Monday, September 12, 2011

Introduction to the Mountain

Somewhere over the rainbow we have a cabin     

We have been looking for a cabin for almost 4 years now. There were numerous reasons why we couldn't find what we were looking for but we were determined to find "the one" and kept looking. Our main criteria was elevation and view, The Husband and I are both heat wimps and we wanted the higher elevation for the lower temperatures. If a cabin wasn't much cooler than here at our home it didn't make much sense for us to run off to a cabin. That was our logic and we're sticking with that!

We found this particular cabin in June; the elevation on the cabin's deck is 4412' and the view was awesome. Wow, now we're talking! We felt an instant need for this cabin. We had the high elevation, awesome views and the  eastern exposure we were looking for. We were sold! The catch was the cabin was in need of some serious TLC; big time! After we both agreed we wanted to put in an offer The Husband looked at me and asked "Are we crazy? This is ugliest cabin we have looked at and we want to buy it." My response was "Yes, we are crazy. What else is new? Let's go for it!".  That is exactly what we did.

The gorgeous mountain laurel around the cabin  

We have been working our fannies off since mid July and I have lots of posts to catch you up to where we are now. Some of the pictures and cabin details are not for the squeamish; you may want to run now! ( I almost did)  Did I mention we are crazy! The cabin started out pretty bad; for those of you brave enough to stick through the bad I will have lots of good coming, eventually. I will try to get some of the good posted as soon as I can because I don't want to be sent 100's of straight jackets; I already have one. I will begin posting about the renovation / cleanup process. This is requiring lots of chocolate so if you do
send me a straight jacket please put some chocolate in with it. Please!!!

The cabins in this area are not for the faint of heart. The last stretch of road to the cabin is 3 miles straight up a rugged mountain road with lots of bumps, rocks and switchback turns. Did I mention it was a single lane road? Coming down the mountain is a bit of a different story. We use 4x4 to hold the vehicle back without constantly using our brakes; that's so we will still HAVE brakes when we reach the bottom. Still with me so far? Scared? ROFL, it's not too bad...um....most of the time.
 
When you see this view you are almost there. Deep breath now
If you are brave enough to drive up this mountain all the way to the top this is one of the views that awaits you off of the deck.



You can see for miles      

The cabin is currently a construction zone but due to the travel required we have made a "camp" with some cots in the bedroom after we finished scrubbing and clearing out. We don't want to take additional furniture up there to have in the way during the remodel so we make do with very minimal. Below is the sunrise on our first morning there. It was stunning!

and higher
Good morning       

On one of our evenings there we had a thunderstorm. It was a sight to watch. We were too amazed to attempt photos and we'll try to remember next time. The following morning again the view was spectacular and I never get tired of it. As The Husband would say: "Sometimes I wake up grumpy and sometimes I let her sleep". This is the view I woke up to:
Fog in the valley at sunrise       


The valley below is covered in fog and just the tops of the mountains were showing above the fog just as the sun was also coming up. It looked like a churning ocean. I enjoyed my coffee and the view that morning! Actually 2 maybe 3 cups of coffee but with that view I had to stay put a while.

This cabin has been neglected for quite a long time. We have a few trees that have overtaken the view. We will be opening the view up even more. I'll make sure to show you the updated views.

Lots more to come as we renovate and decorate the cabin.I have started at the beginning and will continue with the updates. Stay tuned, lots more to come!

I'm glad you're here, pull up a chair and sit a spell.
Mountain Belle

 

3 comments:

Mandi Richards

I've always dreamed of having a mountain cabin. My parents own some property in the mountains and talk about building a cabin, but it's all just talk right now. How wonderful it will be when your cabin is all renovated!

Alicia

Wow! Those views are AMAZING! So beautiful! I look forward to reading more about your renovation process. How often will you be able to vacation/stay at your cabin, do you think?
I think this is your 1st time linking up to TNAT, so WELCOME!

Mountain Belle

Thanks for coming by ladies. We have looked for years for a cabin. The views sold us on this one; they are awesome. We are working really hard on the renovation. We hope to spend at least 7-8 days a month there; more when on vacation. When my husband retires soon we may spend most of our summers there. We are really looking forward to it!

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