vLIVING continued from page 17 Off the great room is the master bathroom and master bedroom. Van and Roger gutted the bathroom and installed a walk-in shower and new bathtub as well as 42 inch sinks. The bedroom hasn’t been updated but they do have an interesting bed. The bedroom set is 37 years old and the bed is actually what is called a Paul Bunyan bed. A Paul Bunyan bed is like a four-poster bed, except there are 6 posts instead of four. It’s a massive wood detailed frame that is still the size of a king-sized bed. Van and Roger haven’t updated or renovated anything upstairs yet, however it does hold Van’s favorite room, one of their guest rooms. The view upstairs from the south side of the house is outstanding as well, and upstairs also holds Roger’s office. Roger is a postmark collector and likes to collect postmarks from all the states. He has several states already completed and is working on more. Collecting postmarks is gathering postmarks from different states, but Roger also will go take a photo of the post office the postmark comes from. Just like upstairs, there hasn’t been much updating in the basement but it is technically an apartment except there are not enough windows and can’t be used as one. The basement features a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, and a bar. There are also several closets which would make anyone with a lot of clothes very happy. The basement was considered Cimpl’s party room as the stairwell led in from outside so his friends would not have to go through the house to get down there. The pool table of Cimpl’s is still down there. A unique find in the overflow bedroom is a reindeer that Roger went 50 miles out of his way in a blizzard to get for Van. As for the little updating that has been done, a few months after Van and Roger moved into the house the sewer went out as it was still the original sewer line which was pipe iron. They had to replace the carpet and fix the ceiling. Off the great room is the deck that wraps around the south side of the house, offering a fantastic view of the river and a great space to sit. Off the deck on the west side of the house is the patio area, which Roger and Van updated. The patio area is perfect for entertaining, something Van and Roger both love to do. The backyard is also full of various plants; when they moved to Yankton they brought 300 plants and all of them took to the vLIVING continued on page 19