Over the past few years, we have brought enhancements to the property, with several significant improvements awaiting you at the Rice Retreat in 2007.  We trust these will add to your experience, and encourage you to click on the individual tabs to learn about and track progress on each.

Note posted 6-18-07: 

We just returned from 2 weeks of final work on the property and are tired, but absolutely delighted with the way things have turned out.  Everything in the lower level works perfectly, the final grade work turned out awesome and the new grass in the yard is growing nicely. 

When we furnished the lower level we decided to do some other upgrades noteworthy of mention.  We replaced the queen bed in the upper level bedroom with a king and replaced the existing king mattresses with new and better quality ones.  So now all three of the king beds are equipped with footboards and great mattresses which contain a top layer of memory foam.  Two of the king mattresses have the foam built in, and the one on the upper level is a memory foam pad which can be removed in the event someone doesn’t prefer the feel of the foam.  We also upgraded the home theater system on the main level by adding a 47” 1080 high definition LCD flat panel television.  Although these are more expensive than plasma and DLP, we selected it based on qualities of little or no light reflection (as opposed to a plasma) as that room can be bright during the day as well as the wide viewing angle(as opposed to DLP). 

We really hope everyone enjoys the improvements, and we would really appreciate you jumping into the online guestbook on this site and letting us know what you think!

Note posted 5-17-07: 

Our projects at the Rice Retreat are coming along just a little behind our original schedule; however, we are thrilled with the outcome! 

We were taken aback by how much the crab orchard flagstone added to the aesthetics of the property.  We also underestimated how much work is involved with laying 3,000 square feet of it.  We ended up recruiting two stone crews from Indianapolis to help us finish. 

We decided to get a bit crazy and built a huge double-headed tile & glass block shower room in the Lower Level which added time to the project.  We were also delighted to have gotten everything we asked for out of the space in the Lower Level PLUS an extra room we set up as a dedicated office, space for a 2^nd washer & dryer, no exposed posts, and approximately 200 square feet of unplanned additional deck space!  These were all unintended surprises we cooked up with our carpenters. 

You will be in for a delight when you visit the Rice Retreat after all these upgrades!  Everything will be completed in a week to 10 days, and the Lower Level furnished before the first guests arrive in June!  See the most recent photos below. 

Retaining Wall

Patio

Stone Work

Trailer Parking

Lower Level Finishing