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Published: September 8th 2008
After the Househunter's episode aired last week, we received literally hundreds of emails and comments asking why we sold and what we are doing now.
I appreciate all of the compliments from those that watched the show and appreciated our updates and repairs to the property and thank those that said it would be a place that you would like to visit. You still can and even though I no longer own it, I can assure you it's one of the nicest places to stay in the entire country and you would be remiss if you did not stay there for a couple of nights.
To answer all of those that asked how we could leave Costa Rica; The Lodge
is beautiful and came out better than we could have ever imagined. Our time there was great and I treasure having been able to spend a year spending almost 24 hours a day raising my son Yoni with Rachel. We thankfully built a great business, met amazing people and took a very important step forward in our lives.
So why did we leave it all behind after so much work??
Yoni was born last April and it immediately became clear to us that our priorities had shifted drastically. We wanted Yoni to know his family, and wanted to be a day's drive away from family, so that on a whim he and any of his future siblings could see their grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Being in Costa Rica, we were only a 4 hour flight away, but it felt much futher and it was clearly not the same thing. So, we decided that it was time to put the house on the market soon after he was born.
Selling was a lot more dramatic than we had expected. Many people made offers to buy the house with no intention of actually purchasing, there were scammers and losers finding their way to our door almost daily. After dropping our price a number of times, we did find a buyer.
We moved back to the US and I was offered a wonderful job, Rachel is expecting again and we are about to buy a house in Cleveland. We are now a five minute drive from countless family members including my grandparents / Yoni's great-grandparents.
The idea of owning the B & B was wonderful and I would not trade the last few years for anything, but it was time to move on. We got that itch out of our systems, and we are now very happy to be boring Yuppies. It's far less exciting, but now we never have to ask ourselves, "What if we had followed our dream?"
We have followed that dream and found that it was not actually what we wanted in life. Sometimes the things that are the most valuable in life are far less exciting, wrapped in far less attractive packages than the dreams we have. At the end of the day, having 30 family members at a barbecue in our postage stamp sized back yard means more to us than being alone to enjoy a beautiful mountain view and good weather.
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Jeff Klein
non-member comment
nice to have Yoni state side
I can only add that we "pop pop and grandma" are so happy to have Rachel and Matt back home and our lil Costa Rican “Yoni” our grandson so close. It was a wonderful experience for Matt and Rachel and for all of the family that was able to visit Costa Rica and the Orchid lodge on so many occasions. The work that went into the lodge was truly a Herculean effort. We are so proud that the lodge went thru a renovation and updating and was so successful. The daily and on some occasions the hourly updates from Matt on the construction project was wonderful. I will never forget the call from Costa Rica to my cell phone from Matt asking my advice on what size hot water heater he should buy. It was like he was at home depot around the corner, not in a country 6,000 miles away. Matt and Rachel actualized a dream that many of us never are able to. Of course the reality of building a home into a lodge was a huge undertaking in a country that is Spanish speaking. Matt was able to pick up the language and can now speak Spanish fluently. It was always so interesting to learn how the renovations were coming and as the reservations started to come in we learned about the “guests”. They were almost as interesting as the renovations. Of course when the time came to sell the lodge there were the “characters” that were just as interesting to say the least. My fondest memory of course is spending time in the lodge waiting for Yoni to be born at the Costa Rican hospital. After his birth Paul and Judy, Rachel’s mom and dad joined us for a wonderful week of getting to know Yoni. Our time in Costa Rica with the Bernstein’s and Rachel, Matt and Yoni will always be a special memory. So welcome home and best wishes to Rob in his new venture.