(tranquil music)
- We really liked what we thought
was the simplicity of city living.
We had the best view of the city you could have.
It was very special.
Then 2020 happened and our city changed.
It changed drastically.
(upbeat music)
- Drive a half hour east of Minnesota’s Twin Cities,
and you’ll run into the St. Croix River.
It acts as the border
between Minnesota and neighboring Wisconsin.
And in this little area,
people on both sides of the state line
know how to have a good time in the great outdoors.
In the summer, locals love trying to
hook a 50 pound sturgeon in Lake St. Croix.
And in the winter they hit the ski slopes at Afton Alps.
Here you’re close to the Whitetail Ridge Mountain Bike Trail
in Willow River State Park.
So no matter what you wanna do, you are covered.
And that’s why Tom and Vanessa wanna relocate here.
When the pandemic hit Minneapolis,
life started to feel little unsafe.
And so understandably, they’ve set their sights
on finding a new home with a little more breathing room.
- The more that we look at country homes
the more that I am thinking about living outside
as opposed to having our whole world be indoors.
- But in many cases, buying a home here
is at actually more expensive than what you’d find
for something comparable over in the city.
In fact, housing prices here have jumped 11%
in just the past year,
and they’ve risen steadily for the last decade.
Still Tom and Vanessa say
they are committed to getting out of the city
and into a new home in the great outdoors
(upbeat music)
- Bet this is really pretty in the summertime.
- Yeah, when all these trees have leaves on ’em.
- Yeah
I’m Tom.
- And I’m Vanessa.
- And we’re looking for our dream country property
in St. Croix Valley in Wisconsin
- We met at the gym,
and he was like, ooh, look at this.
(Vanessa and Tom laughing)
- Gosh.
Stop, stop.
- I was a young mom.
I was divorced.
I had two boys,
and I am older than Tom.
And the trainer that I was working with
was really trying hard to set me up with Tom.
And I was like, ooh, no, he’s too young for me.
- The funny thing is that I was also divorced.
And at one point I said to a friend,
my next wife is gonna be six years older than me,
and she’s gonna have two kids when we get married,
and voila, there you were.
- Well, now you’re gonna really make me cry,
but that’s not really hard to do.
(Tom laughs)
I think we both knew right away.
We met and got engaged and married
within about a year’s time.
We love being together.
We love being married to each other.
- All right, so what’s next?
- So next is a five bedroom, four bathroom home.
It is almost 5,000 square feet.
It’s just a hair over our price range.
- So for the home that we’re looking for,
we’re looking 850.
- Tom really wants land, three to five acres of land.
Homes that have three or plus acres tend to go really fast.
Some of them are older homes with more land.
Some of the newer homes tend to be on smaller lots,
but either way, they’re all going very fast.
The interior has a country feel.
It looks like it’s all kind of like knotty pine.
Looks kind of like a log cabin.
- Wow, that’s unique.
- [Vanessa] Yeah.
- I like unique.
- [Vanessa] Okay. - [Tom] Wow.
- This is pretty sweet.
I definitely like the character.
I’ll let you carve the path for me.
- Come and follow my path, okay.
- And I’ll go behind ya.
- Wow.
- [Vanessa] This is really cool.
- [Tom] Unexpected.
- [Vanessa] It’s country, but-
- [Tom] It’s country,
but it’s also kinda Northern Minnesota,
Wisconsin kind of feel. - [Vanessa] I like the-
- [Tom] The ceilings are high.
Look at that fireplace.
- It looks like it’s a wood burning fireplace.
- This was not cheap.
This was pretty expensive.
- There you go. - Now, there we go.
- Here’s your opening up your flue and damper.
That window is beautiful.
Lots and lots of light.
- It does. - Which I love.
Our original dream from early on in our marriage,
wouldn’t it be cool to live in the city?
Tom grew up in a very, very small town
in Northern Minnesota.
And so for him, I understood the appeal
of living in a city.
It would be something completely different
than what he knew of.
So then we ended up up on the 30th floor.
We had probably the best view of the city you could have.
It was very special.
What I loved about the loft was it had some character.
It was in a historic building.
It was over 120 years old.
We whitewashed all the brick.
