and with the aerodynamics and style of a pallet of rocks. Don’t you see what Big Pontoon is doing? They’re playing you. They’re taking their floating family room and strapping big dumb engines on it and you, the person who I know to be smart in several areas of which smartness can be measured, are falling for it. Hook, line, and center mounted triple pontoon. I recognize what these paragraphs have done now. They’ve destroyed my once promising career. One outburst can do that. Ask some of the people who have been canceled, if you can even find them, and they’ll tell you through their tears and trembling lips that it’s tragically true. And so with that I must bid you goodbye and farewell. Pontoon Boats, I hate you. I will always hate you. No amount of horsepower or second deck with slide can change my mind. I believe in several things with certainty. I believe in God and Family, small government and big, blue inland lakes measuring 5400 acres in size. But I will never, ever, believe that someone should voluntarily own a pontoon boat. Carve it on my tombstone, please. Use the nicer granite, and don’t let my wife be chintzy and abbreviate anything. HERE LIES DAVID CURRY. SON, FATHER, BROTHER, HUSBAND. HEROIC AND VEHEMENT PONTOON BOAT HATER. Originally written July 19, 2020. I just hate these boats so much. Sorry. SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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The Test It’s easier than the ACT.
It is true that not everyone is cut out for this place. As a point of fact, this is the case for nearly every thing. For instance, I am not cut out for rock climbing. I have seen this done on the smooth face of bald rock cliffs and thought, that’s not for me. Another thing I’m not cut out for is being eaten to death by a bear. I’ve seen it happen on the silver screen and I decided I am very much against it. Because of this assertion, I will never place myself into a situation where death by bear may occur. In the same way, some people are not meant for Lake Geneva. While it irritates and appalls me to suggest that this is indeed the case, I know I am not alone in thinking this way. Some people don’t like it here. I’ve heard of these people, though I don’t believe I’ve ever had the chance to look one of these people into their mistaken eyes and suggest, however tactfully, that they are being lied to by Satan himself. Still, I know they exist. Some of the people that feel this way have come here for a while and found that the schedule of their lives does not find time for a lake house. These people get a pass, but not a full pardon. These are people who have made decisions to pursue other things, but in that wayward pursuit they have not pinpointed that Geneva is not for them. They’ve just chosen another way, albeit the wrong way. The people of which I speak are generally would-be home buyers. Ambivalent, some. Others, aggressive and searching, but uncommitted when it comes time to pull the trigger. What if I don’t like it there? They ask. What if things aren’t like I perceive them to be? They balk. Never mind that my voice of calm reason is consistently assuring them that they’ll like it here. That they’ll wonder how they ever lived without their lake house. That they’ll feel a tug to come back as many weeks or weekends as their schedule allows. When one of these wouldbe-owners gives me their list of 10 data points 38
genevalakefrontrealty.com
that they value, I always remind them that at Lake Geneva we’ll gladly deliver on 6 of those 10 points, but never, ever, on all 10, let alone even, perhaps, 7. This is the way our market behaves, and if you come here with some ambivalence and expect to be met at each of your concerns, you best move along. Lake Geneva doesn’t bend to a buyer, a buyer must bend to Lake Geneva. But this isn’t about these buyers, this is about the test. And in my most professorial way I will tell you how this test is administered. First things first— stop visiting only on weekends. This is a mistake. A huge mistake. There are but two seasons here. Weekdays and Weekends. The test is only offered on Weekdays. This is why you must reign in your schedule and find a day to visit. Fridays are acceptable, but not preferred. On a Sunday, look at the forecast for the week. Pick the best looking weather day. Plan on that day. On that day, collect your family or friends or just drive up by yourself, it doesn’t matter. The test doesn’t rely on more than one participant. Ah, but we’re getting ahead of ourselves and there is more work to do before you get into the car. I used to suggest that a homebuyer should rent a boat on this lake and drive around. This was bad advice. What a terrible way to introduce yourself to a lake like this. What are you going to do, rent a pontoon boat and drive around in a carpeted, open air living room to see a scene like this? This is akin to finding your way to the finest of restaurants and wearing torn shorts and that shirt you have with the armpit stains. Don’t do this. If you make the egregious mistake and rent a boat, you’ll be tossed around like a rabbit in my dog’s mouth. The outcome for you and the rabbit are the same: pain. This is why you’re not allowed to take this test on some silly rental boat. You must charter a boat and take this test in style.
