About-Us

Grandma Z's Guest House is named after my mother, Hilda Zweibohmer, and the original unit named Grandma Z's Guest House was her home. After raising a family of eight (including six daughters and two sons) on a farm located nearby, my parents retired to Alta Vista in their new home. Since I had not yet graduated from high school, I moved with them. Mom finished all of the woodwork, including the kitchen and bathroom cupboards by hand and did all of the interior painting herself. Mom took great care of her house and was able to remain in it by herself until she was 94. (She is one of the few people I know who actually liked to clean!) She retained her lively sense of humor and attention to detail until her death in 2011. In fact, my kids still talk about the nursing home stories she shared with them when she spent her last Thanksgiving at our home. Witty until the end, she had the grandkids laughing and marveling at her stories.

The Recker House was the home of her long term neighbors, Leonard and Ann Recker. The houses were built in the same year and by the same carpenter crew.

The Nashua Lake House fulfills a personal dream of having a place on the water that, in addition to providing a rental option, is close enough for our own use from time to time.

After purchasing my mother's house in the summer of 2011, we decided to try out the concept of short term rentals--we had watched our own families struggle with comfortably finding enough beds and bathrooms for out of town guests and thought "there must be a better way" to handle those times when the house was overflowing with guests. So Grandma Z's Guest House was born! You'll find touches of my mother in the original Guest House together with many new furnishings.

The response and interest in the short term rentals has exceeded our expectations from the beginning! We greatly enjoy providing accomodations to those coming to our community. We've assisted with housing for holidays, family reunions, funerals, weddings, hunting trips, extended visits with family and more. We've had the opportunity to renew acquaintances with former residents and to make new friends. We think Mom would be happy to see her former home being used by so many, including members of her own family.

We invite you to spend time in the communities of Alta Vista and Nashua as well as Chickasaw County and the larger Northeast Iowa area. You'll find great small towns and lots of things to do. Check out some of what is happening at

We hope to have the opportunity to assist you in the near future----Linda Kobliska