Steve’s Daughters Share Stories: Hear From Garnie, Kara & Quinn

Steve’s early career was in hospitality and in 1972, he opened the Pleasant Peasant, which became a restaurant corporation that grew to 34 restaurants in eight states by the time he departed in 1994. Steve and his wife, Marie, retired to a farm just outside Atlanta with their three daughters and six years later, he became concerned about urban sprawl invading their adopted country paradise.

Before there was a community full of people and families, there was just "the farm" and the Nygrens. Garnie, Kara, and Quinn Nygren join Steve Nygren to talk about what it was like to grow up in the woods and to tell stories from their childhood. They talk about their first jobs at Serenbe, what changed when people started moving in, and their journeys away and then back to Serenbe as adults.

Questions Answered

Who are Garnie, Kara and Quinn Nygren and what roles do they play at Serenbe?

What was it like to grow up in Serenbe before it was a full community?

What were Garnie, Kara and Quinn's first jobs at Serenbe?

What are all the jobs each of them has held?

How does Garnie Nygren remember the iconic "bulldozer moment?"

What brought each of the Nygren daughters back to Serenbe?

People + Organizations Mentioned

Camp Serenbe‍

‍Little Acorns‍

‍The Farmhouse‍

‍Woodward Academy

‍‍Cornell University

‍‍University of Colorado Boulder‍

‍Blue Eyed Daisy

‍‍Serenbe Real Estate

‍‍USA Today

‍‍Biophilic Solutions

Episode Transcript

Monica Olsen (1s): Hey guys, it's Monica here. I wanted to tell you about a new podcast that I've started with my very good friend, Jennifer Walsh called Biophilic Solutions. Our last season of Serenbe Stories, Building a Biophilic Movement was so popular that we decided to dedicate an entire podcast to it. Every other week Jennifer and I will sit down with leaders in the growing field of biophilia. We'll talk about local and global solutions to help nurture the living social and economic systems that we all need to sustain future generations. More often than not, nature has the answers. You can find Biophilic Solutions on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us today so you don't miss an episode.

Monica Olsen (41s): All right, now let's get back to Serenbe Stories. Serenbe is a place where people live, work, learn, and play in celebration of life's beauty. And we're here to share the stories that connect residents and guests to each other, and to nature. This is Serenbe Stories.

Monica Olsen (1m 27s): Welcome back to Serenbe Stories. We have gone through 11 episodes or actually 10 episodes. And this is our 11th one. And we've heard all about your story, Steve. And today we wanted to basically bring in the three girls who really were a part of the reason why you moved down to this area in the first place. And all of your stories have been incredible, but we wanted to check and see maybe fact check you a little bit and see if you know, they were all accurate and how they came back and what were their impressions of the farm. So I wanted to welcome all three of your daughters. We have Garnie, Quinn, and Kara here today.

Kara Nygren (2m 1s): Thank you for having us.

Garnie Nygren (2m 3s): Yes. Hi everyone.

Monica Olsen (2m 5s) :I'm glad you guys are here and I'm hoping Steve you'll do just a quick introduction for your daughters.

Steve Nygren (2m 10s): Absolutely. Well, sitting across from us, with us at the table we have Garnie our eldest daughter who, when we first bought the farm was seven years old. And Garnie now lives here with her husband, Matt and son, Stevie and Garnie is our director of operations and basically runs everything. And as a dear friend just reminded me this morning, reminds him a lot of me at that age, but she's just a lot more charming. And as I always say, she thinks a lot faster. Kara is our second daughter and Kara lives here with her husband, Micah and her two children, Amos and Kai, and Kara has always been as a typical middle child, I guess, the nurturer and her big issue was always to be a mother.

Steve Nygren (3m 11s) :So she was not on the career path like her older sister. And so now she is here, being the mother, owns the Serenbe camp, which has like 60, 70 kids every week during the summer and has just opened the daycare called Little Acorns. So it's great to have Kara here filling her passion. And Quinn, our youngest daughter, lives here with her husband, Lucas, who's just opened the wine store. And Quinn was the one person who always thought the farm was dirty. And I forget at what age informed us at dinner, that when she was 18, she'd be packing her bags and out of here.

Steve Nygren (3m 55s): And so I'm delighted that due to her two older sisters, gradually through an entire journey, they have enticed her back and she's now our brand manager and really protects all the images. So between the, the three girls as a father, I, I just couldn't imagine a day that they would all live here in the community we were building and that my grandchildren would be raised a few feet from where I lived or from the office, but between the three of them, they, they really hold the entire image of what we as a family have created in what the world now knows as Serenbe.

Monica Olsen (4m 33s): That's great, Steve. So one of the things everybody's been listening for these past weeks talks about sort of how we've gotten here after 15 years. But I don't think we've really talked about what was it like 15 years ago, or even before that 30 years ago when you guys were little girls on the farm. So one of the first things I want to ask to sort of kick it off was the very first time you guys drove down here that day, if you remember it, what was your first impression of the farm? Because it's very, very clear in Steve's head, but do you guys remember the first time you guys came to the farm that day?

Garnie Nygren (5m 7s): I don't think that I, I think I had, I don't think I could still remember the exact first day, but I think probably what's more like formidable and as a memory is probably like the first years. Right. So when you think like, cause the first time we came, I was seven. Kara was five and Quinn was three. So Quinn probably definitely had no memories even from the early years. But I think we remember like from the beginning of those first like six, 12 months, the ability just when we came down and we just ran, right. So we could be outside, we had our pet goats. So a friend within a couple of months of buying the farm gave us three goats. And so we each had our own goat that we would come down and feed and make sure they had water.

