Nordic House: Natural cold plunges, winter retreats & Kendra's DEN experience

Welcome DEN lovers! Join Kendra & I as we talk about her experience building her STR property, named Nordic House, how she feels about DEN plans, and the gorgeous natural cold plunge she capitalized on. 

Check out Nordic Houses' website here, their Airbnb page here, and their Instagram here.

1. From City Life to Nordic House: The Journey to Maine

Mike: Well, uh, for people just tuning in, Kendra and I just had a spirited conversation about marriage and social norms. We're going to save that for another podcast. Now that we're here for the DEN podcast, let's get down to business. Right? 

So, uh, so Kendra, uh, please tell us who are you, where did you build and which DEN designs did you build? And tell us a little bit about your project overall. 

Kendra: Yeah, for sure. So I'm Kendra. Um, I built three custom DENs, up in Maine next to, Sunday river in the Western Maine mountains on South pond.

And really the concept of Nordic house came from wanting to create a space that was everything you needed, but nothing more. We're in... a huge ski area. We're 15 minutes down the road from Sunday River, and right next to Mount Abram, which is both a ski and huge mountain biking hub. And wanted something that was, you know, four seasons.

So we're right on the water on 14 acres of land. And when it came down to figuring out, okay, how to actually... turn this dream inside a brain cell into a reality, um, we've been following DEN for a while and that was just our initial gut reaction. And I think we were actually one of the first customers that you worked with to do a customization.

I think I sent a, um, a note card drawing of what my dream DEN looked like, and it was a combination of the Alpine Tiny House, the Tiny House 2.0 and the Modern Alpine Cabin. We kind of took all three of those and made it into this perfect adorable little concept that we now call our likeum cabins.

Mike: Awesome, awesome. What made you wanna get into real estate investing and development and, hospitality operation in the first place? 

2. From Luxury Event Planning to Hospitality: A Shift in Perspective

Kendra: Yeah, so honestly, it's a unique, Aspect in the sense that I don't think I had any true interest in the real estate development side.

I would, I struggle to even call myself a developer, um, simply because my background was, pre COVID I was a luxury event planner. So I've always been. geared towards creating experiences, whether that's for a bride and groom or for, you know, a friend's 30th birthday party, whatever it might be, it was always centered around how, how is this going to be perceived and enjoyed?

And then with that thought process, you know, COVID came along and, um, my partner and I actually moved up to Maine out of, um, Boston. We had both spent our early twenties in Boston being very, very kind of, you know, sardined into, um, the concrete walls of, of what, you know, you can find for an exorbitent amount of money, in the center of the city.

And while we love the experience, I think we both were very ready to explore something that felt a little bit more, organic and natural to the environment that we love to escape to. Um, and that was what had triggered us to move up to Maine. Um, and we're, you know, huge ski bums. Um, we have a big German shepherd, Husky.

So it was the perfect move for us, but we had a lot of friends who would come and visit us from, um, the city, whether it was New York City or Boston. And they always were like, this is so cool. Like we love, and this is just our regular home. It was always a little bit of a struggle to coordinate, you know, 'okay, who wants to come up here? We have an eight by we can rent an eight bedroom house if we want to go skiing for a weekend'.

We constantly felt like every time we wanted to go and do something in the ski areas of New England, you had to go and get a really big house, it was always someone's second home, and some of us are planners, some of us are not planners, um, I would say I'm the planner out of our duo, where my partner, he would say, 'oh, you know what, in 12 hours, why don't we go away for the weekend', um, and it's really hard to do that when every accommodation is an eight bedroom house. It's excessive for, you know, two people and their, their dog. 

The other option was always, okay, well, why don't we just go get a hotel room? And the hotel rooms were either very outdated, didn't allow dogs, um, or were just quite frankly, like, overpriced for the value that they were providing.

And that's kind of where the whole concept of Nordic House came from; was being able to have everything you needed, all the luxuries of a high end hotel but, with the space and the peace and the location of being immersed in the woods and in the mountains and on the water, and we kind of ran with it from there.

