Unique Homes Blog

From September 18th to September 22nd, Unique Homes was on location in Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene, Idaho to tour high-end second home opportunities. Our blogs took you from casual yet care-free condo living in Seasons at Sandpoint, to golf-front lodge homes in Sandpoint’s The Idaho Club, and finally to lake views as far as the eye can see at The Terraces in Coeur d’Alene. This is the final blog from our visit to Idaho.

Seventy-seven-year-old Duane Hagadone has been a Coeur d’Alene resident his entire life, and within that time he has gone from selling subscriptions to the local newspaper to owning a major corporation with four divisions including hospitality, newspapers, publishing and real estate/property management. With the completion of his new Casco Bay estate several months ago, Hagadone has placed his Stanley Hill estate on the market with Hurwitz James Company for $27.5 million. Just five minutes from town, the compound sits behind private walls flanked by 2,000-pound gate doors; the house is invisible from the road and very few homes can be seen from its impeccably landscaped grounds. A true entertainer’s paradise, the estate boasts indoor and outdoor pools with changing areas, a driving range with an automatic ball dispenser, an indoor tennis court/multipurpose building and a bowling alley with two pairs of bowling shoes in every size for both men and women. Nearly every room takes advantage of the wide lake and mountain views, and I found myself wondering how anyone could focus on a game of bowling or a swing of the golf club with Lake Coeur d’Alene as a backdrop.

Though the current home was built 9 years ago, everything, indoors and out, looked practically untouched. As Hagadone and I strolled around the estate, it was impossible to keep track of all of the different rare woods and kinds of granite used throughout, though, as Hagadone pointed out, all of the materials and furnishings are complementary. “There’s great consistency in the house,” he said. “I’m not a guy that likes to be real busy.” All of the custom-made furniture, artwork, light fixtures, maintenance equipment, et cetera, will pass to the future owner, everything except Hagadone’s antique desk and chair, which were his father’s. A lifetime golf membership and boat slip also await the future owner.

Back in town, during a short hike on Tubbs Hill among completely secluded coves filled with dazzling crystal clear water, I reflected on my time in Idaho’s panhandle. I was born and raised in the Northeast and have lived here my whole life. With metropolitan areas such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia and the nation’s capitol at our fingertips, many of us from New England and the Mid-Atlantic, me included, hardly ever consider the possibilities that lie in our country’s far-off, less populated states. Indeed, when I mentioned my trip to Idaho to friends and family, the most frequently asked question was, “what’s in Idaho?” More and more people are finding out what’s in Idaho—casual living, yet with the same amenities found elsewhere, virtually unspoiled lake and mountain splendor, and a pleasant four-seasons climate allowing for activity year-round. People like Gordon, a salesperson at The Idaho Club, who moved to Clark Fork, Idaho, after 14 years in Manhattan, and just the other day saw a family of moose in his backyard.

The rest of us don’t know what we’re missing.

Look for more about Sandpoint and Coeur d’Alene in an upcoming issue of Unique Homes.

–Sarah Binder

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