We would love for someone to take our vision and build on it.” “But we’re at an age we need to pass it on for someone else. “We’ve done it all and had a ball,” said Sandy. The couple has decided to sell their suburban oasis, which is listed at $1.995 million. It’s our own little paradise in the middle of Maple Grove.” Now there are 15 restaurants a mile away. “When we moved here, we would have to drive to Crystal to go shopping and get gas. “We had an opportunity to watch the city grow,” said Ken. Over the years, Maple Grove developed around them. “It’s really magical,” said Sandy.Īnd once her book club, which was reading “Harry Potter,” held a spontaneous Quidditch match, using brooms and beach balls, on the riding ring. Sometimes they hosted wine and cheese tastings on their “tree deck,” a platform built high in the trees that they decked with lights. They designed their property to be party central, a place where they hosted pool parties, cross-country skiing parties, a grape-stomping and a salsa-making contest using ingredients from their farm. The couple’s home has been festive as well as productive. “Our honey is well-known,” said Ken, who eventually quit his outside job to farm full-time. They started an organic vegetable farm, tapped their maple trees and made syrup, and began keeping bees and producing honey that’s been awarded blue ribbons and multiple Sweepstakes awards at the Minnesota State Fair. They planted a fruit orchard and a vineyard filled with cold-hardy grapes developed by the University of Minnesota. They raised horses, and built a five-stall horse barn and riding ring. “We were always looking for new things to try.” “Our motto is, ‘When was the last time you did something for the first time?’” said Sandy. “We’ve had 1,000 baby lambs,” Ken estimated.īut they didn’t stop with sheep. The Tschannens also tried their hand at agriculture, first with raising sheep. “We kept improving and adding,” said Sandy. “The view is amazing!” They also added a huge swimming pool, and a spa room with an indoor hot tub and in-floor heat. “The back is all sliding glass doors and windows,” Ken said. Over the years they remodeled their starter home into a 5,116-square-foot, five-bedroom custom home, including two additions that created space for a deluxe kitchen and a spacious owners’ suite, plus a second-floor library with fireplace. In 1980 the Tschannens built a house, a modest ranch-style home with an unfinished basement. They named their spread Sugarbush Ridge Ranch, after a Wisconsin farm that had been in Sandy’s family generations earlier. With money borrowed from Sandy’s parents, the couple bought the parcel on a contract for deed for $24,000. The land was raw, with a high ridge that had a beautiful view. Driving down a dirt road near Fish Lake they saw a hand-painted sign advertising acreage for sale. “We couldn’t afford a home,” Sandy recalled. Sandy was in graduate school, and Ken was working at his first sales job when they bought the property in 1977. “It’s something I dreamed about in high school,” said Ken. Decades before the city developed into the populous second-ring suburb it is today, when the Shoppes at Arbor Lakes was still a gravel pit, Sandy and Ken Tschannen thought it would be fun to have some land. Want to own a 14.5-acre farm in the heart of Maple Grove? Yes, there really is such a thing.
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