KEOSAUQUA – Just north of Keosauqua sits a row of cabins overlooking the Des Moines River.

The development at Robert Park, along Labrador Drive, consists of approximately 32 cabins that are mostly second homes for people who live there in the summer. That was the case for former Fairfield residents Bob and Bonnie Reighard, too, when they purchased their cabin in 2017. But the couple found that they were more comfortable in their new second home, and decided to spruce it up and move there permanently in 2019.

The Reighards hired Steve Winslow to do major renovations to the cabin like knocking out an interior wall, adding rooms and putting new metal siding on it. Bonnie said they’ve actually done two rounds of renovations, one in 2019 and the other in 2023. Today, the cabin bears little resemblance to how it looked when the Reighards moved in five years ago.

Sadly, Bob passed away in 2023. The couple had put so much work into the cabin, and now Bonnie is putting the finishing touches on this most recent round of renovations. She took all the cabinets off the walls to sand and paint them. She wallpapered several rooms including the dining room, and did trim work around the cabin.

“I’ll do whatever I need to do,” she said. “I’ll use a saw. I don’t get scared about that stuff.”

FINDING A SECOND HOME

Bonnie was born in Missouri, and grew up there before moving to Pulaski and later Keosauqua. Bob grew up in several small towns throughout Iowa. Bob and Bonnie lived in Fairfield for over 20 years, and one day Bob got the idea to get a vacation home elsewhere. Initially, he wanted to buy a home in southern Missouri, but Bonnie told him that was too far away, and they’d only get to use it a few times per year. The couple started looking for vacation homes closer to Fairfield, and that’s when they found this enclave of cabins called Roberts Park, a few miles north of Keosauqua.

“The cabin started off as our second home, and we just loved it every time we came,” Bonnie said.

The cabin has a boat dock on the Des Moines River, where Bonnie along with her family and friends liked to spend their time kayaking and enjoying the water. They also bought a barn up the road and converted it into a gathering place, adding a kitchenette, bathroom, TV, sofa and chairs.

“We like to have family over all the time, and that’s a place people can go to hang out,” Bonnie said.

When the couple decided in 2019 to move to the cabin permanently, they called their friend Steve Winslow to see if he could lead the construction.

“We’ve been friends with Steve and his wife Kim for a long time, and he’s done a lot of work for us through the years,” Bonnie said.

RENOVATIONS INSIDE AND OUT

The Reighards changed the cabin inside and out to the point that Bonnie said it feels like a brand-new house. They added two rooms to the back, closed in a porch and made it a room, and removed a wall between the kitchen and the four-seasons room to make a much larger kitchen.

The exterior of the home was a cream-colored plywood, but that was replaced with metal siding that mimics logs in a log cabin. A 50-foot deck was built around the outside, too.

“When they built these cabins, they were not meant to be permanent homes,” Bonnie said. “My floor in the kitchen was sinking, so we had to tear it up, replace the floorboards and duct work, and then do the remodeling.”

The ceiling was converted into a vaulted ceiling, and one of the rooms had to be raised two feet so the kitchen and former porch would be level. Even after all these changes, Bonnie said she has a few more in store, and that she’s going to have Winslow come back this summer to add a garage and a bathroom.

“Steve is an awesome contractor,” she said. “He knows how to tear something up and put it back together. I’d definitely recommend him.”