Three Sisters' Farm
Three Sisters' Farm
Welcome to a beautiful and peaceful house and grounds. The secluded ridge top location ensures privacy while affording marvelous views of the surrounding countryside, magnificent sky watching, sunrises, sunsets and abundant sunshine. There is no other house in view, but downtown Viroqua (the Vernon County seat) is a close 6 miles. When you have the desire to visit a larger town you have multiple options; LaCrosse is 30 miles, Madison 100 miles and Minneapolis/St. Paul and Chicago are around 200 miles away. This property has something to offer everyone whether a nature lover, animal lover, horse person, hunter, outdoor sports enthusiast or just interested in a quiet country retreat.
This house was lovingly custom built in 1999 by Quail Hill Construction, a local contractor specializing in one of a kind country homes. It was designed and built for the needs and flexibility of a local physician, a home based artist and their young family. The 4,500 foot house has 2 floors and a full basement with 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths and is designed around outdoor living in the summer months and indoor entertaining in the winter months. Windows are large and numerous to ensure the wonderful views of the surrounding grounds and to increase winter light. The low maintenance exterior is friendly yellow stucco with a Mediterranean flair and white aluminum trim. The interior is tastefully decorated with warm colors, refurbished interior trim from an original 1890 farmhouse on the grounds, yellow pine floors and Feng Shui sensibilities to create warm and inviting surroundings. Old fashioned radiators, a high efficiency boiler, passive solar heating and central A/C combine to form a comfortable and efficient environment.
The second floor was designed with high angular ceilings to promote openness along with the interest of a complex interior roof line. The jewel of the house is the large master bedroom suite. It has nine foot tall double French doors (displaying wonderful views along with great ventilation) that open onto a cozy balcony perfect for a private sun bath. The custom walk in closet has room for both him and her. The master bath has a spacious four by five foot tiled walk in shower, reproduction French Revolution vanity and a large double bath tub with air jets for lounging or therapeutic effects. The other second floor bath has an antique claw foot bathtub, a four foot square walk in tiled shower and a double vanity.
An extra large bedroom is cantilevered over the first floor and was built as a children's nursery and sleeps six easily. There are custom beds that are considered part of the house. One is a double bunk bed and the other is a canopy double bed. Both are exquisite examples of hand workmanship and built by Ron Momaertz of Quail Hill. The room has two large four by eight foot closets with full size six panel double doors on each closet. The remaining bedroom is a more modest ten by fourteen feet and also has a closet identical to the nursery closets. An open maple staircase is bathed in light by dual skylights and is a friendly path between the first and second floors.
The large open kitchen has an eastern exposure and captures early morning light beautifully. It has floor to ceiling hand built custom cabinets with ample storage and a few nice surprises such as an old fashioned bread drawer and a corner base cabinet with a lazy Suzan to handle recyclables conveniently. The sink area has five large windows which gives a panoramic view of the herb garden and pasture to lighten the workload. The kitchen was designed with food preparation, cleanup and as the social center of the house. There is an island with stainless steel countertops and space for a 36" dual fuel stove. The remaining countertops are made of low maintenance corian.
The dining room is open to the kitchen to encourage a friendly mingling with a retractable curtain when a more intimate space is desired. The table area is made for a large farm table and has an idyllic view of the pagoda, a child's tree house and the wooded hillside.
There is a walk in pantry with adjustable shelving, a pot rack made from spare antique trim and a laundry shoot door. The mudroom is between the kitchen and the garage and is lined with coat hooks as well as a four by eight foot closet designed for as a family shoe and coat storage unit. The mudroom has a Dutch 1/2 door to contain dogs as well as muddy children without being isolating and effectively acts as a welcoming transition between the out of doors and the indoors. There is a first floor bedroom off the mudroom that has made an ideal playroom and child's art room and over looks the front garden.
The 2 1/2 car garage has wall to ceiling shelving along one wall and is insulated and never gets below freezing. In inclement weather the garage has served as a car wash bay witwith in-floor drains, a track for children pretending to be famous race horses as well as an out of the weather grilling location for Christmas turkeys.