I wouldn't say we had a huge game plan off the bat. We knew that we wanted to do three of them, so we could have enough space to have, you know, one for us and then for friends and family visiting. And outside of that, we kind of just ran with it. It took off much, much sooner than we were prepared for, but in the most amazing way.

3. Identifying a Gap in the Market: The Birth of Nordic House

Mike: That's awesome. I mean, you know, it's like, we encounter, various people all the time and some people are like, super commercial, super strategic. Right? But oftentimes we encounter folks like you, who through staying in a region have found a point of leverage or like a gap in the market.

And your insights around that area are like so powerful. And being able to deliver on exactly the experience and product that you've put into place is so cool because... yeah. I mean, like, even as you tell the story, I'm just kind of like nodding along being 'like, yep, that makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I'd love to stay there'. 

And separately, like, I have no idea why, like, this is the case, but like Boston's real estate prices are like eye watering. It is crazy.

Kendra: No square footage, like no yard, no parking, forget a parking spot.

Like absolutely. You're not getting that. And they still, you know, want a million dollars for a 500 square foot shed. So 

Mike: Yeah, I mean, as like someone who lived in New York city for a long period of time, like I'm even, I'm like, 'what, what is happening up in Boston?', you know? But yeah. So cool. So back, back to the DENs, right.

How many people do each of the cabins sleep as they're currently configured? 

4. Designing a DEN: The Customization Process

Kendra: Yeah, so each of the cabins, we have a maximum capacity of four. I would say two couples is the maximum. On the first floor, we have, a king bed. I wanted everything to feel like, not like a tiny house almost.

So everything that is in the cabins, is, you know, you have your full luxurious king bed, floor to ceiling, you know, glass windows, an oversized shower with, you know, a rain head on it, um, everything that you would kind of want from what I would refer to as your private villa in the Maldives. Take that and put that into a, you know, a Nordic all season landscape.

And that is sort of what we created. So yeah, we have our, the, on the first floor, the main bed, um, which is the king. And then upstairs we have, um, the loft, which has a queen bed that actually is directly underneath this really beautiful skylight. And we've been fortunate enough actually to see the Northern Lights out of it twice, since we opened in... once pre opening, but then also later this fall. And it's just, we love every little detail that we had put into that. That was very intentional to make it comfortable for up to four people, but also I'd be remiss to say that if , having dog friendly has been a number one factor for us just as human beings, but we've also seen it in all of our guests that almost every single, um, guest that has come through our doors typically has some form of furry friend along with them.

Mike: Four legged friend. That's awesome. 

5. Bringing Comfort to the Wilderness: A Thoughtful Approach to Cabin Living

Kendra: Yeah. 

Mike: And, you know, uh, I'm assuming that you your partner and friends have like stayed in these cabins a bunch yourself. So you personally, like where, where is your favorite place in the cabin? Like favorite room, favorite space, like where, where's the spot that makes you think like, 'this is exactly why we did this project'. 

Kendra: I have two. One is, obviously Maine is very, very cold in the winter. So during the winter months, I love sitting right in front of the fireplace. We have a beautiful, each cabin has its own wood stove and it's just so, it makes the glow of the fire shining around this cozy cabin just makes you think like, 'wow, I can't believe this is where I get to sit back and relax and enjoy peace and quiet' and it's so quiet out here.

And then during the summer months the back porch is partially covered, So when it rains and you're sitting, you know on your your porch chair back there and drinking your cup of coffee or a glass of wine and either watching the stars at night or Listening to the rain pitter patter on like the metal roof... It's always just the little details, the little moments that I think I personally lean towards and I know that A lot of our guests have also had similar experiences where they're like, 'Oh, I saw a blue J for the first time in, you know, since my childhood, like I don't see that in downtown Boston or in New York City'.

I think those would be my two favorite... favorite little areas, right in front of the fire during the winter and then right on that back porch underneath the overhang during the summer months getting to watch nature around me. 

Mike: That sounds incredible. And then I noticed that you guys picked up one of like our typically specked wood stoves, the Morsø, right? 

