okay, more about our cabin!
it is one of the historic ccc cabins built during the great depression. it has a beautiful fireplace. one of the glass panes in the fireplace doors was broken when we got here, but they have since replaced it with a new set of doors. i can’t even believe how hard it must have been to make this fireplace by hand. the stones look hand carved! and we have learned that fireplaces are not energy efficient. the old thing whistles when the wind blows. when the glass pane was broken, it would blow into the room. needless to say, the heat (they have rigged the house up with electrical baseboard heating) was up very high in that room. i even went downstairs and turned the heat on low to help the cold air that was raising up through the floor boards.
i love the old fixtures! i love the old hardwood floors. i even love the old, single pane windows. it’s pretty genius actually. they have made the single pane windows double pane by adding in a glass panel. and then the screen goes on top of that! a little side note about our windows. apparently, bats like our windows. in our bedroom, there are two different windows with dead, squished bats in them. it sort of gives me the creeps, even though i know they are dead. but the little fingers of the one that are stuck on the inside of the window give me the heebie-jeebies. i guess i really don’t like bats! oh, and they were squashed and dead long before we ever arrived.
the shutters on the windows have the evergreen trees carved into them and each room has log walls and wood paneled ceilings (except the kitchen and bathroom). the curtains may be the “most beautiful curtains” i have ever seen. but i am thankful we have something to cover the windows with. our cd player does pick up a couple stations so we are able to listen to music throughout the day (which happens to be when i also get my weather for the area… or i ask josh to check at work). the kitchen has a modern fridge and electric stove but an old ceramic sink and no dishwasher. the cabinets are probably the originals as well. there is a breakfast nook which is my favorite part of the house. it has windows on two sids and is bright during day. with all the wood in the cabin, it does tend to make the place feel a little… dim? drab? but this nook is wonderful. i am currently sitting at the table, looking out those windows at the trees, the snow, and drinking a cup of coffee. i can see when people arrive to go snowmobiling, snowshoeing, or cross country skiing from this vantage point. it overlooks the brush creek parking area. the little table and benches are perfect for our little family. the benches are even the old forest service benches with the same carved evergreen trees as the shutters outside. and sweet penny’s high chair is strapped to an old forest service chair. i wouldn’t mind having a set up like this in our future home.
the bathroom is pretty dated. it has an old ceramic tub which is in pretty good shape but the walls around it are disgusting. i cleaned them and scrubbed them and you can’t even tell (though they still look better than when we first moved in). the original cabinets are intact and functional which is pretty neat. the old medicine cabinet and lights may be original? or at least, dated pretty far back. the toilet is not a low flow and we have to hold the handle down the whole time it flushes. it also has a commercial toilet seat on it. that does make it a little difficult for lily to get up on it. and the inside of this thing, i thought it was stained rust. well, i cleaned the toilet… nope. not stained. it just hadn’t been scrubbed clean in a very long time! i’ll just light my lavender, eucalyptus, sweet orange candle and pretend i’m somewhere fancy.
(stay tuned for the second part of this post! and once again, when i have better internet, i will include pictures!)