The truth is, Paula found Nippersink, and Tom said no.
On their first visit, Thomas — a structural engineer with four decades of experience — cataloged everything that was wrong: a roof past its life, plumbing and electrical systems near failure, no heating or cooling, and a kitchen that needed to be rebuilt from scratch. He walked away, telling Paula, as diplomatically as he could manage, that they would have to be crazy to take it on.
What he didn’t fully reckon with was Paula — a woman who had spent 38 years dreaming big, raising five children, and turning every house they’d ever owned into a home worth coming back to. She had walked into those same rooms and seen something entirely different: a historic lodge with genuine charm, a setting of extraordinary beauty, and decades of warmth waiting to be renewed. She also knew that when Tom quietly said the lodge had “good bones,” the argument was already over.
For Tom, Nippersink became something more than a renovation project — it became a calling. After 40 years of designing buildings for others, here was a historic structure that needed everything he knew, and a new chapter that needed everything he had left to give. He has always believed it is far better to retire to something than to simply retire, and Nippersink Lodge is exactly that — a place worthy of a second act. For Paula, it was providential.
Today, the Lodge is restored and ready — the systems rebuilt, the rooms reimagined with Paula’s eye for color, comfort, and design, the common spaces honored in a way that respects the Lodge’s long history while welcoming a new chapter. What began as a dream of gathering our own family on this mountain has grown into something larger: a place where your family can gather too. Nippersink Lodge has meant something special to guests for decades, and that is a tradition we are proud to carry forward.
Paula, on her first visit to Nippersink Lodge
Nippersink Lodge, as we found it
January 2023
