Whenever Alex Boylan went sailing on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, an unusual house caught his eye. It was clad in stone and stucco, with a turret and a distinctive Cotswold-style roof that gave it a fanciful, fairy-tale character.
"It's known as the 'Mushroom House' or the 'Hobbit House,' " Boylan said. "It's a fun house — cool and unique."
After the house went into foreclosure and ended up on the market, Boylan, an Edina Realty agent, took a look inside. He discovered an interior as out of the ordinary as the exterior.
Built in 1990, the 3,600-square-foot home is filled with natural stone walls, arched stone doorways and wood everywhere — ceilings, floors, paneling and rustic columns, including cedar and teak. The front entry features a two-story rock waterfall, while the master bath boasts a massive, slate-tiled shower and a spiral staircase leading up to a sauna with its own hobbit-like roof.
"It was built by a single guy, and it's his vision," Boylan said.
In addition to its Tolkien-esque architecture, the house has a fairy-tale location: on a dead-end street, giving it privacy, and on a peninsula, giving it 170 feet of shoreline with wraparound views.
"No matter where you are, you're overlooking the lake," Boylan said.
Last year, he and two other investors bought the Mushroom House, with plans to remodel it and soften its masculine vibe.
