"What's it like to live in a Frank Lloyd Wright house?"

That is, by far, the most common question we get about the house. (Well, maybe after the question, "YOU bought a Frank Lloyd Wright house???")

And I can see why. 

So let me start by telling the story of how we got here.

The thought of living in a Wright house was not even a figment of our imagination until about five years ago, when the Mason House in Wausau, WI was put up for sale. It is a Usonian House, which brings to mind a couple of things. Low ceilings, simple and elegant layout, no garage or basement. (all those being general rules). It was listed for $425k, which did not seem out of reach.

The Mason House

This intrigued Doreen to no end, her being such a Wright fan. So we asked the realtor if my brother Mark, who lives in Wausau, could visit to assess the height of the ceilings, and the general condition of the house.

We were told "no" and so we just passed on that house, and did not think too much about it. 

But a seed had been planted in Doreen's (sometimes) obsessive mind that owning a Wright house would be possible.

Then the Keland House in Mount Pleasant, WI was offered up for sale in 2022. It was a bigger house, but still called a Usonian. Mount Pleasant is south of Milwaukee, just west of Racine. But it looked like it had a nice view of the Root River, and it was on 3 acres. Nice! More expensive that the Mason House, but still sort of reasonable. 

The Keland House

We were late to the game on this house, and they were having a sealed bid auction. There wasn't a chance we could see it before this happened. So this, too, passed us by.

This is probably the right time to mention that I come from a large family, (I am one of seven) and most of the family, and extended family, live in Wisconsin. (some forever, some returned). All the family knows About Doreen's Wright obsession, and they all (seem to) want us back in Wisconsin, too.

So in September of 2023 when the Bogk House came on the market, we started getting many emails, texts, and Signal chats from the family saying that we really needed to come and see this house!

And we did need to see it! It was featured in the Wall Street Journal's "Mansion" section, in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel "Real Estate" section, and an untold number of scraped House Porn magazines.

We did not want to sleep on this one (I had just retired, and we were thinking about getting a summer place where it is cooler than Houston. Doreen was "thinking" about retiring soonish) So I called my sister who lives in Milwaukee and asked if we could spend the weekend. She said "Of Course!" (of course) and we flew up the next day.

The house was listed by Christies (because, of course) we arranged a meeting with the agent for that Friday. 

But before we arrived, Doreen did a ton of work. She made sure I could stand up in house (it is NOT a Usonian, and it is NOT a Prairie Style), she contacted the Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy to see what easements were on the house (nothing that we would not have asked for ourselves), she contacted the Milwaukee Historic Preservation Commission to see what neighborhood restrictions were in place, and she contacted the Homeowners Association to see what OTHER restrictions were in place. She did a LOT of work. 

So when we arrived for the showing, we knew what was what, and what we should be concerned about.

It could not have gone better. The house was beautiful, the neighborhood was fantastic, the weather was gorgeous. 

But now hard decisions had to be made. Doreen was really still working, and was not seriously thinking about retirement (as much as I was trying to get her to). We spent a day walking around the neighborhood and visiting open houses to get a sense of the FLW premium (very low, by the way) and to think about what our lives would be like if we would pull this trigger.

We made our decision over the weekend, and contacted the agent and let her know. After a brief negotiations with the owners (Who are lovely to a one of them. We still keep in touch, and take advantage of their knowledge of the house that they lived in for almost 70 years! They have become friends) we came to a number, an an agreement, and a date to close later that year.

I will stop here for now, and in my next post answer the question that is the title of this one.