HausDasHOME & LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE

PLAYING HOUSE

Lake cabin the perfect second home

for Hays couple

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J14108 Das haus Mag Ad Hays Feb-Mar 2013.indd 1 12/3/2012 9:56:14 AM

8 At home on the lAkePlaying House

Wilson Lake cabin a close getaway home for couple5 Details set in stone

Accents can make stonework ‘pop’

14 Coming home Local builder creates a sense

of community with new homes

features

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 • 3

Published and distributed byThe Hays Daily News

507 Main, Hays, KS 67601HDNews.net

(785) 628-1081

PublisherPatrick Lowry

plowry@dailynews.net

Advertising DirectorMary Karst

maryk_ads@dailynews.net

DesignerGayle Weber

gweber@dailynews.net

ContributorsDiane Gasper-O’Brien • Writer

Gayle Weber • WriterChelsy Lueth • Photographer

Elisha Jones • Creative ServicesJuno Ogle • Creative Services

Tiffany Reddig • Creative Services

Account ExecutivesJoleen Fisher

Sandra HarderEric Rathke

Wayne Roberts

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DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 • 5

Details set in stoneS

ometimes, it’s the details that make a project a suc-cess. That’s the case for much of Western Stone

Co.’s work in Hays and the sur-rounding area.

Business has doubled each of the last four years for the only stone company in western Kansas. With all the stone manufactured on site, Western Stone Co. can customize any stone work and provide all the details to enhance the project, said owner Jordan Keil.

By GAYLE WEBERcomPany leaves no sTone unTuRneD

“It’s the little things that can re-ally make an install pop,” Keil said, pointing out trim pieces for outdoor light fixtures and keystones for the tops of door frames.

Homeowners sometimes don’t think about those small elements of the project, Keil said, but something like a window seal — a row of stone that connects the rest of the stone to the siding on a house — can provide the finishing touches.

“It really helps the stone pop when you’re transitioning from sid-ing,” Keil said.

Western Stone Co.’s product is manufactured using a concrete

formula, and colors and styles can be customized to individual proj-ects, which have included fire pits, outdoor kitchens and living spaces, retaining walls, and outdoor fire-places in addition to home exteriors.

“Most houses that are built in Hays do have some form of stone on them,” Keil said. “Most of that stone is from us — and installed by us.”

He said popular styles and col-

ors change every year, but the stone Western Stone Co. has been provid-ing in the Hays area since ... has grown in popularity each year. The variety of shapes of stones, ways of installing them and ways of using mortar to install them make each project unique.

“The biggest thing with us is the fact that we make it here, so people can get a custom color for their house,” Keil said.

“It’s the little things that can really make an install pop.”

Jordan Keil, Western Stone Co.

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8 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net

Playinghouse

“We have two views — the lake and the rolling hills behind us. It’s so relaxing.”

— Marion Dreher, Hays

Hays couple finds comfort in small

A-frame on Wilson Lake

story by Diane Gasper-O’Brien

photography byChelsy Lueth

At home on the lAke

DAS HAUS • www.HDNews.Net FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 • 9

They started out in a tent and later graduated to a camper, then a cabin.As much larger dwellings started popping up all around them, Marion and Conni Dreher never once

thought about moving to something larger.Sort of like the baby bear’s porridge, chair and bed in

the fairy tale “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” the Hays couple’s 900-square-foot A-frame home-away-from-home overlooking Wilson Lake is “just right.”

“We spend a lot of time on the lake,” Conni said. “Be-ing able to come in and get a hot shower after being on the lake all day is wonderful.”

When the Drehers purchased their cabin — complete with a rustic wood interior — in 1986, they weren’t even sure they would own it all that long.

They were used to being mobile with their pull-type

camper, which they didn’t sell right away “in case we wanted to go to another lake,” Conni said.

But the more time the Drehers spent at their cabin, the more it grew on them.

“Plus, our friends were campers, and their jobs took them elsewhere,” Marion said. “Going to the lake by ourselves (in a camper) wasn’t the same.”

So they eventually sold their camper and bought a boat, and for years invited family to spend Easter week-end with them on their 3 acres at the lake.

“It was kind of like opening weekend at the lake,” Conni said.

Early on, they planted two small pine trees that now, 20-some years later and 20 feet taller, frame the cabin against the rolling hills of the Lincoln County addition at the lake.

“The cedar trees grow wild out here,” Conni said. “And with the buffalo grass, it’s perfect.”