Garnie Nygren (5m 51s): And so it was just that total sense of freedom right. Of, of being down here and not having the restrictions of having to ask if you could go outside and what you could do.

Monica Olsen (6m 1s): Do you remember weekends, Kara, at all?

Kara Nygren (6m 4s): Yes. I would say the same thing. I, I don't think I specifically remember that exact first visit other than now hearing it back. You know, it sort of seems like a memory. I don't know if it's an actual specific memory, but the experiences I remember the goats, my goats name was Whitey and I remember coming down and walking through the trails and cutting my dad, cutting new paths with a chainsaw. So yeah, just a collection of memories that sort of compile the different experiences that we had. Sleepovers in the little cabin and adventures kind of, as we would escape the city.

Monica Olsen (6m 51s) :Quinn, do you have any favorite memories of it? Doesn't even have to be the beginning, but just I'm so curious.

Quinn Nygren (6m 57s): Some memories, obviously I thought the farm was dirty. So, you know, I was maybe a little bit more preferable to the city life at that young age, but yeah, I think it's, you know, kind of building on what Garnie and Kara sort of said of just like kind of that freedom of like being outside in nature, even if it was dirty, was great. Just having the animals and the trees and everything. And you know, I do remember, yeah, having friends would even come and visit, maybe it was like a little later on more so not the earlier days, but just how much everyone loved to come visit the farm.

Quinn Nygren (7m 39s): Cause it was just a different experience than anyone else kind of had.

Monica Olsen (7m 43s): Right. What were your like weekend, you know, when you, when you came down here, you know, we have access to sort of everything, restaurants and yoga and cold pressed juice, all that the city wouldn't want to offer, but what was it like, you know, there really wasn't quote unquote, the city offerings. Was there anything that you missed or that appeared, that was exciting at any particular time?

Garnie Nygren (8m 7s): I mean, I think as kids, there was nothing we missed, right? Because as a kid, like you're, you're what you miss more than anything is the ability to like run outside and drive golf carts and ride horses. So anything that we would have missed as kids we were actually opting into. So if anything, I think probably when we ended up in Atlanta, we missed the things from the farm. And I think that's still true of like when you see kids who live in Serenbe, or who are just here on the weekends, you as a child, you miss the things that Serenbe offers. So I think, you know, but it was literally just us, like when we wanted to play a game of like kickball or baseball, like there were three of us and really only two of us cause Quinn wouldn't necessarily participate.

Monica Olsen (8m 54s): Kara, do you want to add something? Kara Nygren (8m 56s):So, I was going to say the only thing that I missed was friends. Yes, we had a wonderful relationship as sisters, but as we have said, Quinn sort of preferred to be inside so, and Garnie liked to be in charge. So when I wanted to play kickball, for example, I had to be everything except for the pitcher. Garnie told me that she would play with me if she could tell me what to do and when to do it. So while that was really fun and we had a blast most of the time, that was kind of the one thing was a lot of other kids our age.

Kara Nygren (9m 35s): Cause we didn't really have any neighbors. Obviously we went to school, so we were not, you know, robbed of that experience. But for me that's why I think the community of Serenbe is so great. Now when people ask me, like, do you feel like people have taken over your woods? I always say no because I loved everything about my childhood, but always felt like I was missing friends to run in the woods with. So now it's pretty awesome to see kids that get to have the same experience we had, but with their best friends who live down the street.

Monica Olsen (10m 8s): So one of the things is the house that you guys lived in was a 1905 farmhouse that you moved into and eventually kind of turned into a BNB.

Monica Olsen (10m 18s): But tell me a little bit, like, because like there's a story of like how you got to choose rooms and I always find it fascinating walking through the Farmhouse today. What were your bedrooms? And what is the, you know, The Farmhouse and The Inn today?

Garnie Nygren (10m 31s): Yeah, and I don't, so I think so our first bedrooms in the first 1905 house that we moved to, I had two bedrooms in the house. My first one is actually now when you go to The Farmhouse, it's the bathroom off of The Farmhouse host stand. And I think when we first moved into the house, it was probably just Kara and I, that flipped a coin for rooms because Quinn naturally got the biggest room because she was the only one that still had toys. And so Quinn's room served as both her bedroom and like a toy room and Kara and I had the tiny rooms that basically just like allowed for a twin size bed and some clothes, which like in hindsight is all you ever really need, right? But I think that from that, and like Kara, I don't know what your memories are or Quinn,

Garnie Nygren (11m 14s): But like from that one, we did the bedroom addition, each of our rooms, was literally like measured to be dimensionally the exact same size to the inch. And we all had a window seat and we all had a bathroom and a closet that was exactly the same size.

Monica Olsen (11m 30s): And what are, what are those rooms now?

Garnie Nygren (11m 31s): So I grew up in room four.

Kara Nygren (11m 35s): I grew up in room three, two, sorry, two.

Quinn Nygren (11m 40s): And mine's room three.

Monica Olsen (11m 42s): And Steve, why did you want it just as exact down to the right dimension? Was that just like that fairness or-

Steve Nygren (11m 48s): It was about fairness. We were very conscious that, you know, you wanted to make experiences as equal as possible. And so they were exact rooms. The only thing that was different was the view out the window. And so that was the only thing they had to decide about. And I don't think we flipped. I, I forget how you all chose which room you would have. And then they each got to design the interiors. So some now have bookcases, some just had furniture. So they got to decide then what happened inside.

