Skipping over the obvious irony in the “we like to make things better” category — Let’s begin with the introductions, shall we?

Our names:

We are Dori Jenks and Ralph Kerr, aka djnral, a husband and wife team who enjoy collaborating on all sort of DIY projects.

Our backgrounds:

We are both creatives with formal training including masters degrees in the performing arts. Ralph’s forte is technical theatre, specifically special effects. His favorite line is “I’m not a real engineer but I played one in the movies” (and Broadway for that matter). A musical theatre “triple threat,” Dori decided to forgo her childhood dreams of becoming a Broadway Star to instead become a professional modern dancer, performer, choreographer and teacher. Her favorite line when approaching any task is “if it isn’t choreography, it’s a lesson plan — and all of it is a grand improvisation!”

Our design history:

We’ve been collaborating on design projects since 1986 when Ralph took one of Dori’s doodles, turning it into a book case as a newlywed gift. The collection of Contemporary Heirloom Furnishings that’s evolved over the years is only one aspect of our creative work. If you know anything about wood working, you’ll already be familiar with the strength and beauty of dovetail joinery. It was the inspiration for our business name, Dovetail Designs.

Beyond furnishings, we’ve created a bevy of bespoke designs ranging from stage sets to actual living spaces.

Always it is that meshing of skills and imaginations that brings our projects to life. Speaking of life, turtledoves mate for life — after 36+ years of marriage we are pretty sure that forever isn’t long enough. (especially if we keep taking on giant projects such as this lodge:)

As it turns out, weathering through life’s ups and downs together is what has sustained us through this latest of disappointments. Admittedly it has taken us a full year to get over ourselves and rekindle (if you’ll pardon the pun) the gumption to reimagine the possibilities of this place yet again. Resiliency has been slow to show up in the rebounding of it all and it’s taken every minute of the past 365 days to land on the same page at the same time.

When we bought this property in the fall of 2019, we were newly minted ‘Empty Nesters.” This project was the perfect restart to our partnership, hence the 2.0 to our couple name - djnral2.0. (For the record, this nickname was well established decades before it became trendy to do so.) Hashtags aside, blasting our relationship reboot into high gear, we’ve been challenging ourselves to new heights of creative problem solving and inventive design solutions…all on a very thin dime. In 2021, our beautiful daughters returned home to do their own pivoting and rebooting — we were incredibly grateful to have them back. After the isolation of the pandemic, it was a wonderfully strange gift to be gathered together again. I cannot imagine going through this latest blow without them. They are both now off on their own solo adventures while we watch ours crumple and fall.

Now, for obvious reasons, it’s really gonna take some time for this house to materialize into our home. We’ve finally come up with a new design that honors the original yet envisions the future through universal design and flex space options. Whether or not we can afford it is a different story — for starters we must sell one of the lots in order to begin imagining building on the other. If you’d like to become our new neighbors, please reach out to us at djnral2.0@dovetaillodge.com.

The creative process IS the point of this whole journey.

Stay tuned for continued documentation of the Dovetail Lodge transformation in new directions we never ever ever envisioned.

Cheers!

Dori and Ralph

#djnral2.0