Megan Malcolm @lakegeneva_photography
A cursory review of boat rental options on Geneva finds most boat rentals costing between $300-500 for 2-4 hours. This is expensive for the sort of boats that you can rent. And, in the spirit of transparency, I have several basic goals for Geneva Lake: 1. Ban Pontoon Boats. 2. Eliminate Boat Rentals. 3. Increase Launch Fees Dramatically. Why would you rent a little boat when you could charter the Lorelei, a most stunning 41 foot cruiser and have someone else drive you around the lake? Best yet, even with taxes and fees, the Lorelei will run you around $400 for an hour tour. You don’t need more than an hour to indulge in the lakefront scene. Imagine the grief I just saved you by informing you of the proper option here. No standing in line waiting for the rental company to prepare your embarrassing rental boat. Just a high class, white glove experience aboard a beautiful chartered boat. This is the way to take in the lake and assess the scene. But this Lake Geneva litmus test is not yet complete. Once you’re done with the boat, you must find a place to eat dinner, lakeside. You could stay in Lake Geneva, that’s up to you, but you must eat lunch or dinner on the lake. Is our food scene amazing?
No, aside from a few standouts, it is not. But if you’re eating lakeside everything will taste just a bit better. Eat your meal. Then, walk the shore path in some direction for 15 minutes. Longer if you insist, but at least 15 minutes. Leave from Williams Bay, Fontana, or Lake Geneva, but get away from town quickly. Stroll a ways. Gawk a bit. Imagine walking up one of the lawns to the screened porch that you might someday own. This is the end of the test. Nothing more is needed. If you follow this program and at the end of the day you hate Lake Geneva, then there is nothing more than can be done for you. It’s not entirely your fault, because some things are not for every person. For instance, some people eat poultry medium rare. Other people that I’ve seen on TV eat eels that are still living. Some people bought PT Cruisers, in yellow. To each his own, but if you’re in the mood for a lake house and you’re uncertain as to your geographic aim, just follow my test and when you’re done you can call me and tell me how it went. Originally written August 12, 2019. It’s really this simple.
SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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Endless Summer Who could wish for such absurdity?
The license plate said that. ENDLESS SUMMER. If you capitalize it, then it reads like the title of a low budget horror film. It screams at you and demands things of you. Worship this, it commands. But this wasn’t in capital letters. It was in soft letters, subdued letters. Comic Sans letters. There was an image behind the random numbers and letters that some prisoner carefully stamped, an image of a dolphin. I think it was jumping through a sun as it was setting, the round glow hollowed out to make a ring of fire that the dolphin jumped through. The image was meant to suggest a frolicking paradise. I saw the malicious intent in those dolphin’s eyes and I saw that gentle sun as a fiery portal to hell. ENDLESS SUMMER, it threatened. My daughter would suggest that an endless summer would be a good thing. She’s fourteen, and fourteen year old girls can be like that. She wants to be tan and blonde and meet her friends at the lake. She would like to do this every day of the year, because she’s fourteen. When someone grows up, they’re supposed to cast off the childish things, which are things like year around tans and endless summers and infatuations with jumping dolphins. Yet, here we are, a collection of adults, and a state to our extreme southeast has put this on their license plate. Wish to exist in a fairytale where every day is some tedious, sunny, sweaty utopia? Move here, the license plate suggests. It’s the end of August and the lake is returning to some calmer level of pre-Covid normalcy. The summer rush of June and July has given way to the typical calm of late August. I much prefer these softer days, when the obnoxious bright greens of
June and early July fade into these duller tones. They’re easier on these aging eyes of mine, and I find that the summer I wish for and the summer I love is not the young summer of my youthful dreams, but rather the later, slower summer I see today. If I could stretch one season, it would be this specific season, this late summer not-yet-turned autumn. This is the season I enjoy the most. But that aggressive dolphin and that flame charred hoop, suggesting that someone of sound mind could wish for even this to never end. Who could entertain such a folly? Who could find an eternal, endless summer to be a proper way to live? I couldn’t live without the late August days and the jumble of summer weeks still remaining. I do not wish to lock in July and dwell in it for eternity. I wish for early summer in June, and mid summer in July, and late summer now. I wish for the summer that turns to fall, at first almost unnoticeably so, but soon enough in a tremendous and unstoppable hurry. I wish to see the fields of beans turn from green to gold, but not all at once, instead in a slow leaf by leaf progression until the nighttime temperature insists on gilding even the most belligerent of greens. I cannot wait for that to happen, because it’s late August and my internal clock tells me that it’s about that time. Rather than dread it, I embrace it, because only my deceased grandma and fourteen year old girls want to spend their lives trapped in the sweaty hell that would be an eternal summer. Originally written August 27, 2020. Maybe someday I’ll tire of the seasons, but on this day the thought of a never ending summer repulsed me.
SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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Expensive Nice things cost more.