Quinn Nygren (12m 26s): I do actually remember how I got to choose. It was determined that the oldest and as it got passed down, got to choose and she chose the room that was by itself on the one side because she didn't want to be next to us. And then Kara got to pick next, I forget why you chose yours. And then I got the third one, but honestly I think that I had the best view.

Kara Nygren (13m 0s): It's true.

Steve Nygren (13m 2s): And you did.

Kara Nygren (13m 4s): I was just going to say the, what Garnie described about the very original rooms that we lived in,

Kara Nygren (13m 10s): Like if somebody were to walk in there today, it's, it's hard to imagine cause it's been renovated and changed. But during that renovation process, the one room that still has not had a single change in it is what serves as the private dining room for The Farmhouse and Quinn and I actually shared that room. We had bunk beds in there for like nine months while the house was under construction. So I think it's kind of neat just because that's the only room that like still looks exactly as it did. It has a dining room table, but we had two bunk beds and like our stuff in there.

Quinn Nygren (13m 45s): It was great.

Monica Olsen (13m 47s) :Another story that I've heard that I'd love to have you guys share is once The Inn kinda got up and running, there wasn't really any place to get dinner here.

Monica Olsen (13m 56s): And so one summer, I believe it's a summer, correct? One of you decided- two of you-

Garnie Nygren (14m 3s): So it was, I was fif-- the summer that I was 15 and Kara was 14. So that would have been the summer of 1999. It was the summer of 99. The bed and breakfast was getting like slightly busier. There were more than like two people there on the weekends. And it's also hard to like imagine now with the five restaurants that we have in the neighborhood, but your options were basically to like, we would give people directions of, you can go to Franks, this restaurant like attached to, you know, or you can drive to Peachtree city, but by the time you get to Peachtree city, you're like almost back in Atlanta, right. For dinner. And so I was like, Kara, let's run a restaurant for the summer and we'll learn how to cook three things.

Garnie Nygren (14m 45s): And we can make the same three things every single of the three nights. So depending on when people were here, we would run it either Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Quinn wasn't involved only because she was like, you guys are crazy.

Garnie Nygren (15m 1s): And I decided that if we were going to charge people and keep the money that we needed to like fully independently, do it with no help or assistance from our parents. So my mom taught us how to cook the three meals and when people, so we learned how to cook them and we literally worked 14 hour days. So we went, we prepped the food, we cooked the food, we served the food and we did the dishes and we would never tell people when they were checking in, we would say like, we have a dinner option like this evening, would you like to like reserve? And we would never tell them that we were cooking it. We just let people like, think that like my mom was cooking dinner and it was after we serve them,

Garnie Nygren (15m 43s): And after they ate and it was three courses, so it started like a salad and then you had dinner and then a dessert. And it was after they finished that we would then tell them like that we had cooked the dinner and everybody left us like insane tips. Yeah. A hundred and 200% tips because this 14 and 15 year old, 15 year old were cooking dinner.

Kara Nygren (16m 3s): So yeah, I would say it was probably Garnie's first successful operation. It lasted for one and only summer because the next summer Garnie turned 16 and she had a car and I thought she was crazy and agreed to our set. I would never do it again because we did for an entire summer. So like nine weeks work, three days a week for 14 to 15 hour days, really four days, because we had like a prep day. Halfway through the summer, Garnie did agree to let me hire Quinn on a part-time basis because I thought it was getting really intense, like the 16th hour of the night when I was washing dishes after we'd been working all day and Garnie's like work harder. Quinn agreed to help us like come eight o'clock with like the cleanup and dishes for, for one or two weeks.

Kara Nygren (17m 1s): But it was a very successful operation. Garnie probably used it to buy her first house. I don't know what happened to my portion of the- I spent it in college or something like that.

Monica Olsen (17m 12s): Quinn, do you remember anything about that time or happy memories?

Quinn Nygren (17m 19s): Great, great times. And not, not nearly as much as definitely these two, but obviously thought they were pretty crazy for spending that amount of time, but you know, they had a great, great work ethic and I was happy to pitch in there at the end.

Monica Olsen (17m 33s): That's great. Another great story that I have heard a lot of, and we have a road named after it, after it now is Prom Field. Who wants to kick that one off and tell us a little bit about why we have prom field and what, what that signifies?

Quinn Nygren (17m 49s): Garnie started the tradition so.

Garnie Nygren (17m 50s): I'll kick it off cause I started it. So it was my senior year of high school and Woodward where we went to middle school and high school had decided that the PTA for prom had decided that they were going to and post prom at like 2:00 AM. And then the only way that you could go home is if your parent came and checked you out. So all of our classmates basically boycotted and said, that's crazy because when you're a senior in high school, you feel like you're, you know, the oldest coolest person ever. And a couple, so then post prom, the official post prom was canceled. And so a couple of my friends said like, well, since like there is no post prom, could we all just like come down to the farm afterwards and like maybe pitch some tents.

