About your Hosts
Bub and Kim Burton
Having nightly rental houses was a new venture for us with our first house opened in September 2019. It is a known fact that originally Bub thought I was crazy for wanting to fully stock a house and rent it in Oswego. In fact, he was not the only one that thought I was crazy, but nonetheless he agreed to let me give it a try. After all I had a fallback plan in place if it did not work ?.
After starting and building Integrated Business Solutions for 25 years, it was time for a change. I have worked as a Business Systems Consultant with ERP software starting from the sales process all the way through continued support to our customers located mainly in the central US. We have employees in different parts of the US and focus mainly with distribution and manufacturing companies. In 2018 my 25-year partnership with Macola took a significantly different direction due to a change in corporate ownership. My passion to grow a new ERP business from scratch with a new software solution was challenged so it appeared the writing was on the wall was evident to take make a major change in my life. While I still consult and support our existing customers, I no longer focus on sales or gaining new customers. Instead, I decided to build nightly rental houses right in our hometown ?, talk about an about face. I traveled a lot throughout the years and know what it is like to stay in hotels, and I also have grown to dread it. Having stayed in Airbnb houses in Alaska, Scotland, and a few in the US, I thought….why not Oswego? They are becoming popular everywhere. The business was built over a three-year period. I love the design, decorating and furnishing stage of getting a house ready. I am not a huge fan of the prepping stage but nonetheless know it is part of the process. Seeing the transformation and the reaction of those that stay at the houses have fueled me to want to continue building this nightly rental business venture and provide a great home-like stay for those visiting.
Bub worked for seventeen years at Newell Coach in Miami and then went back to school to become a high voltage lineman. He worked as a lineman during his schooling and shortly thereafter, but as projects ended and no openings available, he was faced with a decision of long commute and hours, or we would need to move. We did not want to leave our family or leave our newly built dream house. As an avid hunter and a desire to learn taxidermy, Autumn’s Call Taxidermy was born in 2014. He specializes in deer and waterfowl and his meticulous eye for detail has made him very popular with hunters. Bub is also my sounding board for ideas and many of the design you see in the houses are born out of his input and of course, he gets involved in many stages of the project. His most important job is putting up with my many ideas and ventures that seem to always take us in a new direction. In 2023 I’m excited he will be picking up the repairs and maintenance on the houses as his taxidermy business becomes more focused and specialized allowing some space in his work schedule.
We love to enjoy time on our porch, camping and just spending quiet time together. We love our kids and four grandbabies immensely. We have lived a very hectic lifestyle as we built businesses, but we have our sights on a much slower pace of life. Bub still loves to archery hunt, and I even hunt with him on occasion (more for the peacefulness it brings, than the kill). His passion for hunting has turned in the last couple years and now he enjoys duck hunting likely even more than deer.
We truly hope you enjoy your stay in our houses and encourage you to learn about the other offerings we have. Be sure to check out Rustic Retreat, it is my latest vision and venture, I love what it offers family and friends with its social areas. With 9 nightly rental houses and 1 extended stay, I think I’m done for now……but you just never know ?
Kim