Mason City Globe Gazette / Saturday January 29, 2000

Imagine building a dream home so inviting and commodious that its owners, soon after moving in, decide to convert it into a bed and breakfast.  That's what Roy and Sharon Lomholt have created on a bluff overlooking the pictursque Cedar River near Mitchell.

They put everything they wanted into their new house, but before long entrepreneuial spirits took over.  Now, they're making it into a bed and breakfast.  "We walked every inch of this 80 acres to find the best spot," said Sharon.  "This is the million-dollar view, right on this spot."  Eagles soar, hunting in the rolling water beneath the Mitchell Dam.   Once 5 were spotted at one time, said Roy.  They are such a distraction that the carpet layers had a hard time getting their work done.

"We wanted hills and trees.  We didn't want flat land.  And we got it," Roy said.  "There are quail, pheasants, skunks and possums."  And there are a lot of curious people who drive down Ellicott Street out of Mitchell where the road dead-ends at the Lomholt house, Roy and Sharon welcome them all.  They are people people.

With construction nearly complete, they held an open house in the summer of 1998 and invited friends as well as all the people who worked on the house.  They ended up with 400 guests who shared in a hog roast and a Fourth of July fireworks show set off over the dam.  In Osage, where their businesses are located, everybody knows them and 90 percent are their friends, Roy said.  "We must have had 500 people out here looking at this house, " Sharon said. "One Sunday, five car loads showed up, I love it."  Instead of being bothered by unexpected visitors wanting to see the house, the Lomholt's enjoy it.  They operate Roy's Auto Service, engine rebuilding and used auto sales in Osage.  They also rehabilitate buildings and buy and sell real estate.  Now , they're considering retirement.

For two years, they searched for the right piece of property for their home.  "One dream he's always had is to build his own house," Sharon said.  "We've remodeled a lot." In the past, Roy's father built 11 "nice but saleable" homes in Osage.  After finding their dream property, the couple went to K-Mart in Rochester, Minn., one day and bought about $200 worth of house plan books, then began borrowing ideas from them.  "We wanted to build a home for old people, everything on one floor. But we added two floors," Roy said.  It's hard to design a house if you dont't have the property; you have to design it to fit the site, he said.  The first thing a visitor sees, after driving by an abandoned farmstead that is about to be demolished, is a house on the crest of the hill, 50 feet above the river road, overlooking the trees of the river valley.

A traditional-style porch circles the exterior of the house, extending from the three-stall garage, with 10-foot high doors, around to the south side and its banks of windows.  The sunburst theme evident in the porch railing design is repeated in the entrance floor tile.  Two thousand pieces of tile were used to create the unusual welcome feature.  Straight ahead is the 28-foot tall great room with its centrally located fireplace and wall of windows over looking the valley.  To the left is the kitchen with custom-made hickory cabinets, constructed by White Oaks Cabinetry of rural Rudd.  A large island was first outlined with a piece of cardboard to help craftsmen grasp the couple's concept.  "I wanted a bar that was not a normal square and I wanted to be able to sit at it," said Sharon.  And she wanted one side dropped down to a lower level as a work surface.  A bar sink and Jenn-Air range are located there.

The Kitchen cabinetry houses a built-in oven and microwave, a roll-up appliance garage, wine rack and pantry cupboard. Both sinks have garbage disposals designed to work with the 2,000-gallon septic system.

Nearby, an open stairway to the side of the great room leads to a loft library and two guest bedrooms.  The house features five bedrooms and five full bathrooms.  The walls throughout much of the house are covered by 40,000 linear feet of western red cedar applied at a 45-degree diagonal.  In the great room, the cedar combined with four lantern-style chandeliers adds to the singularity of the home and reinforces the feeling of spaciousness.  The stairs to the walk-in basement pass near the mudroom/laundry room which in turn leads to the 52-by-38 foot garage.  Traditional-style oak trim with roundel corners is employed in many areas of the house.

The basement has a 30-by-38 foot recreation room, a bedroom and all-purpose room.  There's a six-person spa, a pool table hand-crafted in Mexico City and a bar.

Throughout the house, earth tones are employed in carpet and floor tile to match its natural setting.  There are 198 square yards of carpeting in the basement alone.

The 17-by-12 foot master bedroom has a bay window and an expance of mirror-door closets, but the attention is quickly drawn to the double-curve glass block wall visible in the master bath.  Custom designed by Roy Lomholt, the wall of glass encloses a huge open shower area featuring four shower heads.  Adjacent is a double Jacuzzi.  The play of light is enhanced by mirrors on two walls above the 9-foot-long, one-piece onyx counter with two sinks.   Decorative inserts add pattern to the ceramic tiles.  The upstairs guest rooms are located off the 15-by-22 foot loft/library and feature dormers and closets located under the pitch of the roof.   One is decorated in greens and the other in pinks.  The former offers butterflies in the wallpaper; the latter, flowers.  Mirrors and glass block appear in other bathrooms and, in all, brightness and roominess predominate.

The Outside is where the Lomholts still have work to do.  This year, they are planning to create extensive gardens, a driveway to the front of the house, a drop-down stairway flanked by a waterfall and a fountain.   "We love making people guess what we're going to do next," said Sharon.   When she sits at her favorite place at the southwest corner of the porch, looking out over the countryside in two directions, maybe that's what she thinks about.  What project's next?