This former state rep found peace, repaired his marriage while opening a Northwoods Airbnb

ROCK FALLS ? Bob and Laura Kulp never would have predicted they would spend their retirement years living in a home that looks like it was lifted from the set of "The Lord of the Rings."

"Everybody says this is a hobbit house," joked Bob Kulp, a former Republican representative who served in the State Assembly from 2013 to early 2021. "I don't even know what a 'hobbit' is." Well, that's not quite true, he adds. The couple have seven kids, and some of them were obsessed with "The Lord of the Rings."

But Bob Kulp never got into it. "Not my genre," he said.

And they never expected to open an Airbnb that offers a suite on a second floor of a barn and two glamping-style rustic cabins. Laura Kulp first vetoed that idea when friends suggested it. "I don't like to clean," she said.

But here they are, just over a year operating the Airbnb, and they are happily ensconced in the sprawling hobbit house that once was three separate buildings — two geodesic domes and a garage. It's all nestled among trees on a private 4.5 acre lot, and nearly all of it was built by Bob Kulp himself.

"None of this was in our plan," Bob Kulp said.

They call the property Friedenswald, which is German for "Peace Forest," Laura Kulp said. The couple share German and Nordic heritage and considered Norwegian and Swedish words as well as German. Friedenswald just fit, she said.

Living in a 'hobbit house' in the Northwoods wasn't in the plan

When the Kulps first started thinking about purchasing the Rock Falls property in 2018, it looked dramatically different than it does today, and their lives were dramatically different, too.

At the time Bob Kulp owned Kulps of Stratford, an award-winning roofing business he founded in the mid-1980s in addition to being a politician in Madison. Laura Kulp was a stay-at-home mom who home-schooled their children. As the kids grew up, the shy and introverted Laura Kulp felt increasingly at sea. She struggled with finding a place in the world.

Meanwhile Bob Kulp was an outgoing, hard-charging person, and the major force in his life was building his business and driving hard as a politician in Madison. He talks now about how a great deal of his self-worth came from external sources; he sought acclaim through working hard and, he said, trying to please as many people he could, including his wife, when he was at home and available.

"We basically lived parallel lives," Bob Kulp said.

Bob Kulp constantly looks at real estate, and he wasn't looking to buy when he came across the listing for the Rock Falls property, located roughly halfway between Merrill and Tomahawk. At the time it had only three buildings, the two domes and a garage, all needing a lot of work. But something about the place, including the price, $55,000, intrigued him.

The property wasn't anything he had in mind for the future, either. He was making plans for a large, eye-catching retirement home, a mansion with pillars out front located on a highway where everybody could see. But the wooded property drew him in.

One day on a whim, he called a real estate agent and went up to see the property. He called his wife, and asked her to come up and visit the site. It was about an hour away, and so she did. When she saw the property, she instantly liked it. "I wanted a place with trees," she said.

At that time, the Rock Falls property was supposed to be a cabin getaway.

"We never intended it to be our home," Laura Kulp said.

Rebuilding a marriage, while building a home and Airbnb

As soon as the couple purchased the property, Bob Kulp went to work to improve the property in typical Bob Kulp style — all in.

He connected the three buildings to create one large, sprawling home. He stained wood scraps to create walls. He designed roof lines that were pleasing to the eye and practical. He hand-made drawers and doors and architectural features that make the place seem cozy and majestic at the same time.

Working with his hands felt good. But at the same time, there was a different kind of work that needed to be done.

"Basically, our marriage was on the rocks," Bob Kulp said.

He and Laura Kulp were of the Mennonite faith when they married. Even though they left the Mennonite church years ago, they both have a deep faith and their vows are still sacred to them. But Laura Kulp told her husband that she could envision a life without him, because in many ways, he was so far from her.

That was a wake-up call for Bob Kulp, and they both began counseling. While they worked with their hands to create a physical space which they could share, they also worked on their relationship.

Bob Kulp sold his business and left politics. He went on to become a mentor to men working to build stronger marriages.

Laura Kulp went on to work with an organization called Better Way Designs, which uses a fair-trade business model to help women who have escaped sex trafficking. She's found a place where she fits in. Oh, she doesn't have to clean the Airbnb, either. They hired their daughter to do that work.

Together the Kulps have transformed their lives. "We think differently," Bob Kulp said.

While all this was happening, Bob Kulp continued work on improving Friedenswald. He built a large workshop, with the living space now used as an Airbnb above. For a period of time, the Kulp's son and his family lived there. That experience opened the door for the Airbnb, Laura Kulp said.

"We found that we could have someone there, and it's far enough removed from our living space that we each had our space," she said.

Bob Kulp used his creativity to design and build unique spaces at a lower cost that usual. For example, he dismantled and moved a farm silo, and rebuilt it next to the workshop. It now houses a spiral staircase that allows access to the Airbnb. Bob Kulp custom milled the thick slabs of lumber for the steps himself, from a tree harvested on the property.

He uses a small sawmill he bought for the purpose of make his own lumber from rough logs. His goal is to do as much of the work on his property as possible.

Bob Kulp continues to work on improving the property. His current project is landscaping, including creating two small ponds and building a covered bridge that crosses a small creek that runs through a back area of the property. He envisions a kind of park-like setting.

"It's not just for guests," he said. "It's for me, mostly."

And, he says, this whole journey, buying the property, building the living spaces, offering the Airbnb to visitors, has brought him to a place of peace he's never experienced before.

"I don't work now like I'm fending off the wolf at the doorstep," Bob Kulp said. "I enjoy creating. I enjoy designing."

It's all allowed him, "to restfully abide in who I am," he said, quoting the Bible. "Everything that's important to me as far as my place on earth is here."

Keith Uhlig is a regional features reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or [email protected]. Follow him at @UhligK on X, formerly Twitter, and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Bob Kulp, retired businessman, former state rep, builds new life