Nice things are problematic for me. If I have one nice thing, say, a really nice drill, then you might think I should be pretty content. After all, I have a great drill. It can drill holes, screw screws, and this one has a flashlight built in and an ergonomic handle. What a drill! But that isn’t enough, unfortunately, because now I have a great drill but what sort of man am I if I don’t also have a nice coat? I have lots of nice coats, but none of them are like this other nice coat, the one I don’t have. Who could have such a great drill and not have a great coat? Might as well throw the drill in the garbage if I have to wear some mediocre coat. This is my problem, and it’s pervasive. It doesn’t stop at drills or coats or fly rods, it extends to real estate. The issue with real estate is that it truly separates the pretenders (me) from the bunch. I was going to say herd, but then I thought of herd immunity, and I’m so sick of anything related to corona-speak I’m trying to weed those words out of my life. One of the things I like to do before bed is tuck into a nice piece of classic literature. I jest, because what I really like to do before bed is open my real estate app of choice (rooting for Zillow’s inevitable irrelevancy over here) and think about far away places where I just might want to own real estate someday. Never mind that Lake Geneva will always be my most-of-the-time home, I can see myself spending a month here and there in another place. So I open my app and I look at the map and I scroll. Whitefish, Montana, why not? Beaver Creek? Of course. Nantucket, Saint Barths, Maui? All in play in this fantasy land. That’s all it is, for me, a fantasy. The pinnacle of residential real estate in the state of Wisconsin doesn’t afford such luxuries (I can buy so many nice drills it would make your head spin), but that doesn’t stop me from looking. Last night I dabbled around Whitefish, where a super janked up three bedroom
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genevalakefrontrealty.com
condo near a lift was $1.3M. A house nearby for $13M was robed in that miserable blend that the western agents claim to be “Mountain Modern.” What that term really means is some trapezoid windows, a knotty alder kitchen, and some weird imported tile that covers every available surface of the master bath. These homes are dreadful, even if buyers from California and New York think they’re cool. The night before, I was in Maui, thinking that it might be nice to work on my surfing and also eat fish tacos, avocado extra, for most of my meals. A condo that looked to have been decorated by my nine year old nephew was $4.8M. All 1900 square feet were included for that price. A house up on the hill by the condo was just reduced to $22M, down from $23M. A client of mine once told me that my problem was that I was fixated on price. Price, he said, has nothing to do with sales. I asked him if he was interested in my 7 year old BMW, which I would gladly sell to him for $315k. My listing expired and it was not renewed. The listing ultimately sold a year or two later, once the price was dramatically reduced. Nantucket seems nice. After all, I think Williams Bay should make a real effort to turn itself into a Nantucket inspired village (they won’t). I thought I could find a house there, fix it up, maybe then sell it to some nice couple from Boston. I found a pretty cool place with a pool and a tennis court and what appeared to be a 24" wide gravel path that meandered for a half mile before it found the ocean. That house was only $10.5M. Shrugging that overpriced cottage off, I looked to town, to those gritty hydrangea-lined streets. I found a cottage slightly larger than a Motel 6 hotel room that was listed for just $1.4M. It promised an easy walk to town, so that was something. After some deliberation in Nantucket, I escaped to Saint
D.SMITH
Barths and then retreated back to Lake Geneva after realizing my ideal island villa would set me back $35M. Lake Geneva is an expensive real estate market. In fact, it’s easily the most expensive individual market in the Midwest. I’m not counting total sales in a zip code. I’m counting the lakefront market as its own niche, and that’s a niche that hosts the highest values in the Midwest. Some buyers come here and don’t like the prices, so they leave, which is equally disappointing and understandable. But is Lake Geneva expensive compared to the other elite markets in this country? That’s not an accurate way
to compare real estate, because for $800k you can buy a 1200 acre estate in Alabama, which has no bearing on the price of a condo in Maui. Even so, it seems to me that the same clientele who might bite off a slope-side condo in Beaver Creek for $6.5M is the same clientele who might take that vacation home budget to Lake Geneva, and in that, Lake Geneva might even look affordable. Why shouldn’t a world class destination support a world class valuation? Originally written December 29, 2020. Sometimes our Midwest bias gets in the way of understanding a simple truth: Nice Things Are Expensive. SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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D.SMITH
Wind
Spring is muddy and it’s windy and that’s that.