We remodeled the kitchen.
We remodeled the bathroom.
I mean, we just went in and really made it ours.
We really liked what we thought
was the simplicity of city living.
We could walk.
We rarely drove.
We both worked from home.
I rode my bike to the gym every single day
that I possibly could until it snowed, right?
And then 2020 happened and our city changed.
It changed drastically.
- Crime rates were going up.
Carjackings were going up.
- We could see smoke outside of our windows from the riots
and the fires that were happening in the city.
We loved the city.
Yeah, I don’t wanna cry, but it was our home.
And it just makes me really sad for what it’s become.
- It was pretty fast from us seeing city life
as being our dream
to we need something completely different.
And that’s what led us to looking to
getting something in the country.
If we’re gonna get out,
then we should get out and have some solitude
and peace and quiet.
- So it’s a new dream.
Yeah. - Yeah.
- What do you think of this kitchen?
- [Tom] I love the size of it.
- [Vanessa] The size is good.
- [Tom] The layout is great.
Obviously it’s a bit dated,
but you don’t see a cutting board built
right into the countertop very often anymore.
- Well, the kitchen is massive.
I mean, it’s definitely great size,
but I would wanna come in and whiten it up, brighten it up,
and probably modernize it a little bit.
- And it is laid out well.
Sometimes with a kitchen you have to completely reconfigure
where everything is,
and that wouldn’t be the case with this one at all, so.
- Okay, let’s go straight back
’cause that obviously is the master bedroom.
- [Tom] And it’s big.
It’s tons of light.
- Yeah.
- The ceiling is spectacular.
It’s so different than just staring at a white ceiling.
- [Vanessa] It is, yes.
It is very different.
- They put in some extra effort in designing that for sure.
- Let’s go look at the other bedrooms on this floor.
Looks like the best view here.
- Office or Asher’s-
- Or Asher’s bedroom maybe.
- [Tom] Yeah.
- Yeah.
Asher’s our grandson.
He’s seven,
and we are co-raising Asher with his other grandparents,
and he is just our joy.
It looks like there’s even one more bedroom up here.
So three bedrooms.
- So it could be Asher’s bedroom,
your office, and my office.
- Okay.
- [Tom] Holy cow.
- [Vanessa] Do you wanna watch a movie?
(Vanessa laughs)
- [Tom] Oh my gosh, are kidding me?
- [Vanessa] There’s a theater right here.
- This space enormous.
Oh my gosh, look at this.
- [Vanessa] There’s a bar over there.
- I can see why the seating area upstairs
is a little smaller-
- Smaller, yes. - Because this is amazing.
- This is the hangout spot.
Let’s go back here because I can smell it.
- Ah, sauna.
It is sauna for those of you not from Minnesota.
- That is something that Tom really wants to have
in our next home would be a sauna.
And this must be the guest bedroom then.
- [Tom] Oh!
- A fireplace.
- I can totally see my parents coming and staying, and-
- Well, they’d fit right at home with a sauna.
- They would.
And a fireplace.
- And a fireplace.
I do remember reading in the listing about a secret.
- No way!
Are you kidding?
- Space.
There it is.
- That is awesome.
- Your secret door.
This would be fun.
Asher would love this. - [Tom] Yes.
- Now this would be a cool office
with the big, huge windows.
You’ve got the sun coming in.
Right now, the morning sun.
You might have to fight Asher for this room.
- I know. (Vanessa laughs)
I know.
- [Vanessa] Do you see us living in this house?
- I like the house.
I don’t know that it really feels like
we’re in the country though.
I mean, I know this is on 2.75 acres,
but it’s pretty wide open,
and every window I’m looking out and seeing neighbors.
So it seems like it’s a big lot,
but maybe it’s a big house on a big lot.
And if I wanna feel like we’re in the country,
we’re gonna have to do a lot of landscaping.
It was nice being able to walk in almost any direction,
and you’re looking out big windows.
The downside of it, yeah, is you’re looking at homes
through almost every window as well.
And so we could either do something like this
and put a lot of trees in,
or find something that’s more wooded,
and we feel a little bit more secluded.
If we’re living more inside, this is a great house.
If we wanna be outdoors, I don’t know yet.