Kendra: Morsø's, yes. 

Mike: Oh man, I know, I have one of those myself in the first cabin that I ever built. The 6148, which I think is the exact same model that you guys have. Yeahhhhh. And it, it's so crazy how like, the proverb that like a fire is camping's TV is like so true, even when you're like in a cabin, you're just... mesmerizing for me. 

Kendra: Right. We don't have a TV in here. Um, in any of the cabins and. I mean, we do have, you know, Wi Fi, so if you did want to watch your favorite show, but I've noticed that a lot of people really do tend to enjoy the disconnection. It's not something we're going to force you to do. You know, we're not telling you, 'you can't walk through the door if you don't lock your phone in the box'.

I love that people instinctually do want to disconnect. I think that's sort of where the draw is to coming up to the woods and getting away and disconnecting and being able to just say, you know what, this is what I have on the agenda for this morning. And it's just sitting by the fire.

Mike: And drinking some coffee 

Kendra: and drinking some coffee. You always need the caffeine. 

Mike: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

6. Navigating the Build: Plans, Contractors, and Execution

Mike: So let's talk a little bit about process, right? So, you know, you, um, you engaged the DEN team to create like a custom design for you, right? That you would use as like the proprietary design, for this project that you guys started. Right? 

We issued you a set of construction documents and so on, right? How did those plans help you then like think about the project, or like align to your general contractor? How did it help to set the wheels in motion? 

Kendra: Yeah. So really, honestly, our DEN plans were such a saving grace in a number of ways.

One, I don't have a construction background. So having plans that I could sit and see and understand, and really know what it was that I was going to accomplish through these plans, was huge. It was awesome to be able to see that on paper before actually, you know, having to go through the build process.

I also really enjoyed that DEN was able to, um, we're in a protected resource zone because we're right along the water and we... ended up going with a unique foundation form called techno metal posts, which were actually just drilled directly into the ground to mitigate any sort of land disturbance.

So we basically built on top of these pillars without having to dig to, you know, excavate and whatnot. We just drilled right into the ground. And that was something that you guys were so willing to accommodate and actually really were interested in, which was really nice to have a team on the design who also, you know, could understand where the needs of what our specific property location was coming from.

And then on top of that, once you know, we were in the build process, we actually started with one general contractor and ended up, um, finishing with another. So it, it was hugely instrumental for us to be able to have plans that, you know, were easy to be comprehended and pass along to, you know, whoever the team member might be, whether it was our plumbers who needed to know where things were going, you know, within the walls or our new general contractor who, you know, said, I need to know exactly where X, Y, and Z is going.

It just made it such an easy way to have everyone on the same page. And I think that's where a lot of timeline delays and expensive mistakes can occur when everyone isn't on the same wavelength. Having those DEN plans made it so not only were we totally in alignment with what we were, you know, shooting for, but everyone that we had hired to be part of that team in that process was also, you know, fully 100 percent aware of what, what was gonna be the end goal here. 

Mike: I mean, I think where DEN, um, has really centered its focus is in exactly that stage, right. Which is like helping people pick a starting point and then realize, you know, a path forward as quickly as possible. Some people aren't like, you know, architecturally, uh..., well versed.

Right. And like, yeah,

Kendra: it's a different language for sure. 

Mike: Totally. I mean, like, you know, we have some customers that can like barely read a floor plan, you know? And yeah. And we're like, okay, like, you know, that's where like the 3d models and like the 3d renders, like, yeah, like all start to, um, kind of help to paint a picture of what it's ultimately going to look like.

So like, even though you have this like custom design, like, did any of like the DEN renders on our site, you know, our Instagram, like help to kind of paint a picture of like, what, you know, what you guys wanted to do in terms of the finishing and the interiors. 

7. Scandinavian Simplicity: The Aesthetic of Nordic House

Kendra: Yeah, so we initially were drawn to DEN before we even had come up with, you know, a drawing of, on the back of a napkin, what we were thinking we might want.