The wind started up again. It was calm two days ago, and calm the day before that. But then yesterday the wind picked up and today it’s stirring. "The wind is stirring," we like to say. We say it because it makes good sense and we can recite the phrase and easily visualize the wind messing around. It’s outside right now moving around the town and down the dusty spring streets and pushing the branches of each tree in different directions all at once. It isn’t pushing or pulsing from one direction to another—it’s stirring, and in the spring this is what it has to do. Last week the snow was on the ground, melting. Slowly, imperceptibly, but constantly. The melt has been underway for some time, but it’s no longer subtle. Now it’s melting in a hurry. The snow is turning to water and leaving behind the dingy masks and soggy coffee cups and the rest of our damaged souvenirs of winter. Sticks and leaves, broken and stripped by the wind or the snow, or both, matted and twisted and shoved into the corners of our lawns, corralled at the very ends of our driveways by our plows and shovels. The messy remembrance of our once bright and clean winter is all around us now. The wind is making it worse. There’s mud outside my office window. It’s the mud that men turned up last fall when they installed the water service for this new building. We had hoped to do that work in the spring but the spring quickly turned to summer and just as quickly summer turned to fall. They hadn’t done any digging and fall was turning to winter. The men dug up the ground and tore through the road and now all that’s left
is a tidy scar across Broad Street and a patch of muddy straw next to the sidewalk. A customer of mine walked right through it last weekend, like he didn’t have a choice. Another client walked through it today, and if I’m not vocal, someone else will do it tomorrow. There’s no blame to place here, because the men had to dig the hole and other men had to cover it up and the winter had to hide the mess. But now? Now it’s almost spring and spring doesn’t hide anything. Maybe that’s what I like about spring. It’s bare. It’s messy. There’s not much to say about it besides it’s both of those things, for now. It’ll be more later, but not until the process has been completed. The romance of an imagined spring doesn’t have anything to do with March. We’re at an important step now, where the snow melts into the ground and wakes up everything that has been hidden underneath. There’s no more important start to any of our seasons. Nothing more meaningful than this. The first snow might delight us, but it isn’t very important. The first warm day of summer means something, but it doesn’t happen with any unique fanfare. It’s just warm one day and hot the next. The sun shines bright and strong and we shield our eyes and go about our day. That’s how summer starts. But the spring starts with snow and trudges through a dirty melt and finishes in bloom. The progression has begun, because the wind is stirring and nothing can stop it. Originally written March 11, 2020. The snow was gone and spring was here, but spring has many moods and some of them are just muddy and cold.
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JUST
•SOLD
LAKEFRONTS? WE’VE SOLD A FEW. A hot market makes lots of agents look like they might be stars. The thing is, you don’t earn the trust of a market by printing a few sales over a few years. You earn that trust by closing lots of transactions and guiding buyers and sellers through the unique challenges of a constantly changing market. It takes time to produce experience. The properties below represent the Geneva lakefront homes sold by David Curry since 2010. The total is remarkable and humbling, and it’s one that we’re proud to share with you. There are plenty of brokers vying for your attention, but if you’re looking for an unrivaled pattern of lakefront success, this is what it looks like: N1611 Shadow Ln. $1,400,000
W2904 Hollybush Dr. $2,000,000
976 S. Lakeshore Dr. $2,950,000
W3868 Lackey Ln. $4,600,000
190 Circle Pkwy. $1,440,000
Lot 7 Loramoor $2,000,000
2224 N. Bonnie Brae Ln. $3,005,000
N1921 Loramoor Dr. $4,950,000
N1546 Forest Hills Ct. $1,450,000
Lot 7 Loramoor $2,075,000 (2016)
1554 N. Oak Shores $3,100,000
552 Sauk Tr. $4,999,900
274 Sylvan Ln. $1,495,000
1530 Lake Shore Dr. $2,099,000
N1878 Black Point Dr. $3,250,000
N2339 Geneva Oaks Trail $5,000,000
1530 N. Lakeshore Dr. $1,530,000
W3252 Park Dr. $2,100,000
976 S Lakefront Dr. $3,300,000 (2016)
W3821 Creek Ln. $5,195,000
6 Upper Loch Vista $1,610,000
N1595 E. Lakeside Ln. $2,150,000
N1599 E Lakeside Ln. $3,350,000
W3818 Lackey Ln. $5,200,000
N2280 Folly Ln. $1,650,000
412 Harvard Ave. $2,269,000
N1621 E. Lakeside Ln. $3,575,000
569 North Lakeshore Dr. $5,425,000
