Monthly Archives: June 2012

The Bluegrass Valley is Calling

Here’s the latest property that requires sharing:

It’s been on the market for a while now, and I keep coming back to it to admire. My first inclination was that it is too large for a cabin, and while a part of me still feels that way, another part tugs at my mind imagining a cabin camp full of my favorite people–close family and friends–spending long, relaxing days outside and late nights full of bonfires, laughter and stories.

Located in the Bluegrass Valley of Highland County, VA, this cabinhome is made from two old log cabins, one dating from 1750, the other from the early 1800s, and has four bedrooms, two sitting rooms, a large dining and kitchen as well as a barn with electricity and 1500 square feet of porch (!) on 75 acres of farmland that includes pear and apple trees, sugar maples, and a natural spring, this partially furnished fantasy can be yours for $665,000, maybe less considering the property has been listed for some time.

If you do make it your someplace cozy, I’d love to stop by and sit for a spell.

View the property here and here.

 

The Cabinologist is now on Facebook!

I hope you all had a Happy Summer Weekend. This post is a shameless self-promotion: please “like” The Cabinologist on Facebook!

It will get you regular access to all things cozy and cabin as well as facilitate the sharing of your ideas and discoveries. Please post requests for what you want to see more of and the cool stuff you find while searching for ‘your someplace cozy’.

Such as this beautiful homestead in Montana, the perfect, poetically spare writer’s retreat. The beauty of the contrast between newly milled honey-colored lumber and the gently weathered grey of the trim is an adornment that is thoroughly rustic and sensual in its simplicity. It makes you want to give it all away for this idealized spartan dream.

All things cabin, outdoors, cozy and generally awesome are welcome!

Eilen Jewell: Queen of the Minor Key

If you haven’t heard of Eilen Jewell, you should take a minute right this moment to get to know her through her latest album, Queen of the Minor Key. Part blues, part rockabilly, part rough-at-the-edges jazz, this woman and her band have a unique modern-nostalgia sound that is positively enchanting. I first heard of her through Garden & Gun and a Pandora radio station created from artists featured in the magazine. If you have the chance to catch a show, she is even better live–witty and enchanting.

listen to tracks from the current album here.

buy it here!

Cape Cod Supply List

We’re headed to the Cape in less than ten days for the week of the Fourth, and with a weather forecast barely breaking 70 in the day / 60s at night, I’m thinking I need a good cable-knit fisherman’s cardigan, and a few other things to vacation in laid-back, tomboy-esque style beyond the requisite preppy swimsuit and plenty of reading materials.

You can’t really go anywhere on the Cape without a sweater at night, its a year-round necessity. I’d prefer a classic fisherman’s cable knit cardigan (lots available on Etsy).

The Downeaster small sport duffel (L.L. Bean Signature, sale! $16.99), the perfect bag to swing over your shoulder for a bike ride to the beach or the Nantucket Ferry.

Old Man and Sea by Joan Drury Cox is a recently released contemporary visual interpretation of Hemmingway’s timeless novel that preserves his punctuation to emphasize the ebb and flow of language across the page. Read a review here.

Camp Wandawega

With our one-year anniversary fast approaching, my husband and I were in search of a little cabin getaway not too far from the hustle-bustle of Chicago.  What we found is a time-capsule gem of a place, a true nostalgic’s delight, a wonderland of simpler times: Camp Wandawega in Elkhorn, WI, just two hours northwest of the city!

Owned by Tereasa Surratt and David Hernandez, the rustic lake resort was the site of David’s annual boyhood family vacations, and was purchased by he and his visonary wife; together they lovingly restored the property to a point beyond its former idyllic rusticity to its current nostalgic (im)perfection.

I’m so looking forward to canoeing, swiming, tennis, archery, campfires, bugs, hiking, beers, and more. The property offers a variety of whimsical accommodations, including a lodge, boy scout canvas tents, and several cabins.

We’ll be staying in A Very Modest Cottage, an 11 x 11 foot one-room cabin. I. CAN.NOT. WAIT. (!) The cabin was rescued from its old location nearby Surratt’s grandmother’s home in Illinois and moved to the Wisconsin lake resort.  Over the years it has served as a cabin court, a brothel, a truck stop, and a hunt club’s cabin.

here’s the cabin before rescue:

Read more about it:

Chicago Home Mag

Country Living

Apartment Therapy

Buy the book:

Cabin Porn: Lower Meadow, VA

Here’s the latest cabin I’m drooling over, and, alas, missed the acquisition opportunity–its already sold!

A two-story 19th century quarter-logged cabin with giant hearth and lots of tiny paned windows located in Bolar, Virginia’s Lower Meadow. Situated on 54 acres of wooded meadow, only one building can be seen from the property, owing in part to its access to National Forest land.

After discovering this gem, I had a heart-to-heart with my husband about a cabin needing to be in the five-year plan…and I surprised myself by actually getting him to agree that it should be a high-priority goal (so far its in my top three with traveling and getting a real job with benefits).