Primghar, Iowa | Don and Ila Magnussen lived in an apartment in Cherokee, Iowa, for six months in 1953. They moved to a farm 13 miles south of Primghar in November of that year. And they had been there, on the farm in Liberty Township, ever since, some 63 years.
That was, until they relocated to Primghar on April Fools Day in 2016. In doing so, the couple went from a 2-story, 3-bedroom home on a 10-acre farmstead to 1,600 square feet, their half of a new duplex built a half-block west of the Primghar Golf & Country Club complex.
“It was an adjustment,” Don Magnussen said. “That’s the truth: I had to adjust to living here.”
He and Ila are glad they did. They have a grandson and his wife now residing on the farm. And the Magnussens are very much at home in a duplex that’s comprised of a large kitchen, living room, two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a deck, a two-car garage, and this key feature: Zero steps.
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“It was certainly the right time for us,” Ila said, finding agreement with her husband. “This really suits our needs, no longer having to carry things like laundry up and down the stairs.”
Something, or someone, else also suits the needs of the Magnussens: Their next-door neighbor and fellow duplex owner, Marian Ginger, a Sutherland, Iowa, native and longtime resident of Primghar.
“You could say our banker married us,” Don Magnussen said of Ginger, who lives on the west half of the duplex. “Ila and I didn’t know Marian before this process started. But, everyone we spoke with in Primghar had nothing but the highest praise for her. You know, they were all telling the truth.”
The comment brought a smile to Ginger’s face. Marian, for her part, is pleased the duplex idea turned out so well.
“To me, this makes a very nice retirement home,” said Ginger, who, since 1961, had resided on the south side of Primghar in an older two-story, three bedroom home. “I could still carry my laundry up and down, but you have to be realistic. This makes more sense.”
The duplex idea came about a year or so after another residential development concept just to the north of Second Street Northeast failed to take off. It led Ginger to investigate the possibility of living in a duplex. Rodd Holtkamp, senior vice president and trust officer at Savings Bank in Primghar, worked with Ginger and introduced her to the Magnussens, who were searching for something similar. A friend of Marian’s had gone to high school with Don.
Brad Smith and Jonathon “Bubba” Hinz of S&H Land Partnership in Primghar had constructed a similar duplex in the Iowa Great Lakes. Smith and Hinz, who owned a lot west of the golf course, presented that blueprint to Ginger and the Magnussens in 2015 and allowed the three of them to make some modifications. Their first meeting occurred in Ginger’s home.
“The duplex they had built at the Lakes had a basement,” Ila Magnussen said. “Our duplex doesn’t have a basement.”
Instead, Ginger said, there is a safe room in each garage, a room containing utilities that also functions as a storm shelter. Additionally, the Magnussens and Ginger asked the builders to add six feet to both sides of each duplex, thereby allowing space for two doors serving each two-car garage. The space also allowed for a larger kitchen and dining area.
After the builders presented plans, the Magnussens and Ginger discussed items like kitchen cabinets and color combinations. They found agreement almost immediately on every facet.
There are a few changes, however. The Magnussens, for example, opted for hardwood floors in the living room and kitchen. Ginger went with carpet in her living room and vinyl tile in a kitchen that, in her case, features a large kitchen island.
And where the north wall in Ginger’s side has an expansive picture window leading to the deck, or patio, the Magnusses opted to put a fireplace in that space.
“We had a fireplace the past 25 years on the farm,” Ila Magnussen said. “I wanted to make sure we had one here.”
Both sides of the duplex feature heated floors and two furnace units.
The building effort came about quickly as the couples gave their final go-ahead for the duplex in November 2015. The Magnussens, who had to be off the farm by April 2016, made their deadline and moved in on April 1, 2016. Ginger moved in to her side six weeks later, allowing workers to put the final touches on her new home. The location in Primghar allows Don Magnussen, an avid golfer, to drive his cart about 200 yards to the Primghar Golf & Country Club, a site whose course was named Iowa’s 9-hole Course of the Year in 1990 by the Iowa Golf Association. (Don also plays golf in nearby Paullina and Sanborn.) The clubhouse is where Ila meets a group of women each week for a friendly game of poker.
And while they’ve relocated, the Magnussens have made many friends and can still get to the farm whenever they wish. Don, in fact, will help do field work during the 2017 crop season. He’s also picking asparagus, an activity, he laughs, that helps him keep his hands in agriculture.
Ginger, for her part, has found the new neighbors and neighborhood to her liking. An avid daily walker, Ginger moves easily throughout town, making regular meetings at the Primghar Public Library, where she serves as treasurer, and at the Baum Harmon Mercy Hospital and the Primghar Mercy Medical Clinic, where she serves with the auxiliary unit.