1599 E. Lakeside Ln. $1,725,000
1100E S. Lakeshore Dr. $2,475,000
1100C S. Lakeshore Dr. $3,700,000
1014 S. Lakeshore Dr. $5,885,000
1588 N. Lakeside Ln. $1,800,000
1100 S Lakeshore Dr. $2,575,000
N1905 N. Lakeshore Dr. $3,730,000
700 S. Lakeshore Dr. $5,900,000
60 Oak Birch $1,810,000
254 Circle Pky. $2,595,000
N2263 Bonnie Brae Ln. $3,800,000
880 S. Lakeshore Dr. 1RL $5,995,000
246 Circle Pkwy. $1,820,000
N2201 Bonnie Brae Ln. $2,650,000
N1963 Birches Dr. $3,900,000
W4443 N Lake Shore Dr. $6,075,000
W3846 Lackey Ln. $1,910,000
N1592 Lakeside Ln. $2,750,000
W4437 N. Lakeshore Dr. $3,930,000
389 N. Lakeshore Dr. $6,950,000
W3852 Lackey Ln. $1,925,000
274 Sylvan Ave. $2,775,000
N2201 Bonnie Brae $4,130,000
W4396 Basswood Dr. $7,200,000
W4190 Southland Rd. $1,925,000
250 Circle Pkwy. $2,775,000
N1619 E. Lakeside Ln. $4,175,000
1014 S. Lakeshore Dr. $7,350,000 (2016)
N2319 Geneva Oaks Trl. $1,925,000
W4107 Jerseyhurst Ln. $2,795,000
W3818 Lackey Ln. $4,275,000
N2270 Folly Ln. $7,400,000
N1939 Bluff Ln. $1,950,000
507 N. Lakeshore Dr. $2,850,000
N1622 E. Lakeside Ln. $4,600,000
W4449 N. Lake Shore Dr. $9,950,000 SUMMER HOMES FOR CITY PEOPLE
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Evanston, IL | Boulder, CO
T H E L E G A C Y E S TAT E WWW.SNAKEROADESTATE.COM
• LISTING
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F E AT U R E D
• LISTING
N1931 SOLAR LANE, LINN
PIER 669A
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ver the past few months, there have been quite a few lakefront sales. The majority of these homes are selling at prices that severely limit the new owner’s optionality. If you pay $5M for a home that’s worth $4.5M, what are your options? I suppose you could just move in and enjoy your new home, but we know that’s not really what happens here. Buyers buy and then they improve. They improve homes that seemingly need no improvement, and they improve homes that desperately need improvement. Improving homes is what we do at Lake Geneva, and when you print a sale price at the top of an acceptable market range, what you’re doing when you’re improving is not something we wish to recognize. That’s because what you’re doing is pricing yourself out of your home’s ideal value category and someday you’ll end up regretting the things you’ve done. Enter N1931 Solar Lane on the south shore just to the west of the Birches. This is actually the first home on Lackey Lane, that street that I love so much and have been lucky enough to sell rather often over recent years. If I were to write a typical real estate monologue, I’d tell you about the kitchen and the bathrooms and the light fixtures. But that would be boring and that wouldn’t explain to you why this property
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is unique and valuable. The property here has 94.5´ of level lakefront with 3.66 acres. To the west of the property, a massive estate with meandering creek and deep deciduous woods provides privacy. But this isn’t really the unique bit, aside from that acreage and that privacy and how unique the two are together. The unique piece here is that this property consists of two tax keys with two houses. This allows a new owner to have a fully functioning guest house, which is exceedingly rare. The two homes are immediately usable, but the true highest and best use here is to tear down the lakeside home and rebuild down closer to the water to maximize your views. In a typical tear down situation, the new owner is going to be out of a lake house for up to two years while the new home is built. Because of the two home, two key set up, the new owner can avoid this fate and use the back house while the front one is rebuilt. And about that new build, how would it
fit into the market? Well, it’s on Lackey Lane, and we know that Lackey can support strong built value. But beyond the Lackey Lane value structure, this built property would be on 3.66 acres with a full guest house. That’s why this is a rare property in our market. It doesn’t require the new owner to do anything in particular, but still gives that owner unique and valuable optionality at a time when optionality is nowhere to be found. $4.395MM
David C. Curry, GRI 262.745.1993 dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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LOVE THE LAKE LIFE COBALT R8
Gordy’s Marine | @gordysmarine | #gordyslife
MALIBU 23 LSV
WISCONSIN: Fontana (262) 275.1563 • Oconomowoc (262) 354.0522 ILLINOIS: Chicago (708) 683.9232 • Fox Lake (847) 629.4300
Boat Sales • Cobalt Boat Rentals/Boat Club • Boat House Bar/Restaurant • Boat Service & Storage Pro Shop with Gordy Gear • Ski/Board/Surf School • Wakeboard/Surf Camp • SUP Rentals • Fuel
www.GordysBoats.com
Lynch GM Superstore 2300 Browns Lake Drive Burlington, WI 53105 262.757.2977
