This Idaho Airbnb looks like a ship, has a secret treasure room, and earns $80,000 a year. For sale now
A pirate-themed lakefront home in Salmon, Idaho, that looks like a ship moored on Williams Lake is on the market for $799,000.The 1,200-square-foot property, known as the “Wreck House,” rents out through Airbnb and earns about $80,000 a year. The listing was reported in the Wall Street Journal Home newsletter.Located in the Wilderness of No Return near the Frank Church River, the home features three decks and detailed ship design features. The interior of the house features a captain’s quarters, a bunk bedroom with a built-in bed, and a secret door that leads to a treasure room that contains a skeleton and a chest of gold coins.Boise builder and owner Kristie Wolfe designs homes that are interesting without going too far.“From a design perspective, I’m always trying to walk the line between immersive and kitschy,” says Christy Wolfe.Wolfe runs the hotel with the help of an Instagram account with 30,000 followers, through which he gets most of his bookings. She hopes the new buyer will continue to rent it out to guests.“I like the idea of having thousands of families make memories there instead of just one family,” Wolfe said.
Unique architecture and high-end residences
The listing is part of a broader trend in the high-end real estate market reported by The Wall Street Journal.Near Salt Lake City, Utah, an architect built a 5,310-square-foot, four-bedroom home on a seven-acre ridge he loved as a child. The Z-shaped house took three years to build and cost nearly $3.9 million.In London, prices in the St John’s Wood area rose, driven by British buyers, helping to balance the impact of falling foreign interest. While long popular with Americans, local buyers are currently keeping the market strong. Elsewhere in London, an American couple spent $360,000 renovating a 452-square-foot living room, blending modernity with traditional British style.
Lots of sales and historic properties
In a major U.S. property sale, businessman Bill Koch sold his 52-acre Aspen estate at auction for $33.515 million. The final price dropped significantly from the previous peak price of $125 million.Connecticut was the childhood home of the late news commentator William F. Buckley Jr. in Sharon is priced at $3.999 million. The property has remained in the Buckley family for nearly 100 years.In South Carolina, a family cabin located on what once was nearly 1,000 acres of land was selected as Home of the Week. The land was built for large family gatherings, with an 11,000-square-foot main cabin, teepee, basketball court, several ponds and streams, and hunting grounds.Broader economic factors are also affecting buyers. There are more luxury homes for sale in coastal California than there are buyers. Meanwhile, U.S. mortgage rates hit their highest in nearly a year amid conflict in the Middle East and rising inflation. Meanwhile, wealthy baby boomers are buying larger retirement homes, breaking old habits of moving to smaller places.
History of unique theme building
Shipwreck house builder Kristie Wolfe has spent more than a decade building one-of-a-kind vacation homes across the United States. Her career as a builder began in 2011 when she built her first tiny house on a strict budget as a personal experiment in simple living.Since then, she has built several notable themed rentals, including an off-the-grid tropical treehouse in Hawaii, a Lord of the Rings-inspired Hobbit underground home in Washington state, and a converted 1950s fire lookout tower in northern Idaho. She is also known for transforming a six-ton concrete and plaster potato replica into the Idaho Big Potato Hotel in South Boise.
Renovating a 1900s waterfront structure
Unlike some of her buildings, which were built from scratch on vacant lots, the Shipwreck House project involved taking an existing structure from the early 1900s and completely rebuilding it. The original building, located on the water of Williams Lake, was redesigned to look like a beached pirate ship built on the shoreline.To make the theme interactive for visiting families, Wolf built a private floating dock that connects directly to the lower deck, giving guests immediate access to the lake for boating and swimming. She also set up interactive treasure hunts throughout the three-story home, leaving clues and custom treasure maps for guests to follow to unlock secret rooms hidden behind the walls.
