SIBLEY, Iowa | Travis and Amanda Ten Napel look at each other, laugh and share a curious observation: "We built our retirement home at ages 23 and 24," Travis says.
The Ten Napels are much at home with son, Joey, in the Helmers Addition that arises in the midst of Sibley Golf and Country Club. The Ten Napels, a golfing family, sold their previous home in Sibley to Lance and Jackie Glade. Lance serves as superintendent for his home course.
"Being on the course was our unwritten agreement with each other," says Travis, who keeps an office in downtown Sibley for Northwestern Mutual Life. "I had bought a house here (in Sibley) and we hadn't married yet. But, we agreed to one day build on the course."
That day came sooner than anticipated in a community just 30 minutes west of the Iowa Great Lakes.
"We intended to buy a lot here and sit (without starting construction) for a year, but then Lance and Jackie bought our house," Travis says. "We then decided to build right away while Amanda was pregnant."
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Amanda gave birth to Joey two weeks after the couple moved into their new home in the fall of 2015.
"We broke ground on May 4, 2015, and had great conditions for construction," says Travis, who put his previous contracting experience to work in serving as general contractor for their 5-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath home. The site features 3,418 square feet of living space, which includes a finished basement.
Three holes of the golf course can be seen east of their home. The other six homes are on the west side of the street that runs down the center of the Helmers Addition, a neighborhood comprised of young families, middle-aged parents and retirees.
Travis' paternal grandparents, Lee and Elaine Ten Napel live next door.
Though Joey is but a toddler, he's not the youngest in the neighborhood. On a breezy morning in early spring, he bounds down the sidewalk to visit a friend two houses to the north. In between, he passes his great-grandparents' home, a home that's been part of this development for two decades.
"My grandparents moved in during 1997, and that's the oldest house here (in the addition)," Travis says. "You could say that our home is the newest."
Ten lots remain in this neighborhood, one that connects with ease to schools serving Sibley-Ocheyedan, brick buildings, playgrounds and athletic fields that can be seen from this couple's front yard.
"There's a recreational trail that circles most of Sibley and we can get on it right here," says Amanda, who works as an outpatient therapist for Southwestern Mental Health Center across the border in Minnesota.
The home, which utilizes an airy open concept, features light bamboo flooring (with padding beneath the floor for sound control), expansive windows and white trim. Those windows provide a glimpse east to the No. 3 hole, a par 5 that brings water into play on the drive and second shot. A pond that comes into play on the hole stands 20 feet from the Ten Napel property line.
Heated basement floors radiate heat throughout the house during cooler months. "My dad is general manager of the Osceola County Rural Electric Cooperative, so we are energy efficient," Travis says. "Our Lite Form basement has two inches of foam insulation on each side of our 8-inch concrete walls."
The couple used three inches of spray foam on the main floor and in the garage, a garage accessed via insulated doors.
Lighting throughout the home is of the LED variety. There's a gas fireplace to further constrict the family's energy footprint.
"Our worst heating bill this winter was $74," Travis says, noting that his new office in Sibley measures 750 square feet and requires about the same gas requirement for heat.
The home consists of two bedrooms upstairs and three bedrooms downstairs. The main floor, as configured now, has the master bedroom and the baby room. At some point, Travis and Amanda say, they'll transition the nursery into a home office.
The house opens from the west, meaning the driveway and street are on that side. The front porch is concrete color-dyed walnut and then stamped barn-plank to look like wood.
Out back, then, is an expansive east-facing deck, fire pit, grill and more. The back patio is a circle of regular concrete treated with acid release on top and stamped cobblestone. It appears to be the perfect place from which one can enjoy and evening out socializing, dining and watching the golfers negotiate that tricky par 5.
All told, the home represents a labor of love for the Ten Napels and their extended family. Amanda, for example, designed the Heirloom cabinets from Great Lakes Countertop. The plans for the entire home are hand-drawn by the couple.
"My dad (Jeff Ten Napel), uncle (Jay Ten Napel), grandpa (Lee Ten Napel) and Amanda's dad, Sam Harding (who owned a construction company) all did a lot of the work here," Travis says. "We built the home on both levels, inside and outside, to host and entertain."
And, perhaps, maybe as a place in which to retire.
