Our Story

Founder and lead designer, Ashlee Albrecht was born with the same creative energy as many family members before her.  Preceded by a musician, stained glass artist, poet, builder and storyteller, Ashlee was bound to work as a creative. In highschool Ashlee developed a love for painting and sold her first few pieces.  However, life sometimes takes you on other paths and after some life events, she had stopped painting entirely.  Ashlee had many jobs, some typical and some very atypical.  Ashlee ended up working as a Deputy Coroner and then pursued a path in nursing.  After 11 years as an Emergency Room Registered Nurse, Ashlee decided it was time to pursue her passion for design. Ashlee had been decorating and designing for herself and others as a hobby on the side. Living far below their means, a lot of good timing and a little bit of luck, Ashlee and her husband Keith started with a plan to invest in some real estate as a means to build a retirement nest egg.  Turning their first home bought in 2009 into a long term rental, they began purchasing other long term rental properties.  Their strategy changed when they fell in love with a nearby mountain town.  They wanted to be able to have a vacation home and have other people help them pay for it.  This is when things took an unexpected turn. Ashlee got to work creating a space that really resonated with her guests.  Hosting her own property, she spent time asking for feedback and really learned what the guest was looking for.  Her guests started returning over and over again. 

What was supposed to just offset some of the costs of their vacation home quickly became a successful vacation rental.  After several years of success, they contemplated opening more but didn’t feel like the time or the market was right. Fast forward to 2020 and as many vacation rental hosts experienced a boom, the hospital she works at was also booming but in a less exciting manner.  She was exhausted and really feeling the burn out.  She knew that while she would never take back the time she had spent caring for others, if she didn’t start caring for herself she would just lose herself more and more.  With her husband watching her need for change he reached out with the idea to sell one of their properties in order to buy a project as a creative outlet for Ashlee.  Shopping different markets, they found stuff they liked but nothing that they couldn’t live without.  After many different real estate agents in different states, many submitted offers, approvals for different loan types etc., they were coming up short.  Then Ashlee said to Keith, “I don’t want to buy the same thing everyone else is buying, I want to really do something fun.”  She started looking for places with building codes that would support some funky ideas and she landed in Marfa, Texas.  It’s hard for her to explain how Marfa seemed to find her, but it did.  She fell in love with this tiny West Texas town she had never been to.  When she opened up the Realtor app and typed Marfa, Texas in, the first listing that showed up was a caboose.  Before you knew it, she and Keith were on a plane headed for Texas to see the caboose they were buying.  While on that trip, newly in escrow on the caboose they drove past “The Pik Pak No. 2.”  An abandoned service station on the main road with a “For Sale” sign out front.  Escrow #2 got rolling the next day.

As you read through the site you’ll find the links to these locations and through their social media sites you will see the renovations from start to finish.  But as much as the places were transformed, so was Ashlee.  The creative flood gates that had been so long suppressed were opened and a new found energy came to the surface.  Ashlee began to paint again and decided that she was going to create all of the artwork inside the units.  In a place known for its art, it was the perfect setting.  While working on these projects and sharing her designs, people began reaching out and asking for input and guidance and above all, asking her to help them with design and the start up of their vacation rental business.  This was the opportunity she didn’t see coming but she knew had to take.  Thats when ASH Destination Design was born.  A unique combination of art, design, and hospitality to create the ultimate guest experience.