After years of vacationing in Door County, we began looking at cottages and land in the summer of 2002, with the idea of either buying or building a summer cabin. We clocked hundreds of miles, over many weekends, driving back and forth across the peninsula in search of the right property. Nothing seemed just right. Carolyn had a yearning for a cabin on the lake, or at least a view, but our budget was slim. Eventually we found ourselves along the Lake Michigan shore, staring into dense woods. In the foreground a sign read, For Sale - 1.5 acres. Curiosity forced us to take a walk through the woods. Of course, we fell in love with it the moment we stepped on shore. The price of the land exceeded our total budget (Isn't that always the case?), but we had fallen in love and there was no stopping us. We concocted a scheme: We would rent the place out to vacationers and enjoy it ourselves when it was free.

As soon as our offer was accepted, we began sketching potential designs like mad. We closed on the property in early December, 2002 and cleared the woods for the driveway before Christmas. Construction started the following March, and by the end of the year, the bulk of construction was finished. On January 1, 2004 we launched our website and signed up with VRBO. We spent that spring building, varnishing and hanging doors, varnishing the cabinets, shopping for furniture, etc. It was a photo finish. When our first guests arrived that spring, the paint on the shed doors was still wet.

Killasonna Lodge is situated in an area that was developed in 1922 by an enterprising young woman named Annie Reynolds. She called the plat of subdivision “The Killasonna Plat.” We borrowed the name to commemorate her vision.