The front door is surrounded on both sides by full transoms and leads from the front porch to the front entryway with room for a coat rack and bench. There is a 1/2 bath powder room with a large oval turn of the century sink immediately off the entryway and easily accessible to company. The first floor office is designed with two sets of pocket doors to promote privacy or openness and connects from the front entryway to the living room.
The living room currently accommodates an upright piano with ease in one corner. There is a large wood burning fireplace centered in the west wall. A near by pass thru allows feeding the fire without tracking debris thru the house. Over the fireplace is a custom wood mantle ideal for stockings and holiday decorations. A large built in mirror is over the mantle and reflects back the warmth of the room. The fireplace is flanked by built in floor to ceiling bookshelves that line the rest of the west wall. The living room is open to the beautiful southern exposure with large windows and a set of double French doors that open onto an outdoor deck is perfect for watching the sun slowly slip away and that is large enough for a family to eat on.
The basement has a full framed wall on the south side for added sense of warmth. A large family room is on the south side and has double French doors opening onto the outside living area. The family room doubles well as a guest suite with it's own bath and is fairly decadent with a walk in five foot shower. An artist's studio is in the southwest corner and has wonderful sunlight as well as a ground level view of the back garden and the birds at the feeder and bird bath. There is a storage room on the north side with access to the outside and the herb garden thru a large old fashioned hurricane door. It was designed with the potential of a root cellar in mind. A laundry room was placed in the basement for quietness and has a clothes shoot for easy access for laundry to both upper floors. A storage room lined with custom shelving is ideal for all types of items and could easily be converted to a steam room. The basement cedar closet was built for out of season storage of wool and other clothes.
The grounds are designed for promoting outside living. There is a large covered porch on the front of the house that wraps around to the majority of the west side of the house. It has a fir floor, a bead board ceiling, custom wrought iron railing, pleasing arched walls and several designed seating areas. In addition, the decks off the living room and master bath both have custom wrought iron railings. A key focal point for the summer time is a fifteen by twelve foot pagoda. It is hand made from local black locust and the ceiling is formed by a thick mesh of vines. The pagoda creates an ideal space for outdoor entertaining with warmth and intimacy and creates an outdoor room. For those adventuresome souls, there is a secluded outdoor shower that is great for cleaning up after working hard or just to enjoy the privacy of the grounds.
The house is surrounded by extensive perennial gardens with numerous bulbs, flowers shrubs and trees chosen for variety of color and foliage as well as well as prolonged bloom time. A trumpet vine on the pagoda, a climbing honeysuckle nestled in a corner near the kitchen as well as the perennials act as a magnet for hummingbirds. In addition the ten acres of restored prairie creates a beautiful four season native landscape and also dramatically increase the diversity of birds visiting the feeders and birdbaths.
Near the house is an organic orchard with over 20 trees including cherries, plums, peaches, pears, raspberries and at least six types of apples. A 100 foot tobacco shed near the house lends ambience as well as covered storage space. There is a restored dairy barn with a limestone foundation. A new floor was laid in the hayloft and it has recently been stained with "Barn Red". It has recently been rewired and has automatic heated waterers for horses or livestock. There are five new oak board stalls in the barn cellar ready for horses, goats or any other type of assorted farm animal. Two of the stalls have direct access to the barnyard and the three acre five foot tall fenced pasture. Near the barn is a restored grainary that has been converted to a critter proof chicken house and designed for easy cleaning in mind with a trap door.
The 80 acres teems with wildlife. In addition to the songbirds, there are numerous deer, turkey, pheasants and quail. It is typical on a daily basis to hear the turkeys calling in the spring and to hear the pheasants declaring their territory all year long. There are several miles of maintained trails lending themselves to four seasons of outdoor silent sports. The trails wind thru a variety of habitats including deep woods, forest edge and restored prairie. There are about 30 acres of forest, 30 acres of grassland including 10 acres of restored prairie and 20 acres of 7 year old hardwood plantation.
10 acres and home: $545,000. 80 acres and home: $795,000.
2006 Taxes: $6077
Viroqua area
Viroqua School district
Pleasant Ridge Waldorf School
Youth Initiative High School