“We have two views,” Marion said, “the lake and the rolling hills behind us. It’s so relaxing.”

An outdoor upper deck is used as much as anything at the Drehers’ cabin, whether it’s drinking morning coffee, smoking a late afternoon cigar or watching the sun set on the hori-zon.

“I’m here to relax,” Marion re-peated.

“We don’t have flowers; we don’t have green grass,” his wife continued.

But the Drehers do have all the necessities as well as some extras, ala 1970s — a stereo turntable that plays record albums and a 24-inch console television.

“We do have a (satellite) dish,” Marion said with a laugh, referring to

a contraption in the cabin’s loft with pieces of aluminum foil attached to the ends of antennae for better recep-tion of the eight channels they are able to receive.

“Five of those are public TV,” Conni said.

“Watching TV isn’t our priority,” Marion added.

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The main floor features a living room and dining area, a kitchen with a bar and a bedroom.

At the top of the stairs is a small area that overlooks the living room/dining room below, as well as another bedroom.

The cabin also serves as a get-away in the winter months. It’s not uncommon, Conni said, for family members and friends to find their particular corner during bad weather to play some sort of board game.

“I wouldn’t want a cabin in Colorado. This is close enough we can run out

here whenever we want.”— Conni Dreher, Hays

12 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013

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A place for everything

“I wouldn’t want a cabin in Colo-rado. This is close enough we can run out here whenever we want,” Conni said of the short distance between Hays and the lake. “And sometimes we even wait until Mon-day morning and drive into Hays to work.”

Well, it’s 58 miles from doorstep to doorstep, so the Drehers don’t actually run to their cabin, although Conni, an avid bicyclist, has rid-den her bicycle the distance several times.

While several of the A-frames in the area have undergone renovations and additions, the Drehers have been content with smaller upgrades and projects through the years such as adding the upper deck, install-ing central air, adding a shed to the back of the structure to house their mower, laying brick on the patio and modernizing their kitchen.

“Having a second property is kind of like playing house,” Conni said.

“It takes us 20 minutes to clean it, from top to bottom,” she added. “It makes you realize you really don’t need as much as you have.”

“Bigger isn’t necessarily better,” Marion agreed.

“Plus,” Connie said, “when you’re at the lake, you get a feel (for) how important natural resources are.”13 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013

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Andy Griffith coined it, but the term “Mayberry” is still as true today as it was 50 years ago. It’s what people

are looking for when they build a new home in Hays, said Katherine Burnett, president of Covenant Builders.

“They want to know their neigh-bor, they want to have that commu-nity feel, the safeness, and just the ability to come home to a neighbor-hood that’s going to be built all the same,” Burnett said.

Covenant Builders specializes in that idea. With one housing develop-ment complete — on 5 acres near 29th and Indian Trail — Covenant is 17 months in to building a second development, this time on 25 acres on West 41st Street. Even though homebuyers have the opportunity to make their house their own, the development is cohesive.

“All these homes are going to be the same as far as materials, quality of workmanship (and) resale val-ues,” Burnett said.

Covenant Builders has approxi-mately 60 floor plans to choose from at a variety of price points, plus homebuyers have the opportunity to select flooring, cabinets, coun-tertops, door knobs and more. Jake Sanders, director of sales and mar-keting for Covenant, said those deci-sions are made during the course of five meetings with Covenant staff, giving homebuyers an opportunity to

By GAYLE WEBER

Cominghome

Photos courtesy of COVENANT BUILDERS

14 • FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013

consider their options.“We really try to streamline it,”

Sanders said. “They can see, feel, touch everything here.”

Covenant Builders has a show house at 41st and Covenant Drive for prospective homebuyers to tour to get an idea of the craftsmanship and options that are available in each home.

Customization and flexibility are two important factors to home building, Burnett said. The market is ever-changing, and what trends were popular when the company built its first development in Hays no longer factor in to the floor plans available for the second development.

“Being flexible is most impor-tant,” Burnett said.

That, and the ability for a fam-ily to feel at home in a community. That is the case in the first develop-ment, where there are block parties, neighbors looking after neighbors, and many residents getting together to coordinate Christmas lights and fireworks.

Although it could take a couple of years for the planning and building process to become a reality for some prospective homebuyers, Burnett said she believes her clients are sat-isfied with their homes because they have been involved in the process from the beginning.

“I think it gives them peace of mind that it’s professionally done,” Burnett said.

“They can see, feel, touch everything here.”

FEBRUARY / MARCH 2013 • 15