Dog-friendly, lakefront home with dock, deck and game room

We stayed in this house for our annual family reunion. There were five older adults (55-61) and five young adults (21-24) in our group. The bedroom configuration worked well for our group. The olders had the rooms on the top two floors, and the youngers had the lowest floor. The lowest floor has its own living space and kitchen, which was nice for the young adults to hang out. One thing to mention- the loft on the top floor was fine for sleeping and sort of semi-private. The room with the twin beds on the bottom floor was not pictured in the home description. This room had two beds, huge tv, etc. There was a door to close off from others in that same level, but it was open to anyone on the second floor to look down into the room because of the high ceiling. So sort of a semi-private common space. Kitchen was great! Game room was fun! Could use some fixing up, but we enjoyed all the games. We really loved going out on the lake with the kayaks and paddle boards. Nice deck area to sit and enjoy the lake view. All in all a great time.

Beautiful location on Whidbey Island

TLDR: Enjoyed our stay overall, but would not stay ant this property again. The location of this property was fantastic. We enjoyed having space to spread out and being so close to the lake. The home was well stocked with everything we needed. The dock was great for fishing and the views of the lake were beautiful day and night. Unfortunately we had some issues come up during our stay. The first was that the septic system alarm went off (not sure why). We had to move through overgrown blackberry vines to turn it off. The grill was really dirty and we could not use it for the first two days of our stay. Vacasa did send someone out to clean it which we appreciated. There was an impossible to avoid amount of duck and geese poop in yard. While the home appeared clean upon arrival, we noticed a lot of spots in the home that needed better upkeep. Lastly, we found many spiders and even a mouse inside the home and also noticed rodent droppings around the deck. The location was great, but for the price, we definitely expected a better maintained property.

Lots of room for large groups to spread out on three levels. Right on the lake. There is a large skylight in the third floor mast, so difficult to sleep in

Our group LOVED the location of this home! The lake is amazing and the kids were outside all day long, away from their screens (for the most part) and were very comfortable in and around the lake. That's all we ever want when we take a family vacation. The home provided a ton of toys, chairs and amenities to enjoy the water with as well, thank you!! Wish we coulda taken advantage of that huge game room more, but the lake made it hard. Lol Plenty of space to spread out among 10 of us. Kitchen(s) were pretty stocked and we made most of our meals at the house. View from kitchen to the lake was magical. It was really hard to leave the house actually. We had the intention to explore the island (we're from Oregon!), but we ended up only leaving once to eat at Cozy's Roadhouse which was great and felt very locals only. We were there during 4th of July and the fireworks display was SPECTACULAR, put on by the neighbors, who were also so awesome and friendly. The house itself is worn, but liveable. Could use some love and a deep clean, but, the location...the location made it all ok. :) Thank you!!

Good news! The lake was an awesome experience, to include views, enjoying the kayaks, canoe, paddleboard, and fishing... and just sitting out in the yard listening to nature. This is a quiet location.. we didn't feel overwhelmed but neighbors or boats on the lake. The game room was also a great option for the kids on a rainy day.. perfect mix of entertainment!! Grocery stores are close by - very convenient. Beds are great; lots of room in this house. Quick response from owner if we reached out. Bad News: This house is older.. they need repair and upgrade it! Don't plan on internet.. it's not reliable at all. We also mostly had SOS cell services unless you stood out on the deck.... and we had three different carriers in our group. We are told that's Island life.. hmmmmm.... Mice live here too, so don't be surprised at all... we did report the obvious signs to the owner, but it needs more than just a sweep up. Septic is a problem. Deck is old and rickety, seemed unsafe, with broken planks... and a few that had a new plank literally hammered over the broken one. Outdoor cushions upstairs are faded and look like a few seasons of sun and weathering have taken their toll.

Which we enjoyed

Loved being on the lake. The views are great. Lots of separate living areas for privacy. Not the best upkeep, but very livable for a vacation.

A good sized house and a good location. There were some aspects of the listing that were not explained well, like that one of the main bedrooms is actually the main living room (with the television) for the house. Also, the house is on a septic system so it would have been helpful had that been communicated in the listing and house instructions as water usage around the house needs to be staggered (think like not everyone can shower in the mornings or there is a warning of septic overload). The house was very well stocked in terms of having kitchen supplies, but there was also evidence of mouse droppings in the kitchen. So all in all, a good vacation rental on a nice lake for a large group of people, but there are tradeoffs.

The weather was great. The neighbors were really nice. The dock was nice and the kayaking was a blast. Unfortunately, the rotting wood on the upper deck attracted hundreds of hornets that were constantly swarming the area and anybody who tried to hang out on it. There were mouse droppings in all the drawers, and around all of the cooking utensils, in both kitchens so we resorted to a lot of takeout food. There was a endless supply of huge black flies coming from somewhere in the house and there were spiders and webs on the inside of most of the windows. For what we paid we were expecting the property to be better maintained.