DEN's, the clean lines and the Scandinavian tones, all of that, the very, it all felt very rooted in whatever the environment around the home was, um, and never felt, over the top, even if they were large homes, which was something that I was particularly drawn to. I didn't want something that felt like... an overbearing McMansion, even if it was a three bedroom home.

So I think that Scandinavian simplicity was something that really drew us into DEN as a brand. And then we had followed along for, you know, a couple of years and eventually decided to, to go for it. And we knew exactly where we're going to be going for just because we had seen some of the work on some of the customizations.

Um, I think I'd actually spoken with a couple other DEN customers who just, you know, raved about their experience. And so we knew, we knew where we were going.

8. Luxury Rooted in Nature: A Unique Guest Experience

Mike: Awesome. Well, you know, I'm also looking at some of the pictures from the project on your website, right? And you know, this is probably not going to be surprising, but I'm like a bit of a design and aesthetics nerd, much like you are.

And the thing that strikes me about your project is that the detailing is like really not only well executed, but like really tasteful and what I'm noticing and maybe you can speak to some of this right is like, you know, like the texture of the shower right or like, or, I see that you guys were like really ambitious and like you use d wood paneling on the sidewalls and like, and wood boards for the ceiling. The loft ladder is also like really, really well executed from like a carpentry perspective. and you've got this like really cool, like hand wash basin. Tell us a little bit about like some of those choices and like, and yeah, why you picked them and you know, like why you think they all work so well together and yeah, I would love to just hear more about that.

Kendra: Absolutely. Yeah. So really, I mean, at the base of it all, Nordic House was the concept of let's bring luxury, but let's root it in nature. Um, so when you go to brush your teeth in the bathroom, you're seeing this beautiful stone vessel sink that almost feels like you could have found it in, you know, on the property somewhere.

Um, same with all the showers. It's, it's a massive shower, but it's river rock pebble. Everything that we used in terms of materials for the build was a) definitely thought out. Um, but it was something we tried to source locally. So like, for instance, a lot of the interior walls are birchwood, and we used a lot of Douglas fir, um, and a lot of cedar, all things that were very native to the area around us.

I wanted it to feel like we were constantly bringing nature inside, that even though there might be a glass panel in between, keeping you from, you know, a negative 20 degree day, you still felt that earthy tone and everything that was put into this cabin. 

Mike: Nice. How did you collaborate with your business partner slash romantic partner on like some of those choices?

Like, are you the creative director? Are they the creative director? How, how does that work? 

Kendra: I would say I'm the creative director, especially on the design element. My business and a fiancé, uh, he, he would happily wear a ripped t shirt for the rest of his life. Um, and he could sleep in a hammock and be very, very much content.

I'm a little bit more on the bougie side where I really love a down duvet comforter. And, um, you know. Washing your hair in a tiny shower is not that fun, so that's sort of where I came from. Like where I was like, 'no, this is what I would want, you know, in a, the luxury style of camping. Like, what do, what do I not love about camping?'

I don't like sleeping on a sleeping pad. I don't like, you know, not being able to wash my hair for 10 days. It's all those little things where I was like, okay, this is where I wanna elevate an experience that still feels true to the seclusion of camping, but on a... on a scale that actually gave you more of a like more comfort.

Mike: Yeah, totally. Yeah. I mean, like, uh, you know, like as we, uh, you know, as we started DEN, like, you know, we did a bunch of research, like I stayed in cabins, like all over the world, actually. And, you know, stayed also in like a large national tiny house company, um, uh, here in the United States. And I was like, this is 'kind of cool.

It's a novel experience, right?' Like for short term stay.

Like, I think sometimes tiny is too tiny, you know, like... You know, I've got a four and six year old, we like to sprawl out a little bit, you know, like, yeah, a little bit of space for sure. Um, that's cool.

So, uh, so yeah, so like, so tell us a little bit, About how long you guys have been operating the project or the property, right? Like when did you take your first bookings? Like, what did you learn in the early days? Right. Like in terms of like guest experience or like if there was any tweaks to the cabins that you needed to do, and yeah, just generally like, how's it been going?

What did that look like for you guys? 

