Notes from the host
Flathead Lake Craftsman on H2O
Special thanks to Northwest Travel Magazine for naming us 'One of the Northwest's Best Waterfront Vacation Rentals'. And to Tesla for featuring our house in their campaign and providing us with an electric car charger for guests who would like one. Our home resides on Finley Point facing Skidoo Bay with views of the beautiful Mission Mountains. Just a few steps beyond the stone steps of the house is the lake shore, you’ll see the sun rise each morning over the mountains.
Our home is a newly constructed craftsman style home with architectural inspiration from Greene and Greene. Rock and stone prevail inside and out.
In the winter, radiant heat throughout the house keeps the wood and stone floors warm to the touch. The great room features a 20’ rock fireplace and there is an outdoor courtyard with a fireplace for year round use.
Autumn, described lovingly by the locals, brings incredible beauty and solitude. Picture yourself sitting on the Adirondack chair with a steaming cup of coffee watching the loons skim the lake. Or take your kayak out for a scenic view on the calm lake.
Winter on the lake is surprisingly mild yet offers two ski areas to choose from. Winter is the perfect time to enjoy the snow recreation options or to just get a fire going, curl up on the leather sofa in the library and read one of the 1,000+ books offered in the house. Or enjoy a fire in the outdoor fireplace, bring your hot chocolate outside and watch the stars.
The house is configured for privacy with the master wing separated from the guest wing by the kitchen, dining, great room, and library. The master suite has a queen size bed. French doors swing open to the outdoor courtyard and fireplace. The master suite bathroom amenities include a double walk-in shower, Japanese soaker tub, double sinks, and a washer and dryer. The guest wing has three bedrooms and a laundry room. A large bedroom faces the lake with a queen bed. There are two additional bedrooms, one with 4 bunks and one with two bunks and a double bed. These guest bedrooms share a large bathroom with a double shower stall and two vanities. The bathrooms are both nicely appointed with travertine stone floor and granite vanity.
There is an additional half bath off the dining room with a pine cone sink pedestal, pine cone light sconces and rock trim behind the vanity.
The kitchen is well equipped for the gourmet chef with a five burner cooktop and double ovens. You’ll find every small appliance and utensil imaginable in the kitchen. There is a large walk-in pantry fully stocked with a wide array of spices and has plenty of room for your groceries. With a slab granite island, and richly stained alder cabinets, you’ll find the kitchen an inviting place to gather. The beauty of the kitchen is heightened by the 20’ceilings, trusses that are an extension of the great room and sweeping views of both the lake and cherry orchard behind the house.
You may dine in the large dining room (table with extensions seats 12) overlooking the outdoor fireplace courtyard and lake, or make yourself comfortable outside under the covered patio overlooking the lake. The covered patio boasts an oversized Weber gas grill with a side burner for full meal preparation al fresco!
We also offer a spacious loft above the garage as a separate rental unit or as an addition to your house rental. The loft has a queen bed, bathroom and sweeping views of the lake. (Not available in winter.)
You’ll find everything you desire in a vacation here: rest, relaxation, outdoor activity and great family time. Please contact us soon and book your vacation week.
NEW: Our neighbors on Skidoo Bay recently posted a really wonderful video depicting fun on the lake. Ask us about it.
FALL: Fall brings a brilliant blue sky and quiet to the lake. The weather has been particularly nice in September over the past several years. It's a big, northern state, so there are no guarantees, but lately it seems like we've had longer summers up there. October can often be sunny and crisp and beautiful, even if you lose your warm lake water for swimming. More often than not, I've enjoyed nice Indian Summers into October, with those blue skies in the day, wood smoke and the smell of the orchards at night, and sometimes snow across the bay on the top of the Mission Mountains. Glacier Park is usually open well into the fall. At Apgar campground, far south in Glacier Park, you can walk out onto a bridge in the fall and watch a dozen or more bald eagles gather to feed on salmon. I'm biased, and it's probably because I rarely get there in the fall anymore, but it's one of my favorite times to be at Flathead Lake. Winter brings skiing through the snow-covered trees of Whitefish Mountain, and the good camaraderie of (other!) Canadian bargain-hunters. And spring brings the blossoming of cherry trees above our house and throughout the Flathead valley.
WINTER: Because we have deep roots there, and because it’s where we built a house near water that laps upon the shore like words of Yeats, we spend our winter holidays in Montana. In the easy seasons it is a reliable heaven on earth. In the winter it is either snow-covered peaks against bright skies - or grey isolation.
This Christmas, the strain of travel weighed a little heaver on eye and muscle when the first morning hours arrived, enveloped by low clouds and the dark of the longest night of the year. The world was in harmony only with the lure of another hour in a feather bed. One querulous goose flapped and honked over a hundred of its kind, all floating on the cold lake with a caking of snow on their heads and backs. They ignored him, and we all claimed a little more sleep.
And then, when the world was right, the inevitable call of one bird to some willing other began again, and the day could unfold toward coffee and breakfast. It’s in that moment that the vacation begins, and you are no longer tempted to begrudge the forsaken comforts of Christmas enchiladas and the twinkling lights of the village we leave behind here.
Nowhere in the city do you get that call and response, and such a reliable ordering of things.
Keywords: Flathead Lake House Lakehouse Montana East Shore near Glacier flathead rental waterfront Rockies western Montana Mission Mountains Greene & Greene craftsman lakeshore on the lake Finley Point ski Polson Bigfork lodge family families friendly eagle trout fishing water ski snow ski last best place
a title='The Most Beautiful House on Flathead Lake Spring Summer Fall #96053 on VRBO
NOTE: Availability and rates are not necessarily set into the next year until we know our own schedule. When we have not filled in future dates, at times this service will default to an average or lower rate that will not apply. Always feel free to contact us as to what our expectation is as to bookings into the following year.
Montana STATE PERMIT #2018-BLDG-000226. Montana Public License 312912. Lake County Zoning Conformance Permit #FP-08. We are probably one of the first properties to attain all requisite permits. It was a thorough, arduous and expensive process.
Hosted by Dennis Burns (for Finley Point LLC)