Karen Widing: Test drives the latest luxury homes

Feb. 21, 2007

If you’ve ever tried to keep up with the Joneses, then you can relate to Roger and Karen Widing’s challenge of just keeping up withIII themselves.
The Widings move every four years or so from one unbelievably palatial home to the next. Typically, they go no farther than to the lot next door to them.
The Widings live the life of a custom builder’s family. They build the house of their dreams, get comfortably moved in, and promptly put it up for sale. Then they buy another lot and begin drawing up plans for their next house. “Once we moved in a house one day and put it up for sale the very next day,” Karen said.
Roger said it hasn’t gotten old, even after being in the business for 31 years: “I still have the same passion and drive.”
Karen said she’s lived in nine homes
in 25 years. Needless to say, they tend not to be packrats, so they don’t have to move as much.
They now live in an Old World Style home, a smashing $3.9 million home on Old Mission Peninsula (listed with Coldwell Banker if you’re interested). It will be featured on Home & Gardens TV in May or June.
Like most area builders of high-end homes, the Widings use their personal home as a showcase of sorts. That way clients can see certain features they might want to consider for themselves, such as a bath spout that pours a slender stream of water from the ceiling.
The downside of this housing arrangement is that at any given time, a prospective client might drop into your home. That means the Widings and their daughters, ages 10 and 14, must keep the house immaculate, and it’s a tough job with an 8,656 square-foot home—even with a housecleaner coming in twice a month.
Although Karen knows this is her way of life, you sense that this move will be a little tougher than most. This is the first house that she and Roger designed themselves, and it’s got everything -- a small theatre, a complete gym, a pool, a wine room, and a music room for the girls.
They have so much fun at home, that they almost never go out. In fact, they’ve been known to pass on a college football game or two, giving away their tickets and watching the game in their movie theatre room instead.
Karen’s favorite feature is the patio area that features an outdoor kitchen, sunken hot tub, pool, and Pergolas (a pavilion with latticework beams). The setting is inspired by their trips to Mexico, the Grand Cayman Islands and Aruba, where they took lots of pictures for reference. There’s also an outdoor dining table made with poured concrete, and a bar where guests can sit while watching the host cook up a storm on the other side, complete with a Margarita blender, griddle, grill, sink, refrigerator and deep fryer.
Karen said they entertain every weekend—rib cook-offs, blue moon parties, and a Traverse Symphony Orchestra fundraiser, to name just a few.
Each time they build a home, the Widings improve upon the shortcomings of their last home. The outdoor cooking area, for example, could use more counter space. And next time, they’ll build a bigger kitchen close to the theatre room to prepare food for movie/football parties.
So by the time they retire, will they have the ultimate house?
“It’s hard to say. I can’t envision us 10 years from now because I can only look forward to two years,” Karen said. “I don’t ever see us tucked into a little condo. The one thing I can say is when you have all these fun things in the house—the pool, the theatre room, the gym—it’s hard to give it up. We don’t need a house this big, but it sure is nice being in it.”