Garnie Nygren (18m 36s): And I was like, that could be a good idea. Like I'll ask my parents. And so I like probably pitched it that lightly. Like what if we just had like, We just have like a couple of people and we all come down after prom? And I think, luckily

Garnie Nygren (18m 51s): We knew someone who had done this like a couple years before for their kids and so called and said like, okay, what, what makes sense? And what does this logistically look like? But so it turned into a few people, turned into 350 people with like full on four-page legal permission slips from each parents. And you had to be in by like midnight. And then you were taken via car down in a hayride, like down to the site. And at the site, people had come a week, like the full week before to set up tents and like put everything. It was like tent city and everybody stayed until 7:00 AM. So you weren't allowed to leave until 7:00 AM.

Garnie Nygren (19m 31s): And so that became, so I was like, oh, we'll do it this one time right? And like, everybody gets to do it for their senior year. Like this one, nice like special thing that happens this one time and then Kara, but she can tell you, figured out how to make it happen like six times during her junior and senior- like for birthday parties and all-Monica Olsen (19m 50s):Oh I don't know about this story, do tell.

Kara Nygren (19m 55s): So yes, I was definitely the social one in high school and Garnie, and I guess my parents really, were gracious enough to let me make a cameo appearance at Garnie's senior post prom party. Cause I liked a lot of her friends and I was only there for a little bit. It was like, wow, this is really fun. We should do this more often. Why not? The land is here, like what's, you know, why not? So I did, probably with the help of Garnie, sell my parents on letting me have a homecoming party my junior year.

Kara Nygren(20m 31s): And I think a prom party that year as well. And then my birthday party that summer and then another homecoming party senior year and our prom party and a going away party. So yeah, people in my class were really fortunate and enjoyed it. So I think Quinn sort of continued the tradition and I'll let her add to that, but we were each two years apart in school. And so people in the classes in between us used to joke like, oh man, we don't have a Nygren in our class.

Kara Nygren (21m 12s): Like what are we going to do? So the parties definitely even, I think after Quinn graduated, were still talked about for a long time.

Monica Olsen (21m 21s): Do you have any added stories there Quinn?

Quinn Nygren (21m 24s): Uh, well, you know, there are lots of stories from those days, but not too many issues to share. Not podcast appropriate. But yeah, no, I think just what they said they did just kind of exponentially grow with with each year and each one of us. So yeah. Needless to say, by the time it got down to me they were quite legendary parties. I think my parents were very glad when I graduated.

Monica Olsen (21m 52s): Steve is nodding.

Steve Nygren (21m 55s): I think all those campfires during prom parties, I was the camp master, the fire master through the night. And I was so happy when Quinn graduated.

Monica Olsen (22m 6s): Yes.

Steve Nygren (22m 8s): I didn't realize it was going to become such a tradition. And not only would there maybe be two more, but there'd be several for various celebrations. And when Quinn graduated, I was so happy that that was the last time that I was going to be all up all night, dealing with a campfire. And then we just referred to that general meadow area as Prom Field. And when we started planning the phase three Mado, the road that was going to connect that through the pasture and back over to The Inn runs right by that meadow that we've always referred to as prom field.

Steve Nygren (23m 0s): And so when we were doing the working drawings and that road, I just started referring to it as Prom Field Road. And finally, when we had to name the roads, I said, well, why shouldn't it be Prom Field Road? And it's really fun today when I see various people that were in one of their classes and they end up down in Mado and see the signs, they wow. Oh, Prom Field. And today that is where Sleepy Hollow is held. And we plan to make that a, a, an actual park and a place possibly for outside art performances in the future,

Monica Olsen (23m 39s): The sort of classic story- and this is more Garnie- that Steve tells that I'm sure kind of, all of us do, is the meadow story, the wildflower meadow story. And so I'd love, I always hear Steve tell it, and I've definitely been on tours with you Garnie, but like, is that something again, I know that when we tell stories that sort of memorializes them, but tell me your sort of nugget of that day, if you can.

Garnie Nygren (24m 6s): That moment in 1999? And so, well, I think so it's hard to, again, it's like hard to be at Serenbe today and think back to like, we just lived on the farm, right? And at that point it was 300 acres, but we were, so I ran cross country accidentally really in high school. And it was great. I say accidentally because a friend was like, you should try out. And that trying out for cross country came from our avid runs. Right. And so my dad was a runner growing up. And so at one point, probably in like seventh grade, I also started running with him. And so it was a morning, I think, late morning in 1999 when we were on one of our runs.

Garnie Nygren (24m 48s): And if you're out in the woods in Serenbe today and familiar with what we call the little waterfall, we were on the, that trail headed back to what's now the house and the trail is still there today. And absolutely remember coming up upon a man who was clear cutting the field adjacent to us and our run stopped. And my dad left and like approached the man on the bulldozer and said, what's going on? And why are you here? And just remember kind of that moment of like, you didn't know what was coming or that something was changing, but that like this, this land that we had lived amongst that there was never something as destructive as a boulders or taking out like 20 acres of trees.

Garnie Nygren (25m 31s): And then upon not having an answer going back to the house. And so it wasn't what is probably the most pivotal moment of like Serenbe, right? And that moment in time was kind of like in that day was, was a calm moment, but calm in that like what's going on and we're not really sure. And when we returned, when we got back to the house, you know, I didn't necessarily have a sense of like the frantic ness of like my dad going and getting on the phone and figuring out like what in the world is happening. But it was, you know, you went from being out here for eight years where there's literally nothing happening to all of a sudden one day you're on a run that you're on all of the time and a bulldozer's in the field taking down 20 acres of trees.

Monica Olsen (26m 10s): Right. I think the most exciting thing was when Domino's opened. I think somebody told me at one point.

