About Sandpoint's Dover

The Sandpoint Winter Carnival contines to get better as Dover Bay Resort adds to the mix of actitivies at Schweitzer and Sandpoint with the Dover Bay Winter Festival. Winter Carnival Weekend takes place January 15-18.

Dover's Festival takes place primarily on Saturday, featuring a Polar Plunge (in the pool), a Snowshoe Volleyball Tournament, and Snowmobiling Demos. The Dover Bay Cafe will offer an outdoor, lakefront BBQ with brats and beer, along with breakfast and lunch off the menu.

Also taking place at Dover on both Saturday and Sunday from 11-4p is the Midwinter Art Festival. Sandpoint's biggest winter art event will feature the work of dozens of area artists, all hosted in various homes and venues throughout the waterfront resort. www.MidwinterArtFest.com. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of art will go to local charities affiliated with Sandpoint's Winter Carnival.

The Art Festival is sponsored and hosted by both Dover Bay Development and Tomlinson Sandpoint Sothebys Intl Realty, through the Listing Agents handling Dover Bay's real estate. One of those Agents is yours truly of course. Credit should be given to Gary Lirette, another Sothebys Agent, for orchestrating this event. This is really a great way for Dover Bay to show local and regional residents all that it has to offer, in a fun and no-pressure atmosphere.

Schweitzer Mountain will have quite a bit going on over the weekend as well. The highlight is the Torchlight Parade and Fireworks on the mountain starting at 6pm. The torchlight ski parade is alot of fun and is open to anyone. Night skiing will of course be going on, and it is just awesome to ski down with torches as fireworks are going off. We did this last year during a snow storm- hopefully we'll be so lucky again!

Fortunately the Dover events are over by 4 or 5, providing plenty of time to get to Schweitzer for the evening festivities. There will also be live music at Taps along with St Bernard. (Incidentally the St Bernard has really become a fantastic place for dinner or evening entertainment since my pal Scott Bortz took over last season).

The entire weekend starts off with the Taste of Sandpoint on Thursday night from 5-8p. Originally scheduled for the Cedar Street Bridge, this has been moved to the Sandpoint Events Center this year. The Winter Art Trek will be in Downtown Sandpoint on Friday night from 5-8p, along with a bonfire and Rail Jam at Jeff Jones Town Square. The weekend is capped off on Sunday at 10am with the Eichardt's K9 Keg Pull, one of the truly unique events in Sandpoint.

For more information on Dover Bay, Schweitzer, or Sandpoint visit www.SandpointResortRealty.com or give me a call at 208-304-5665. Whether it is real estate related or not, I am happy to help out.

When we moved to Dover Bay Resort this Fall, we figured we could really enjoy the rest of the season here, with the biking, hiking, etc, until the snow came. Now that Winter is here we have found an entirely new appreciation for where we live. Everything is SO white, serene, and magical out here, and it feels like we are living in the country. Yet we probably have more conveniences than most... the roads and sidewalks are plowed before anyone in Sandpoint, we can open the door and walk the cross country and snow shoe trails, and we can wander to the Cafe and Market for breakfast, or Joe's for a coffee.

I usually walk our dog, Bentley, each evening after dark. At dusk yesterday we went for a walk along the trails to the Dover Beach, where we ran into a huge moose and its calf. It was quite the moment and I'm just sorry I didn't have a camera to capture the beauty of these huge animals contrasted against the blanket of white covering everything.

My wife received snow shoes and cross country skis for Christmas, which has really helped her to enjoy the Winter. She leaves our back door with our baby boy and our dog to go snow shoe or cross country along the trails throughout Dover. Our hope is that the trail system here will continue to be developed, particularly for the winter season to encourage these types of activities. We have found that our friends always enjoy coming to see us this time of year and making use of the access we have to the great outdoors!

Despite the present day economic conditions, Dover Bay Resort, near Sandpoint Idaho, has a healthy pace of building activity underway or planned for the winter. Several custom homes are nearing completion, while Dover Bay Development is moving forward with permits and construction in several of its neighborhoods.

Here is an inventory of the current building activity at Dover Bay Resort:

Dover Point (the exclusive 9 waterfront homesites in West Dover or ‘Tank Hill'): Hope Builders is finishing interior work on a custom waterfront home on Lot 6; Tom Runa Architects has designed a plan for a custom home on Lot 4 of Dover Point, and the site is currently being engineered for the foundation and road; a personal client is closing on lots 7&8 and working with local architects to design and engineer plans for their custom home. With this closing their will be no more homesites available on Dover Point, meaning 30 waterfront lots have now sold in the resort. The newly released Sunset Estates in West Dover will be the final waterfront custom homesites to be sold.

Another waterfront neighborhood, Riverside, has several beautiful homes in progress. On Lot 5 there is a 5000 square foot custom home by Dan Herbie Construction out of CDA, which is nearing completion. Lot 12 (closer to Marina Town) has another custom home that is almost complete, built by Mountain View Construction. Next door to this is a spec home that is now offered at $2.395 million.

Across the street on Bergstrom Avenue there are three homes by Sandpoint Builders which are nearing completion (one of these is pre-sold). Western Luxury Homes has completed another spec home next door to these. Reedwalk is the neighborhood with all homesites offering frontage on Brown's Inlet. A new custom home by Homestake Construction is now framed on the first lot adjacent to Dover Way.