Kendra: November 1st, was our official opening, which was a little bit later than what we had, um, initially intended for, we were shooting for sometime in the summer to be able to ramp up without the snow involved, but since we switched, um, our general contractors, that sort of pushed our timeline out a little bit, so when we, we went into it, opening up in November, kind of not really knowing what the desire for bookings was going to be, especially because November in Maine can be more on the gray side.

You've missed foliage season, you're getting cute little snow storms, but you're not getting those 18 inches where it's just like you have to run to the mountain and you're skiing lines until your legs fall off. And I think something that we found was that although we're in such an amazing location, people wanted to come just to come and enjoy the property itself and what we were offering.

We sold out our first week open, and we haven't had an open weekend since. Um, so it's been a little bit of a mad dash and just like, oh, wow, this was zero to 60. There was no, um, ramp up period, I would say. And doing that during a very cold Maine winter has definitely been a learning experience in itself.

Snow management and how to make sure that, you know, everyone's having a good time and can get their car out or whatever it might be. But I'm excited to start to see... we're about to turn the corner heading into the summer months and one of the reasons that we picked the property that we did was because of how versatile it is.

It's so easy to enjoy no matter the season. Um, so I'm, I'm getting really excited to see what we've created in the next upcoming seasons. 

Mike: Awesome. We talked a little bit about the cabins themselves, uh, but what's like your favorite feature of the property? 

Kendra: Ooh, that's a tough one.

8. Luxury Rooted in Nature: A Unique Guest Experience

Kendra: Honestly, I think my favorite feature is an accidental feature. When we were installing, um, I think it was some water lines... the excavation team had popped up a somewhat large rock and we actually discovered that we had an underground spring. So we created, by total coincidence an accidental new little stream flowing.

And I was like, wait, this is so cool though. Like I kind of want to do something really unique with this, like to have your own like underground spring. So we actually ended up creating a natural spring fed cold plunge, tapping into that underground and just putting a pipe and connecting to it.

And kind of just. going, following the natural flow of where that water was running. Um, and we could actually see where it had been popping out just like a hundred yards down. So we just continued that same flow, but it's really cool because I just think it's something that's super unique. Everyone, especially in like the wellness industry, you know, cold plunge is huge and it wasn't even something that was on our immediate radar.

Um, and the second that, you know, we saw the opportunity of getting to use the resources that the land was offering us. I was, I was jazzed. 

Mike: So are you a tech bro? Do you do cold, cold plunge? Like, no? Okay. Okay. 

Kendra: Nope. You won't find me. Um, but I love a good sauna. So we do have a glass wall sauna directly next to it.

No, I'm not a, I don't like to be that cold. Good for you. If, if you can handle it. I'm a little bit of a wimp in that sense. I like my, my boot heaters and my hand warmers. 

Mike: Nice. Nice. So do you guys have a picture of the cold, the cold plunge anywhere? 

Kendra: Yeah, I do. Yeah, I can send you, um, you'll see it on our website, but also I'll send you, um, Um, I have a couple new shots from it as well, but yeah, it's, we just put it right into the ground.

So it's actually like an in ground cold plunge, um, which is really cool because if you didn't know it was there, then you, you would, you really would just look right over it. But it's, it's a nice little feature. Um. 

Mike: If I go to your website... oh, I see. It's the thing with like the, the wood framed deck essentially.

Kendra: Yup! 

Mike: Oh, that's really nice. That's cool. Um, and that's just like totally spring fed and just like constantly recirculates over and over. 

Kendra: It's naturally filtering itself. Um, it's, yeah, it makes no maintenance. 

Mike: Amazing. 

Kendra: And it is cold. 

Mike: As like a hospitality, like short term rental person, like you, you must be aware of like some of these other projects in the United States, like in like Hocking Hills and like, you know, that have, yes, that have these like really ornate like, uh, yeah, either like waterfalls or like 

Kendra: whatever it is. 

Mike: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's like a, there's like a serious arms race happening now in terms of like hospitality. It's like, who's got like a bigger, taller, like tree house or cold plunge or whatever. It's yeah. Yeah. It's wild. 