Garnie Nygren (26m 14s): In 2000. But you know, it's funny right? And all of the like history points,

Garnie Nygren (26m 22s): And like in the moments in this might be like a little, this is like off of the question, but it's, it's funny to think back and like the pieces of history that we talk about now. And when you think like this was happening from 1999 to kind of like 2000, 2001, when from thinking about like, okay, what does this land and what is the Chattahoochee hill country? And we think now about like internet and GIS and all of this like crazy stuff that then didn't exist. And so after the realization of like, well, what's happening and who else who lives around here and who are all of the neighbors? I went with my dad to all of the courthouses because we didn't have access to online property records.

Garnie Nygren (27m 3s): Like you actually had to physically go to courthouses and pull. And god I wish we had saved these. I hand colored, like he would give me like the names of owner owners. And I would hand color maps for legends to figure out and identify, like through mapping, like which owner was where. So we had like blue dots and pink dots and blue hash like hash marks. And yeah. So I spend the summer of 2001 marking up or 2000 probably really, mark hand marking up maps from the courthouses to identify property owners.

Monica Olsen (27m 36s): Wow. Did you, Kara was oblivious?

Kara Nygren (27m 40s): I had a boyfriend.

Monica Olsen (27m 42s): Oh you had a boyfriend? You were busy doing something else. I'm sorry. Was that the summer before you headed off to college?

Garnie Nygren (27m 54s): Yes, that was the summer before I went to college.

Monica Olsen (27m 57s): So Garnie, you headed off to Cornell and you knew at that point, like you wanted to go into hospitality?

Garnie Nygren (28m 3s): Yes. So I knew I wanted to go into hospitality and it had no, it was like, dad's talking about building houses in the woods. Like when I was hand coloring the maps and identifying landowners, it was more about like getting to know, like was, it was organizing neighbors. There was no plan. There was no, it was just like, so when I went to college, it was like, dad's kind of talking about like maybe one day building houses in the woods. We don't really know what that means because like, you couldn't access the woods on anything other than foot and golf cart. Like the road that comes from the end now across the dam was not, you could not drive on that. It was. So it was like what we're going to, like, we're going to walk to houses in the woods? Like how is it going to? Where back in the woods?

Garnie Nygren (28m 52s): And I remember the, the kind of like moment where I was like, oh, maybe like this is going to be something. So I went, I worked at the Statler hotel on Cornell's campus and I was at the front desk in 2004. And the USA today, like hit the front desk. And on the cover of the living section was a picture of my dad walking out of the dirt road. Right. And it was a lifestyle picture

Monica Olsen (29m 18s): Crazy.

Garnie Nygren (29m 20s): And I get chocked up thinking about it, a lifestyle picture of like, what's going to be Serenbe. And I was like, guys, that's like, that's my farm. Like, you're gonna build houses in the woods.

Monica Olsen (29m 28s): Yeah. Do you guys remember, I mean, did you know about that you would have been at Boulder by then?

Kara Nygren (29m 33s): No, I was, I was, well by then, I was in 2004 magazine came out. Yes. So I graduated in 2004 in may of 2004. So from high school, so, the summer that I graduated, we broke ground- they broke ground on the road that leaves the wildflower meadow. And really before that moment, I would say I was pretty oblivious to what was happening. I was very into my social life and spending time on the weekends with friends and my boyfriend and going to the beach and the lake, I knew Garnie was kind of doing stuff, but until this very moment, actually, I've never heard that story about her coloring maps.

Kara Nygren (30m 15s): So when I left for school to go to college, to go to university of Colorado in Boulder, I was like, at this point knew and like had seen the drawings and stuff, but was sort of just like, oh, this is sure. Yeah. My dad's talking about a bake shop and some houses and you know, I'm going to go to Boulder for four years and come back to Atlanta. I always knew I wanted to come back, but I was like, yeah, I'm going to live in Atlanta, you know, with my family. And we'll come down here on the weekends. This sounds great. Sure. Like whatever you want to do. I do remember hearing from Garnie about that moment when she was at Cornell, you know, I always thought that she was going to go travel the world and open a bunch of hotels, you know, or be president of the United States.

Kara Nygren (31m 1s): But I was sort of, I saw, I remember talking to her when she saw that story and kind of had that moment and saying that she was maybe gonna come back and I was just like, okay. You know, again, I was sort of just like in my life, in school, I was on a track to, you know, try and get married young and have kids and all of that stuff. And just wanted to be back in Atlanta and be near my parents, but had no intention of ever this will be vacation down here. This would be like our little getaways on the weekends, but never, you know, thought about really being a part of it. But I think that was the great gift and that's kind of a different topic, but that my parents gave us is that, you know, when we were young, Garnie wanted to be like president literally of the world or country.

Kara Nygren (31m 48s): I always said like, I want to be a mom. And my parents said like, those are both equal, you know? So I never felt like I had to come back and be a part of it. There was no pressure to do that.

Monica Olsen (32m 1s): Right. I want to ask Quinn because you were still here. So, so both Garnie and Kara off at college, but you're still here. The roads being broken, the Daisy is open. Maybe tell me a little bit about what's going on while you're still here and it's actually happening.

Quinn Nygren (32m 20s): Yeah. Yeah. So it's, let's see Kara left since I was a junior in high school. And then it was that spring that the first people moved in.

Quinn Nygren (32m 31s): So, you know, it's like, obviously we're seeing all the construction going on, but yeah. Then it was like, okay, someone's actually moving in.

