A ship-shaped house in Idaho needs a new captain
A pirate-themed lake house in Salmon, Idaho, built to look like a ship sitting atop Williams Lake, is on the market for $799,000.Known as the “Ship Wreck House,” this 1,200-square-foot home earns about $80,000 a year as an Airbnb rental.
The listing was reported in the Wall Street Journal Homes newsletter.Located near the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness, the house has three decks and detailed ship design features. Inside, the house contains the captain’s quarters, a bunk room with built-in beds, and a secret door that leads to a treasure room with a skeleton and a chest of gold coins.Boise-based builder and owner Christy Wolff designed the home to be fun without being over the top.“From a design standpoint, I’ve always tried to walk the line between indulgence and cheesiness,” says Christy Wolfe.Wolf runs the hotel with the help of an Instagram account with 30,000 followers, which brings in most of the bookings. She hopes the new buyer will continue renting it to guests.“I love the idea of thousands of families making memories there instead of just one family,” Wolf said.
Unique buildings and upscale homes
The listing is part of broader trends in the high-end real estate market covered by The Wall Street Journal.
Near Salt Lake City, Utah, an architect built a four-bedroom, 5,310-square-foot house on a seven-acre ridge he loved as a child. The Z-shaped house took three years to build and cost about $3.9 million.In London, the St. John’s Wood area is seeing price increases driven by UK buyers, helping to offset lower interest from foreign buyers. Despite its long-standing popularity with Americans, local buyers are currently keeping the market strong.
Elsewhere in London, an American couple spent $360,000 overhauling a 452-square-foot living room to combine modern and traditional British styles.
Great sales and historic properties
In a major real estate sale in the United States, businessman Bill Koch sold his 52-acre estate in Aspen at auction for $33.515 million. The final price was a significant drop from the old peak price of $125 million.In Connecticut, the childhood home of the late news commentator William F. Buckley Jr.
In Sharon, it is for sale for $3.999 million. The property has remained in the Buckley family for nearly 100 years.In South Carolina, a family lodge located on a property that covered approximately 1,000 acres was chosen as the Home of the Week. Built for large family gatherings, the land has an 11,000-square-foot main lodge, a yurt, a basketball court, several ponds and streams, and fishing platforms.Broader economic factors also influence buyers. California’s coastal areas have more luxury homes for sale than buyers.
Meanwhile, US mortgage interest rates have reached their highest level in almost a year due to conflicts in the Middle East and rising inflation. Meanwhile, wealthy baby boomers are buying larger homes for retirement, breaking the long-standing habit of moving to smaller places.
History of building a unique theme
Christy Wolfe, who built Shipwreck House, has spent more than a decade building one-of-a-kind vacation properties throughout the United States. She began her career as a builder in 2011 when she built her first tiny house on a limited budget as a personal experiment in simple living.Since then, it has built several popular rentals, including an off-the-grid tropical treehouse in Hawaii, a Lord of the Rings-inspired underground hobbit house in Washington state, and a converted 1950s fire lookout tower in northern Idaho. She is also known for transforming a six-ton concrete-and-gypsum potato replica into the Big Idaho Potato Hotel in south Boise.
Transformation of the waterfront structure in the twentieth century
Unlike some of her buildings that started from scratch on empty lots, the Ship Wreck House project involved taking an existing structure from the early 1900s and completely rebuilding it.
The original building sits directly on the waters of Williams Lake, and has been redesigned to look like a grounded pirate ship embedded on the beach.To make the theme interactive for visiting families, Wolf built a private floating dock connected directly to the lower deck, giving guests immediate access to the lake for boating and swimming. She also set up an interactive treasure hunt throughout the three-story house, leaving clues and a personalized treasure map for guests to follow to unlock the secret room hidden behind the walls.