Kendra: Yeah. And I think one of the things that we tried to do was not necessarily create the biggest or the baddest.

Um, but we were fortunate. I can't say enough about... I think to a certain level because we had never built anything before we were naive in when we selected our land. It's we are built into a mountainside. Um, so someone with a, you know, a building background might have looked at our piece of property and seen a headache.

For us, we just saw this beautiful corner of the world right on the water and... tucked in between the mountains and we couldn't imagine having not gone for it. Um, I think now though, hindsight 2020, we definitely would have been a little more timid taking it on, but now I'm like, this is, it's always worth the, you got to risk it to make it big on anything and gotta...

Mike: yeah, totally. I guess like, I get that these like novel projects make good internet fodder, right? But like the thing, the thing that I'm really proud of, right. And the DEN team is really proud of is that we have helped to establish so many different either STR or hospitality businesses in the United States that are performant, you know, And people have saved thousands of dollars on design fees.

They've like set their project up for success. And like these projects are cash flowing, you know, and like everyone's kind of like, living the dream, you know, like it's hard work, right. But like, it like works for people, you know? Um, and I, and what I'm psyched about is that these like interviews also, give us like a chance to shine a light on these, like on these functional projects, you know. I think it's really important for folks who are listening to know.

That like, you don't need the tallest treehouse, like you don't need the biggest waterfall. You just need a beautiful little, you know, parcel somewhere, that like gives you the opportunity to build a couple units, and that's a great starting point or even an ending point.

Like if that's like your appetite, 

Kendra: If that's your end all be all, perfect. Yeah. I mean, we were on 14 acres here, so we have room to expand. People thought we were crazy for building three houses at once with no construction background, which I will give it to them, that might've been a little bit insane, but, um, it worked out for the best.

And I'm very glad that we did the three all at once because it's, we can't keep up with the, the demand. 

Mike: Yeah. I mean, prior to even starting DEN, I had like, I'd run one business before that, you know, but like pushed all my chips in when I was like, this feels like the right, the right move, you know? Yeah. And like, as an entrepreneur, sometimes you got to take those risks and like, sometimes they don't pan out.

Sometimes they do. But like the journey itself is like super rewarding.

10. Advice for Aspiring Cabin Entrepreneurs: Start Local

Mike: Um, okay. So last question for you, right? Like if you, if you had a friend who was endeavoring to do the same thing, you know, um, with a set of DEN designs, like what, what type of advice would you give them?

Kendra: It's not going to be geared towards DEN.

I'm sorry, Mike, but it's: start local. So in terms of the, Contractors, the team members that you hire, the advice that you gather, whether it's from a neighbor who can tell you how deep their well was and how long it took to drill. So you can then kind of do a 'oh, maybe my well is going to need to be a lot deeper than what the national average is.

And that's, you know, that way you can budget accordingly. A lot of our general contractors that we use now, um, we joke we call them our fairy god contractors, um, and they are both local to the area and they have been able to make a lot of things happen for us, whether it's sourcing materials that are local that we might not have known existed, um, that aren't coming from a mainstream, you know, um, major lumberyard, um, or just having the right people and the right connections to be able to give some advice on, 'okay, you want to do something crazy, like make a spring fed cold plunge?'

I don't know what, you know, I don't think anyone has that typically on their plumbing resume, but, uh, if you find the right people that are willing to take a stab at something unique, then, um, building that trust with the people that you have in your corner and having full faith in them is, I think, where we really hit our stride and were able to get across the finish line of not only the build, but continuing to enhance the experience for our guests now, um, and looking towards the future of what, you know, what's next.

Mike: Awesome. Um, so yeah, build, build that local bench, everybody. That is the key to success. Um, great advice, Kendra. Um, well, cool. That is it. Um, allow me to say on behalf of the whole team here at DEN, thanks for spending some time with me today. The project looks incredible. Uh, we're so happy, uh, that you chose DEN and yeah, can't wait to, you know, promote this to our audience too soon.