Monica Olsen (32m 40s): And did they have to come in on foot? Or the car?

Quinn Nygren (32m 44s): And we had the road there, but no, I do remember in those or like earlier days, you know, since the Daisy hadn't opened yet. So there wasn't actually a restaurant. I believe that yeah, that hadn't had started yet. So we would actually make them dinner for their first night here for like the first, probably like that half of Selborne before the Daisy opened.

Monica Olsen (33m 5s): That's amazing. So the first night that somebody moved in? You taught, you brought them dinner?

Quinn Nygren (33m 10s): Yeah. My dad... But then it was like shortly after that, then the Daisy opens that there was an option for people, you know, that they could kind of have that. And it was sort of crazy that you could go get a latte in the woods.

Kara Nygren (33m 25s) :And she moved. Quinn actually lived-

Quinn Nygren (33m 29s): Oh yeah. I was, I'm the only one that, that actually lived in the community. While-

Monica Olsen (33m 34s): In a townhouse across from the Daisy. Oh, okay.

Quinn Nygren (33m 36s): Yes. So it was my senior year that we moved into the townhouse that's across from the Daisy now. Yeah. And so I lived there until I went to Colorado as well in August.

Monica Olsen (33m 49s): So before I get to like how you guys all got back here, one of the things that I think is interesting is that you guys have all had different jobs here. Now, Garnie has done everything here. So we can maybe just say she's done everything, but, but it's really kind of fun to hear about what you guys have done or maybe what Garnie's talked you into doing at different times. I see, Kara, do you want to share a little bit about the different roles you've had here? Prior to your current one.

Kara Nygren (34m 19s): When I was a senior in college at Boulder graduating and like I said before Serenbe even took off, my plan was always to move back to Atlanta, which was why I kind of went to Boulder. My dad's from Colorado

Kara Nygren (34m 29s): And so I had, we have a ton of family out there. I wanted to get away for four years, but I loved Georgia and Atlanta. So I've planned to move back. I loved Woodward our high school as well. So I actually had a job lined up there to run their afterschool program and was coming back in April, I guess, right before I headed back for my final month in school to finalize the paperwork for my job and do kind of my final meet and greet with the team. And Garnie called me and said, Serenbe is really taking off. We need somebody else on the real estate team.

Kara Nygren (35m 11s): Would you ever consider getting your license? And I thought about it for a little while and was like, I don't know. That's just, I'm not really sure. I have always wanted to work at Woodward and sounds great and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so she's like, okay, well think about it. And like later that day or the next day or something, she sent me an email of kind of what their yearly commission had been and I called her back, like, sure, absolutely. I will take the job.

Monica Olsen (35m 42s): That was your first besides dinners at The Inn, your first official role?

Kara Nygren (35m 45s): Besides, yes. So I got my real estate license. I graduated from college in 2008.

Kara Nygren (35m 53s): So moved back to Serenbe just in time for the recession. So the real estate office was not so fun, sorry. And because of that Raina, one of the very, really first agents, other than Garnie, who is still on the sales team today, she and I had a lot of spare time in the office just chatting. Cause we, we kept it open through the whole recession, you know, so we would always be there for like the one person that came in every other week or so. And we drummed up the idea that we wanted to get involved with the Daisy at, at that point had been open for almost two years, three years, and the original people involved were ready to move on.

Monica Olsen (36m 39s): And so Raina and I decided that we would take it over. So that was kind of my second venture was running the Daisy for almost a year. At that same time I had started Camp Serenbe. I basically became super stressed and overworked like, you know, most normal humans would other than my father and older sister. And for lack of a better word had a breakdown because I was so overworked and sort of let, with the assistance of Garnie, the real estate and the blue eyed Daisy job go to the side and continued to follow my passion of running camp and then started teaching at the Montessori school.

Monica Olsen (37m 25s): Yes, my kids went there. I think we were one of those one people that came in every other month and bought a house in 2009. Quinn, you've really been all over.

Quinn Nygren (37m 38s): You know, it's been yeah. Various things. I think it definitely first started when I came back after my first year of college and you know, it was kind of like, all right, you should probably get a summer job. What's that going to be? So I started working in guest services at The Inn for yeah, my summers. And then that continued, yeah. Checking people in, you know, sometimes serving breakfast, all of, all the things up there, you know, it's kind of, you never know what you're going to get into, but yeah.

Quinn Nygren (38m 9s): So that was the, every, every summer I've been did that for college. And then when coming back, you know, after graduation, I was like, ah, that's now I don't know what I'm going to do, but I'm gonna go, you know, live in Atlanta or somewhere. I was in LA for like a brief period, six months doing an internship out there, but then came back that December and was here for a little bit, but knew it was like just a temporary gig. I was in Atlanta. But then even while in Atlanta and had a job up there at a show room for a couple of years. But on the weekends, Garnie always, someone would call out a guest services or a, they needed a, you know, someone for an extra shift there at the end.

Quinn Nygren (39m 0s):So I knew all the systems. Or coming in, sitting in the real estate office on the weekends as well. So I was like slowly but surely. And then it was when I was ready to leave my job, but didn't quite know what I wanted to do next, but just wanting to change. Actually now I'm like, was it Garnie or Monica? It's probably a combination of both. They were like why don't we work together. They were like come work part time, it'll just be two days a week marketing, it'll be great. Monica was like, you won't be reporting to Garnie, just me.

