Happy National Disc Golf Day!

HAPPY NATIONAL DISC GOLF DAY!!!

What is disc golf? Click to go down the rabbit hole...

Disc golf is one of Matt's largest passions. Matt will play in any weather, including rain and snow, and any terrain, from the desert to the forest. I have watched him grow the sport in so many ways including starting a weekly Wednesday disc golf outing at his office and creating Disc Buddy. He also got me out and playing which is where Black Ace Designs was born.

Our adventure to Illinois has been to build and grow OUR dreams. We have started working on the next piece of the Locke Lee Manor puzzle. Stay close to see what is coming....

The Carriage House - The Beginning

The carriage house was a major draw to this property, only second to the spider room. There was only one picture of the carriage house on the listing and it is tucked quietly on the back corner of the property. With the years of overgrowth and deterioration to the outside it is easy to overlook this gem. View from main house before clearing View from main house after clearing As we toured the inside of this dilapidated and wet out-building, all I could see was the opportunity to bring this building back to life. We are excited that the previous owners left gifts throughout the years. A couple of the glaring issues with the state of the carriage house was the bowing wall and a leaky roof. The carriage house was surrounded by large trees and we didn't realize how much rain they diverted from the building until we had a bunch of them removed and it rained. We needed to get the building sealed quickly! We found out during the roofing quote that the original roof was slate and covered ...

Why Southern Illinois?

March 2020 - Matt and I were sitting in the Denver International Airport, with my two best girlfriends, waiting to board a plane that was going to take us to a haunted plantation in Louisiana to celebrate my big 40. We ate in cautious silence in the terminal listening to the passengers that were getting off planes that had been diverted home from their vacations cut short. Between Matt reading us blurbs from Reddit and eavesdropping on confused travelers, we decided that it was not the right time to travel, grabbed our luggage, and drove back home. Quickly following, the schools locked down and started 100% remote learning. We were some of the luckier ones who were able to easily shift into working from home during the 2020 pandemic, as we both worked in software, and Matt had the wherewithal to setup networks and monitor web traffic to curb the kiddos from watching YouTube all day. This new way of life was different, and the change was refreshing, even if the world was in a state...

Blueprints to the Past

The events that unravel in Benton seem like they could be right out of a book or movie - and we are loving every twist and turn. Around the middle of August, I received an always welcomed message from, Bob, the local historian. This message was to let us know that he was having lunch with friends of the son of a previous owner of our home, the Eovaldi's. It turns out that while owning the property, the Eovaldi's had the south wall collapse leaving a mess of bricks on the property. By the truckload, the bricks ended up with a wonderful lady in town named Biki. She used them for various projects around the house, and had recently decided she was no longer going to use them, and was wanting to get rid of them. Luckily, through the power of coincidence and local conversations, Bob was able to reach out to us and let us know we could get the bricks if we were willing to pick them up! After a quick introductory call, we got to meet Biki and Caesar and learn more about the to...

Locke Lee Manor

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