Lynch Chevrolet of Kenosha 10901 75th Street Kenosha, WI 53142 262.764.3970
Lynch Buick GMC of West Bend 275 S. Main Street West Bend, WI 53095 262.384.4848
Lynch CDJR of Mukwonago 282 East Wolf Run Mukwonago, WI 53149 262.642.4700
Lynch Chevrolet of Mukwonago 280 East Wolf Run Mukwonago, WI 53149 262.363.4061
Lynch Ford of Mukwonago 1015 Main St. Mukwonago, WI 53149 800.606.3085
Lynch Truck Center 29000 Sharon Ln. Waterford, WI 53185 262.514.4000
Lynch Chicago 7335 W 100th Pl. Bridgeview, IL 60455 708.233.1112
www.ShopLynch.com
lester
FA I R O A K S D R I V E
FOR SALE OFFERED AT $6,695,000
• LISTING
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N1822 FAIR OAKS DRIVE, LINN
PIER 659
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’ve said it often that I tend to offer lakefront buyers on Geneva a binary choice. They must either choose to have a nice lot with a bad house or a nice house with a bad lot. I can rarely offer something else. Because of this, I most often sell lakefront homes based on potential. They’re fine, but they could be better. Or they’re not fine at all, and as a point of fact, they’re terrible, but if only the buyer would see past the poor finishes or awful layout, then they’d be onto something. Once in a while I’m truly blessed with a beautiful home on a fitting parcel and I get to sell something to the market that requires very little imagination. This magnificent home on Geneva’s leeward south shore was constructed by Fischer Fine Homes to an exacting standard. I write that only because I feel I must, not because you wouldn’t otherwise be able to figure it out on your own. The dazzling photographs of this home tell its story quite well. The kitchen is refined and classic, a testament to Christopher Peacock and his fine custom cabinet builders. The light fixtures are timeless and sophisticated, just as you’d expect from Holly Hunt and Visual Comfort. The bathrooms are perfection, boasting marble and hand-made
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subway tiles. If you were wondering about the faucets, you’ll be glad to know they’re from Waterworks and Rohl, with an obligatory few from Wisconsin’s favorite plumbing company, Kohler. But in my excitement, I jumped into the finishes and didn’t discuss the fundamentals. An east-coast inspired cedar shingle exterior and a machine cut cedar shake roof clad the exterior. The 7200+ square feet of finished square footage includes one of the most idyllic bunk rooms I’ve ever seen. The fireplaces in the living room, den, and family room are full masonry. The floors are oak and stone. There’s nothing here amiss, nothing out of place. Quite often when I tour lakefront homes I have a distinct feeling of where the owner decided to cut a corner or three. In this home, from the bluestone front entry to the handsome office off of the master suite, there is nothing lacking. The home is uniformly stylish and without any flaw. It’s just a perfect lakefront home, with wide lake views on a deliciously deep 2.26 acre lot and 98.5’ of private frontage. In what I imagine was not an easy decision to make, the original owners are offering it to the market today for $6.695MM.
David C. Curry, GRI 262.745.1993 dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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Megan Malcolm @lakegeneva_photography
The power to live and work effortlessly brought to you by Adams SmartTech.
Security
Lighting Control
Home Automation
Motorized Shades
Whole House Audio
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801 N. Wisconsin Street | Elkhorn, WI 53121 | 262-723-6565 www.adamspower.com | Established 1988
Outdoor Living
LAKE GENEVA WINDOW & DOOR
Lake Geneva Total Lakefront Sales Volume Since 2010 By Agent Statistic represents the top individual agent’s volume at each brokerage.
350,000,000
$325,738,800
300,000,000
250,000,000
200,000,000
$189,674,090
150,000,000
100,000,000
$41,326,800
50,000,000
$30,706,88
$29,652,750 $20,776,888
$20,060,000
@properties
EXP Realty
$15,290,000
$14,275,000
Melges
Coldwell Banker
0 Geneva Lakefront Realty
Keefe
Lake Geneva Area Realty
D’Aprile
Remax
Calculations per MLS and known sales 1/1/10 through 4/21/21. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Minimum $10,000,000 in top agent sales.
David C. Curry Geneva Lakefront Realty, LLC 323 Broad St Suite 1S, Lake Geneva, WI 53147 | 262.245.9000 | dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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TRANSFORM YOUR SPACE INTO AN EVERYDAY ESCAPE Supplying the Geneva Lakes area with all your landscaping needs. Brick Pavers, Retaining Walls, Bulk Stone, Outdoor Fireplaces, Fire Pits, Grill Islands, Flagstone, Outcropping, Soils and Bark Mulches. Plus so much more!