Monica Olsen (39m 43s): It'll be wonderful.

Quinn Nygren (39m 46s): But yeah. So then that's how I kind of slowly dipped my toe back in.

Monica Olsen (39m 50s): You were like 10 hours, then fifteen hours a week, and then suddenly.

Quinn Nygren (39m 53s): And then slowly or later it was like, all right, this is where I want to be full-time.

Monica Olsen (39m 56s): But you still lived in Atlanta during that time. So tell us a little bit about I'll talk, get, get your story first. How did you come back to live at Serenbe? And I know it's gonna tie in to Garnie's a little bit of Garnie's story.

Quinn Nygren (40m 9s): Yes, yes. My, uh, my story is somewhat intertwined with hers, but yes, that was probably the last hold out the last one to, to move back that I was still enjoying living in Atlanta with some girlfriends from high school.

Quinn Nygren (40m 24s): We all had a house up there. Still, you know, love working here. And then it turned out that I met my now husband here that he funny enough moved here before he even met me.

Monica Olsen (40m 41s): And people always ask, like, if there's, if I'm single, am I going to be able to find anybody at Serenbe? And the answer is yes.

Quinn Nygren (40m 46s): Lucas is also Matt, Garnie's husband's, best friend from childhood that they grew up together and they were living together and Marietta at the time when Garnie and Matt met and Matt was moving in with Garnie and Garnie also brought Lucas along.

Quinn Nygren (41m 6s): She found him an apartment in Serenbe as well. So that with not the intention of, you know, her little sister dating him, but lo and behold, you know, at family dinners and other gatherings that he ended up being, I slowly spent more and more time down here. And then yes, the rest is history. We now have a house that we built together and have been in for two years and married for a year and a half.

Monica Olsen (41m 33s): Garnie, you want to tell us, I know, after that USA today hit the table, you thought you wanted to come back, but I think your dad said,

Garnie Nygren (41m 40s): Yeah, yeah. I wanted to come home. And I wanted from that, the USA today article, and then also like, I was just, I had no interest in kind of signing on for corporate America, like ladder climbing. And so at that point in the hospitality industry, the hotel industry, like you either worked for a big corporate hotel or you worked for like a single operator and had no movements. And none of that made sense. So I was like, maybe I'll go home and like, see what dad's doing in the woods. And so I called and said like, look, you know, can I come home? And what can I do? And he was like, there's no job here for you. There's, there's nothing like, there's literally not a job. And you know, don't give up on like your dreams.

Garnie Nygren (42m 21s) :I was like, well, what if can I move back? Will you let me move back into my room? Like, which at that point was still room four, I've moved back the same Quinn's senior year. So Quinn was still in her room three and I moved back into room four. And so he wouldn't give me a job at Serenbe, but did help me get an internship at the governor's office and during our fellowship. And it was a seven month fellowship. And on the weekends, I would hang out in the real estate office, which at that time was in what's now guest services at The Inn. And I think I was, you know, the pretty like confident 21 year old, who in September, like having been hanging out in the real estate office for like four months on the weekends, I came to my dad and said, I think that I can do this better than Coldwell Banker can because like generally when I'm in there and like talking to people, the reason people are intrigued with moving here is because of like the story, right?

Garnie Nygren (43m 14s): Not because there's just a random real estate agent telling them about houses, right? And so I said, I think I can do it better. You don't have to hire me. But if I start a real estate brokerage company, will you let me take over Coldwell Bankers' contract? And then if we're not doing a good job, you can just terminate, you can switch back to Coldwell banker in a year. So that was January of 2006. So my fellowship ended in December of 2005 and then Serenbe real estate opened in January of 2006. And the rest is history.

Kara Nygren (43m 46s): She's been here ever since.

Monica Olsen (43m 50s): Kara, you were going to live in Atlanta and make this your vacation home.

Kara Nygren (43m 53s): Yes. So as I mentioned earlier, Garnie roped me into coming back and I did a few different things and I lived with Garnie throughout that process. So she had built her first townhouse in the community and had an extra room. And I think she sort of felt bad, you know, a little for roping me back in and, you know, to a job that really wasn't going to make any kind of income when the recession started. So she let me live with her for free. So I couldn't turn that down. You know, an apartment in Atlanta that was gonna cost me a pretty penny or a free room in my sister's house. So I was here for three years, right after college and then realized, you know, still being young at the time, you know, then I was 25.

Kara Nygren (44m 37s): And after knowing that I kind of didn't want to work in the real estate office, didn't want to work in the restaurant scene, wanted to work with kids, but wasn't really sure where that was going to go. Camp was kind of just a side project at that time. I didn't know if it was going to be a full on successful business. I decided to move to Atlanta and kind of do what I had always wanted to do. So I reached out to a family friend who I had ironically met through the real estate office by spending weekends, showing her houses, who owned a psychiatry practice in the city. And my undergrad degree was in psychology. And, and so I said, you know, I don't think that I wanna get into this world, but I maybe who knows, could I come just in having an internship with you for six months?

Kara Nygren (45m 29s): And so she said, well, I don't really have an internship available, but we are starting this new branch of our business and kind of need somebody to help us get it off the ground who's, you know, organized. And it was a program that was going to be working with high schoolers and somebody who's from Atlanta and sort of knows the school scene. And I said, oh, well, yeah, I can totally do that. So she hired me. I found an apartment in Atlanta and literally the first day I walked into work, she said, so there's somebody, I want you to meet. He is doing some consulting for us. And I think you guys would really hit it off. And I was like, well, I have a boyfriend and you're crazy, but she would not let it go.