Dover Bay Development is also continuing to move forward on several neighborhoods. The strategy has always been to start construction on new buildings as contracts are received. This conservative approach has served Dover Bay very well. For the Cottages at Dover Meadows, permits have been pulled to construct 2 Cottages in phase 2, the Stockdale plan on lot 2 should be completed in time for its buyer to close in January, and the Sexton plan on Lot 2 has been coming along quickly. This house is now framed, landscaping is in, and the drywall should be completed soon. The timing for a buyer is ideal in that they still have the opportunity to choose all their interior finishes and colors.

Marina Town, the luxury waterfront condominiums, has a new building that was completed this month. The bottom two units have already sold, leaving the two top floor condos remaining. Two reservations have already been received on the next building which could begin construction this winter. Bayside South, the secondary waterfront condos facing Marina Town, have also been a very successful product. All the units in the existing buildings are sold, with the exception of the model in building 3. There are two reservations on a future building, with either building 4 (facing Marina Town) or building 11 (facing wetlands) having foundations poured and ready to go with the next buyer.

The first six Bungalows in the Parkside neighborhood, rounding out the Marina Village, will likely be started in the next week or two (weather depending). The permitting process has been completed, and foundations are ready to be poured. One of these will be a model home which will host open houses in the Spring. These Bungalows will be similar to the 19 Beach Bungalows which were completed in June as a rental product for the resort. The new for-sale bungalows in the Parkside neighborhood will feature larger, improved floor plans with lofts.

All in all there is a very healthy pace of building activity at Dover Bay Resort, not only by the principal developer but by some of the top builders in the area. There seems to be an appropriate amount of spec building going on, so that Dover does not have to suffer from any oversupply issues even in a slower market.

Marina Town is the premier waterfront condominium at the four season Dover Bay Resort. These condos offer a level of luxury that is difficult to find in North Idaho, with all of the top end fit and finishes, and phenomenal views. The closest competition in the Sandpoint area would be Seasons at Sandpoint, or perhaps the waterfront condos that are still in preliminary stages of development at The Idaho Club. The Idaho Club is pricing their condos from around $2 million, and the developer inventory at Seasons starts around $1 million.

The new Building 1 for Marina Town has just been completed. The two downstairs units have actually been combined into one penthouse for one buyer. However the two upstairs condos are currently available and are drawing quite a bit of interest even in this market. They are both priced around $900,000 and each offers more than 2000 square feet and includes a loft and high ceiling that makes it feel even bigger. Building 1 is perched just steps from the water, and adjacent to the Marina Town private sandy beach. The views from each of these units are phenomenal, with a spacious deck opening from both the great room and the master bedroom. Because each is a corner unit, there is a ton of light and large windows offering water views for almost 180 degrees.

In addition to the private beach, there is a new reflective pool that is being worked on now. This will be an infinity edge pool that provides majestic views and has the feel of dropping into the lake.

Buildings 3 and 7 have now been staked out so that a prospective buyer can get a true picture for just what their view could be. These two buildings have four condos each, all of which are true waterfront yet priced lower because they are setback from the water at an angle. In some ways they offer an even greater view, as they will have unobstructed site lines overlooking the reflective pool to the lake. Prices for these units start as low as $595,000 which is unheard of for luxury waterfront in the area. Two of the four available in building 7 have already been reserved.

Each of the new condo units offers a 2 car garage (as opposed to 1 car in the existing buildings 8 and 9). Another key change has been moving the fireplace from the center of the living and dining rooms to the corner, thus opening up the great room. There are also fireplaces in the master bedroom and an incredible resort-style bathroom off the master.

With the prime location next to the Dover Bay Marina, the Cafe and Market, Fitness Center and Pool, and the miles of trails, Marina Town at Dover Bay is truly a one of a kind offering. This is the only lakefront condominium product to be offered at Dover Bay, and there is a limited amount of inventory remaining.

For more information, photos, etc or to schedule a tour, just shoot me an email or give me a call.

What a fantastic Fall season we have had in Sandpoint, and at Dover Bay! The foliage is amazing, the sun has been shining every day, and the pace has been relaxed and tranquil. For those of us fortunate enough to live at Dover Bay year round, the months of Sept and Oct are one of the best times here.

One of the more overlooked aspects of the Dover Bay location is the incredible mountain biking and hiking trails out our back door. Within two or three minutes from home I can access miles of single track trails in the hills behind Dover that locals call 'Syringa'. These trails are a local favorite and are user-friendly enough to be a great introduction to mountain biking. At the same time there are challenging, more technical routes that can be taken. Picturesque views are offered to the south overlooking Dover Bay and the Pend Oreille River, while to the north you get sweeping vistas of Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille from the top of Ravenwood.

Another favorite family activity of ours is to take our two little dogs and walk the miles of flatter trails that meander through the woods and estuaries of Dover Bay itself. The views from the top of Dover Point on the east side of Dover are as good as it gets. We also love started our walk at the beach park and crossing over the foot bridges, doing a couple mile loop that takes you around Browns Inlet.

These walks are when you really appreciate living out here, as we inevitably run into people we know or make friends with new visitors or residents of Dover. The pace here is unhurried and most everyone we meet is very friendly and shares common interests. In fact when we first showed up with our moving van I had two different neighbors show up offering to help out.

Other nice additions to this community have been the pool and jacuzzi, the fitness center, the Cafe, and the Market. We love hitting the Cafe for breakfast on Sunday mornings, overlooking the lake. This is another place that has become a popular local gathering place. The plan is for breakfast and lunch to continue through the winter from Wed through Sunday.

We are now looking forward to a Winter wonderland where we will be able to cross country ski literally out our back door, snow shoe in the nearby hills, access Schweitzer with ease, and finish the day in the lakefront jacuzzi.