AVAILABLE AT:
W363 Walworth St, Genoa City, WI 53128 (262) 279-6500 • high-prairie.com Located 10 minutes south of Lake Geneva at Hwy 12 & County Road H Delivery Available
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Architecture / Engineering / Design CUSTOM RESIDENTIAL · COMMERCIAL · INDUSTRIAL · RENOVATIONS
Designing Quality Custom Homes for Over 30 years! RusseLl J. DePietro, Architect
262.728.9300 www.depietrodesign.com
russ@depietrodesign.com Licensed in Wisconsin & Illinois
KYLE MILLER
Fabricators of Custom Canvas Covers BOAT COVERS · PORCH CURTAINS · MARINE UPHOLSTERY PIER CANOPY SALES & SERVICE · CANVAS SEWING · CONTRACT SEWING
639 Kenosha Street - Walworth across from Sentry Foods
262.275.5067
W
elcome to this enchanting English Tudor in the highly desirable Geneva Manor neighborhood. This handsome two story home boasts an incredibly rare double lot, offering immense privacy and the potential to add a pool. Double course brick construction with hand split cedar shake roof combine with many original steel windows and mature perennial landscaping to deliver a most remarkable three bed, three bath home. While many homes fell victim to the renovation follies of the 1970s and 1980s, this home has maintained most of its original character (like that masonry fireplace and hardwood floors), while still offering an updated kitchen and master suite. Stroll to the lakefront park with summer lifeguard and sought-after sand beach, or walk a bit further down the shore path and grab dinner in town. A complete lakeaccess retreat at an attractive price point. $879,000
1591 ORCHARD DRIVE, LAKE GENEVA
E
xceptional privacy, in-ground swimming pool and full Wooddale lake rights are yours with this immaculate three bedrooms lake house. What could be better than a sunny summer day enjoying the Wooddale lakefront pier and park before retreating to your secluded back yard oasis? Inside there's a two story stone fireplace in the vaulted living room, with a nicely open floor plan adjoining the kitchen, dining, and living rooms. The main level sunroom opens onto the pool patio for terrific entertaining efficiency. This home is ready for immediate occupancy to make summer 2021 the best summer ever. $725,000
1722 WOODDALE DRIVE, LAKE GENEVA David C. Curry, GRI 262.745.1993 dave@genevalakefrontrealty.com
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Wealth with purpose Working together to help you pursue what matters most
At the end of the day, it’s not just about wealth. It’s about what your wealth can accomplish—whether it’s buying a lake home, spending more time with your children and grandchildren, or leaving a legacy with philanthropic giving. Together, we can help prepare your financial life for today, tomorrow and generations to come—so you can stay focused on what matters most, no matter what the markets are doing. That’s our focus as a local team with over 35 multi-generational professionals. Call us today to start the conversation. Frank Oddo Senior Vice President– Wealth Management frank.oddo@ubs.com
Atsaves/Oddo Financial Group UBS Financial Services Inc. Five Revere Drive, Suite 500 Northbrook, IL 60062 312-525-4529
Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisor in Illinois, 2021. Chris Atsaves, CFP® Senior Vice President– Wealth Management chris.atsaves@ubs.com
A strategic partner of The Burish Group UBS Financial Services Inc. 8020 Excelsior Drive, Suite 400 Madison, WI 53717 608-831-4282
ubs.com/team/atsavesoddogroup ubs.com/burishgroup
Forbes Best-In-State Wealth Advisors list is comprised of approximately 5,200 financial advisors. It was developed by SHOOK Research and is based on in-person and telephone due diligence meetings to measure factors such as quality of practice, industry experience, compliance record, assets under management (which vary from state to state) and revenue. Neither UBS Financial Services Inc. nor its employees pay a fee in exchange for these ratings. Past performance is not an indication of future results. Investment performance is not a criterion because client objectives and risk tolerances vary, and advisors rarely have audited performance reports. Rankings are based on the opinions of SHOOK Research, LLC and not indicative of future performance or representative of any one client’s experience. As a firm providing wealth management services to clients, UBS Financial Services Inc. offers investment advisory services in its capacity as an SEC-registered investment adviser and brokerage services in its capacity as an SEC-registered broker-dealer. Investment advisory services and brokerage services are separate and distinct, differ in material ways and are governed by different laws and separate arrangements. It is important that clients understand the ways in which we conduct business, that they carefully read the agreements and disclosures that we provide to them about the products or services we offer. For more information, please review the PDF document at ubs.com/relationshipsummary. Certified Financial Planner Board of Standards, Inc. owns the certification marks CFP®, Certified finanCial PlannerTM and federally registered CFP (with flame design) in the US, which it awards to individuals who successfully complete CFP Board’s initial and ongoing certification requirements. © UBS 2021. All rights reserved. UBS Financial Services Inc. is a subsidiary of UBS AG. Member FINRA/SIPC. VIP_03152021-3 Exp.: 03/31/2022
Wood. That burns.
lumberjax.com
(815) 337-1451
A LAKE GENEVA COUNTRY MEATS GUIDE TO
BEEF FOR SUMMER GRILLING RIBEYE STEAK
PORTERHOUSE STEAK
NY STRIP STEAK
Full of rich beef flavor, the Ribeye is a grilling favorite.