Kara Nygren (46m 12s):A month later, I met this guy who was a consultant who lived in Seattle. He is now my husband. So she was right. But so we dated long distance for a year and a half. I then agreed to move to Seattle, was sort of the exact opposite of anything I had ever thought, but turned out to be kind of exactly what I needed at the time, but I moved out there not engaged or anything, but I said to him, I will come out here across the country, you know, kind of give up everything just to see if this works out, but the deal is, if it goes well and you propose and we get married and decide to have a family, you have to move back to Georgia to live in this community called Serenbe because that's where I want to raise our kids.

Kara Nygren (47m 1s):And it worked out and we moved back almost four years ago and have two little boys and hopefully another one. And um, before we even moved back, I somehow talked him into buying a townhouse as an investment, Garnie of course, closed the deal for me. But we, for two summers while I lived in Seattle, I would come back still to run camp. Because at that point it was kind of taking off. So I would live there in the summer and we rented it out the rest of the time. And then we moved back to the townhouse. And over the past year we built sort of our dream house and just moved in this past spring.

Steve Nygren (47m 49s): You can see, as I've heard the stories, I've teared up several times. No, it's incredible is we started this. It was a passion to save the land with never an idea of how it would affect the girls coming back. That wasn't even a glimmer in, in the thoughts. I remember when I sold the restaurant company and the number of people said, aren't you shortchanging your children? What if they want to have that company? And I said, I never want them to be saddled with my dreams or what I created. So I was, I was very cautious because I've seen some of that not work out for families.

Steve Nygren (48m 31s): And so I was just the opposite. I was, while I'm thrilled sitting here as it happened with each child, I was very concerned because I didn't want them to come in and join it just because this was what we were doing. I wanted them to do it because it was their passion and, and what they wanted. And so sitting here hearing the various stories, it's a, you know, it's, it's just heartwarming to see what's happened. And looking back, I, we absolutely could not have done it. The Serenbe we know today would not be the Serenbe without the three of them being involved and now bringing their husbands in and the various roles.

Monica Olsen (49m 16s): So one of the things, the very last thing I want to ask, is there anything that we didn't cover? I'm sure there's tons of stuff, but like, are there any stories that you want to share that were sort of fun or that involved all three of you on the farm or just anything I know that, you know, there's gotta be something you don't wanna tell some stories you don't want to tell, but I just wanted to give you an opportunity to add

Steve Nygren (49m 43s): One interesting thing is, that we didn't mention, is all three girls were then married here in very unique spaces that match their own personalities.

Monica Olsen (49m 51s): Maybe throw those pictures up on the podcast website. One small story that I had also heard, which I thought was a really neat thing that you did for each of the kids was at graduation of high school. If you want to talk about the books that you, you guys put together for each daughter where everybody basically there, your parents gave pages out to friends and family.

Garnie Nygren (50m 16s): Yes. For me, it was a surprise because I was the first one, right. It couldn't be a surprise for Kara and Quinn, but it was, is a leather bound book. That was a big square. I don't remember the exact dimensions, probably like 14 by 14. And they mailed a page probably like at least 60 to 70 pages to family and friends and ask everybody to like, write anything. Right. So from a memory to a poem, to anything that like struck you. And so it's this book of like, just love from people and we still, I still have mine. Oh, well of course we still have them, but so to take with us. Right. And so the little, little, do you think that like, you're going off to college, right? You have this, like

Garnie Nygren (51m 2s) :People would ask, like, what is that thing? Like? And you're like, well, this is like the book of, of, of love of like in your transition moment.

Kara Nygren (51m 11s): Yeah, so it's obviously a very special memento, but I remember I was sort of that odd combination of a home body who like loved my family and friends and, you know, wanting to come back to Atlanta, but wanted this sense of adventure. So went to Colorado, but I have memories of like sitting on my dorm room floor my freshman year, like with everyone new person, I would meet like showing them like the book, like this is my life. And here are all these people. I told Quinn that when she went to college and she's like, yeah, that's weird. All of my friends, especially my close friends, remember that to this day, actually just a couple of years ago, there was like this meme thing going around the internet about a dad who made this book for his daughter, like starting from when she was in kindergarten until senior year and had like every teacher sign a page of the book and like every single one of my friends sent it to me and they were like, oh, you should share your book. Little do they know. Like, this is not actually that cool.

Monica Olsen (52m 13s): Quinn, I know you had a good a statement in one, one of the books was that was that Garnie's book?

Quinn Nygren (52m 18s): Yes, I believe. So on each one of the pages, it was also that they shared a quote that was, you know, memorable or something for you with each of the people. So for mine, I put in, in Garnie's was "sisters have one of the most competitive relationships and families. So I decided to sit back and watch."

Monica Olsen (52m 44s): I want to say thank you to each of you for being here. It really, really adds to the story for today. And thank you for coming by.

Kara Nygren (52m 52s): Absolutely. It was a pleasure.

Garnie Nygren (52m 52s): It's always great sharing Serenbe moments.

Quinn Nygren (52m 55s): Thanks so much for having us.

Steve Nygren (52m 57s): And I love remembering some of the stories.

Monica Olsen (53m 2s): Thank you for listening to Serenbe Stories. New episodes are available on Mondays. You can subscribe anywhere you listen to podcasts. For more details visit our website, serenbestories.com.