Cedar Lodge has new owners

BELLA VISTA — Linda and Richard Swalve of Bella Vista are the new owners of Cedar Lodge on Loch Lomond.

They purchased the property last year in October when the previous owners approached them about buying it, Linda Swalve said. She added she and her husband already owned three other vacation rentals on Loch Lomond, along with one on the Elk River in Noel, Mo.

The couple also own a construction company, Swalve Enterprises, which allows them to take care of their own maintenance on the vacation rentals, she said. Swalve Enterprises remodels hospitals, and it involves a lot of travel. They could be gone three to five months at a time on a job. Their goal is to retire from the hospital remodeling business and to focus on the vacation rentals, she said.

Swalve said she and her husband moved to Bella Vista as a result of her in-laws moving here 16 to 17 years ago.

“We were living in Arizona and wanted to get somewhere greener,” she said. They moved here in 2012 and live around the corner from Cedar Lodge.

Their other vacation rentals include Emerald Shores Villa, which is often rented together with Cedar Lodge and is next door; Edgewater Escape and Sunset Shores, which are across the lake from Cedar Lodge and two doors down from one another and also often rented together. The property in Noel is called Riverside Retreat.

Cedar Lodge sleeps 22 and has eight baths, Linda said. It has an indoor sauna, outdoor Jacuzzi, cabana, fully equipped kitchen, projection TV, pool table and Foosball, toy closet and a playhouse with a secret door into a bedroom.

“This one is very popular,” she said. “This one is very lodge-y, where the others are a mix of lodge-y, beach-y, farm-y. They all have docks, fully equipped kitchens, topof-the-line linens.”

The rooms at Cedar Lodge have either lake views or forest views. There is plenty to look at, including a variety of antiques and lodge-style decor, such as moose, caribou, deer, bison, and turkey trophies and antler chandeliers. Log furniture is plentiful, and some rooms have log walls and tin ceilings.

Swalve said Cedar Lodge is booked into October and November, and she is starting to book December. She said she has a lot of wedding parties for people getting married at the Mildred B. Cooper Chapel.

“We try to make it as comfy and homey as possible. With traveling a lot for the hospitals, we rented a lot of vacation rentals, so I try to make it what I would want it to be when I rent one.”