A big, juicy, bone-in steak to feed big appetites.
A certified lean, boneless cut, it still has great beef flavor.
SKIRT STEAK
TRI-TIP STEAK
BRISKET FLAT
Robust flavor & great for fajitas. Season well, then serve sliced.
A California classic that is perfect to season, grill & slice.
The cut to know if you’re a smoker: low & slow does it.
TOP BUTT STEAK
BBQ SHORT RIBS
A flavorful sirloin cut to make into ka-bobs.
Cut thin, these are great to marinate & grill
Taste the Lake Geneva Country Meats difference: • Exclusive Leahy’s Angus Beef. • Top choice quality, Midwestern beef. • Hand cut daily by butchers like Ron (to the left.) • Family owned & operated since 1965.
LAKE GENEVA COUNTRY MEATS
3 miles east of Lake Geneva on Hwy. 50 www.lgmeats.com | 262.248.3339 Monday - Friday 9 AM - 6 PM Saturday 9 AM - 3 PM | Sunday 10 AM - 2 PM
A FEW OF DAVID CURRY’S RECENT
LAKEFRONT SALES Between April 1st, 2016 and April 1st, 2021, seven lakefront homes on Lake Geneva sold at or above $6,950,000. Of those seven sales, David Curry has personally represented the buyer, seller, or both parties in six of them. The Pinnacle Market at Lake Geneva has grown exponentially over the past several years, and no agent has demonstrated the ability to represent the buyers and sellers in this heavily nuanced market segment. If you’re a buyer or seller in the Lake Geneva market and would like assistance in this unique piece of our lakefront market, there’s no other agent who can offer this segment specific track record. If you’re a luxury buyer or seller at Lake Geneva, you should work with David.
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Sun-kissed 7summer bliss! Inspired by her love of surfing and boating Geneva Lake and continuing the charitable legacy of her grandparents, Prospect senior, Lexi Covey has created a fashionable swimsuit line with a portion of the proceeds benefitting the Union Club of Chicago Boys and Girls Club.
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LAKE GENEVA
Shop watervibebikinis.com
GENEVA LAKE SAILING SCHOOL Providing High Quality Sailing Instruction from Introduction to Sailing through Advanced Racing for Youth and Adults
For more information or to register visit www.glss.org
BECOME A PART OF THE TRADITION
"David was the agent for the buyer of our house in the South Shore Club and his knowledge, professionalism and integrity so impressed us that we retained him as our agent to assist us in finding and purchasing a new home. HIs knowledge of the housing market in the Lake Geneva area is unsurpassed, and his assistance in finding us available homes for our consideration made the buying process an enjoyable experience." "His assistance in the negotiation process with respect to the purchase and his follow up and with all aspects concerning the closing ensured that our interests were fully protected and that everything proceeded on a orderly basis. David assistance continued even after the completion of the closing, helping us with certain issues that arose and helping us track down information so as to ensure the full enjoyment of our new home." "We are certainly pleased to recommend David Curry to anyone looking to buy or sell a house and assure you that a better choice cannot be made."
"More importantly, he is a great person. He's fun to be around and has the right perspective on doing business. He is generous with his time and has been a wonderful resource for all things related to Geneva Lake. That truck of his with the foreign license plates is ridiculous, though."
Jake and Sheryl
Carolann and Baird
Plainfield
LESTER
"David is a terrific realtor. He is responsive, insightful and has a deep knowledge of lakefront property and people. He gives honest advice that we quickly learned to trust. With David, I knew we would get the right result and -- even in this challenging market -- we did."
Downers Grove, IL
"Dave was referred to us by a close friend who has had several homes on Lake Geneva over the years. We were blown away by Dave's encyclopedic knowledge of the market, his robust network of suppliers and his willingness to go above and beyond to not only help us find a home, but to build out our dream lake house. He has been much more than a real estate agent, he's been an amazing resource for everything we need for life on the lake."
“Our search for a cottage started with little more than an idea of the experience we wanted to have at the lake. David gave us an introduction to the breadth of Lake Geneva communities and helped translate our dream into a curated set of choices. In the end, his knowledge of the market landed us at the perfect spot — a property that was not even listed! David was a true partner in helping us make our Lake Geneva dream come true.”
Sharon & Neil
John and Nancy
Chicago
Williams Bay
3 23 Broad St reet , Suite 1 N | Lake Ge neva, WI 53 1 47 | 2 62 . 248.1 400 LakeGenevaArchitects.com