By Deb Peterson
The Twin Lakes Area is home to two gorgeous, crystal clear lakes, Bull Shoals and Norfork, so when we decided to include a home in every issue of Marvelous!, it seemed appropriate that our first summer home be “at the lake.”
Katie Combs and her husband, Sean, graciously agreed to let us photograph their magnificent houseboat moored on Lake Norfork. Their decision was made with a little apprehension. Weekends are private time for many business owners who spend the week surrounded by the public. Katie and Sean are no different.
Katie owns Combs Family Practice in Bull Shoals, one of very few private practices owned by advanced nurse practitioners. She’s a woman with the courage to stand up and advocate for the role ANPs can play in the health care field, especially in the emergency room. She blazes trails. In January, she will celebrate her clinic’s fifth anniversary. Sean owns Combs Construction in Mountain Home, and Black River Mallard Resort, a hunting guide service in Paragould. When they need to get away, they go to their home that floats. It’s their haven, even when it doesn’t leave the slip. This is just a peek at a summer evening on the Combs houseboat.
“Why stay inside all day?” Katie remembers saying to Sean when he first suggested a houseboat. She had grown up on a lake in northeastern Arkansas and was used to being topside or in the water. “No, he told me, you’re going to love it.”
He convinced her to trade in their fishing and ski boats, and she’s been a believer ever since.
“We started with a small fixer-upper,” Katie says. “We entertained a lot on that first boat and had so much fun. It was decorated just the way I wanted it, and then we sold it, and everything went with it.”
Their second houseboat was a little bit bigger and a little bit nicer, and they took it out less often. Last year, they upgraded again to a boat with four bedrooms and three baths. It truly has everything a landbound lake home might have, including air conditioning, high-tech media, and a very good security system. It also has a special drawer in the kitchen filled with candy for visiting children. This boat has room for their growing family—daughter Allie, and her husband, Ryan, who are in the process of moving here from Fayetteville, and brand new baby granddaughter, Haiden Nicole.
“Sean and I are ecstatic to have Haiden in our lives,” Katie says. “We melted when we first saw her. She has been on the boat and is a water baby already.”
Katie is decorating a room on the houseboat just for Haiden.
“Allie and Ryan will be able to go on as many date nights as they want,” she says, “because KK (my grandma name) will keep Haiden anytime! I can’t wait!”
Last summer, Katie decorated the new boat with pieces that have become some of her favorites, including artwork she commissioned for the boat from artist Gavyn Sky after spotting his work at Blackbird Café, and a coffee table crafted by Jarome Ross from Jonesboro railroad ties.
“I love everything about it,” she says. “We’re usually on it every weekend between March and New Year’s, but not always out on the lake.”
The boat reflects Katie’s style more so than Sean’s. Their home across the cove is rustic, a style Sean, a former cowboy, prefers. So for Katie, the houseboat is her place to get away from it all, often on weekdays after work, in a place that suits her—to catch some sun, curl up with a book, or relax with girlfriends.
Her girlfriends, by the way, can use some serious relaxation on occasion. Katie works out with personal trainer Kelley Nosari, and runs marathons with girlfriends Tenille Rauls, Michelle Webb, and other local women in the Mountain Home group Moms Run This Town.
“I’m thankful for all of my workout/running buddies,” Katie says. “Owning a business is similar to having a child. It takes up a lot of my time and it’s a few miles out of town, not leaving a lot of opportunity to meet new people.”
Running and working out are her stress relievers. She calls her workouts her girl time.
“I have met so many new and interesting people that I would not have had the chance to meet otherwise,” she says. “When you are pounding the pavement or working out at 5 in the morning with your girlfriends, you can work out a lot of problems. We talk about everything! And I literally mean everything! No subject is off limits when you are on a training run that may take three or four hours to finish. We form a very strong bond. We may be too busy with kids to go to dinner or hang out after work, but we form friendships that are solid and will last a lifetime. I’m very thankful for my a.m. girls!”
“Katie is Ms. Speedy!” Tenille says. “When new runners join our group, we always tease, asking if they run at Katie’s pace or ours. She is consistent in her training and disciplined to reach her goals. She keeps a positive attitude and is always the same—I love that about her!
She is an encourager to all and always welcomes new faces.”
Her quieter workouts with Kelley often include planning for parties on the houseboat.
“Many of our 5:30 a.m. Friday workouts are spent planning menus and festivities for the weekend,” Kelley says, “all while doing pushups or burpees, of course. It is obvious that Katie looks forward to her down time at the houseboat after a long work week. We often comment that you immediately exhale once you get to that happy place on the water. How could you not feel totally relaxed and pampered on such a beautiful boat?”
When it’s just Katie and Sean on the boat, and they’re under way, Katie and the dogs usually relax on the topside lounge in front of the helm while Sean pilots. This spot, high above the water, the wind in your hair, elicits feelings of being on top of the world.
On the evening of our shoot, while Sean prepared the houseboat to leave the marina, Katie and a few friends sipped cocktails in the cool living room before loading the dumb waiter with fruit and cheese snacks, and heading to the “party top” to enjoy being out on the water.
The Combs’s dogs, Hoochie and River, joined them. The spacious top deck is often filled with marina neighbors, friends, and children, who, on sunny afternoons, often swim or jet ski off the back patio that doubles as an onboard dock.
This evening, the pontoon Katie shares with friends trails behind us, our ride for the exterior photos of the boat. There is something magical about being on the water as the sun dips lower in the sky, changing its hues and cloud patterns moment to moment. The houseboat changed, too, casting its lights on the rippling water, glowing with hospitality.
It was dark when Sean turned the houseboat back toward the marina. Lake Norfork, managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, features natural, undeveloped shorelines, so there are no lights to guide the way. Sean didn’t need them. He piloted the houseboat calmly and gently back into its slip, and our evening with the Combs came to an end.
“Katie puts sincere effort into any entertaining she does while on the boat,” Kelley Nosari says. “She is a wonderful hostess, making you feel comfortable and welcome.” Indeed, we did. M! August/September 2015
Special thanks to Kelly Householder-Giuliano, our Marvelous! stylist, and her husband, Peter Giuliano, for their help producing this photo shoot. Kelly captured the late evening photos.
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