So, we finally arrived... but where in the world are we. Seems we left the world as we knew it and found ourselves at ... well, as Tim put it... it's the house of seven dwarfs. He decided this after the first exploration of this house. We never met the owner's; all transactions done via the W.W.W. but just as the Ms. said - the key was under the door mat.
This was the most humble, unbelievable home. At first it seemed we were mere guests that wandered up, very tired and very hungry. But it soon became clear that we were not only welcome, we were very much expected. Little notes on how to operate the washer 'please don't use a lot of detergent'; 'to light the oven, turn on the pilot first'; 'keep the screen door to the porch closed to keep out the bugs and don't run the A/C with the doors open'; and 'please sign the guest-book by the front door with comments of how your stay was and leave the house tidy when you have to leave us'. Reading the guest book comments from awesome vacations was a couple of hours of entertainment ~ memories of many who had been lucky enough to find this place.
The maze of rooms added on as needed through the many years left us stunned at the architecture ... Kebbler elves must have been at the meetings. A picture with brief description explained that this was the original family home of the parents and turned into a rental to keep it from being sold. Who were these people? Their things (along with who knows how many 'left-by-visitors gifts') were the resident objects. The kitchen stocked with mismatched dishes, fruit jars for drinking tea, old cookie jar collection and a little nook with a chess set ~ plays in progress. A tiny sitting room (approx 6 x 10) contained an old T.V. with VCR and large collection of movies - mostly geared toward kids. Another wall held an eclectic assortment of books... Hardy Boys, Harlequin Romances, general mysteries and old board games. A set of stairs leading to two unplanned bedrooms. A 2 x 5 door off the sitting room into another added on (fairly large) bathroom complete with old but clean enameled cast-iron bathtub. A fairly nice size living room with a lot of windows looking over the mountain-side had a couple of hide-a-bed couches and a small fireplace of sorts. The kitchen had a very tall ceiling with one large picture window and then a small window above it that served no purpose at all.
Everything you need in the bedrooms, bathes and kitchen was there... including a little mix of spices, tea, coffee, sugar and such left by other visitors... all you have to bring is your clothes and food (bring what you want to eat and drink because 'town' is a long trip).
A master-bedroom with king-size bed off the kitchen (down a couple of steps ~ every room seem to be up or down a step or two) was very large with it's own bathroom. A large walk-in closet stuffed with all manner of hand-made quilts, blankets and left over Christmas decorations from the 70's.
A long screened-in porch with a couple of daybeds and hammock was off this bedroom - we spent a lot of time there and Rick slept out a couple of times. It seemed to just hang off into nothing (we are on the very side of a mountain - remember). The porch connected a huge deck with a nice gas grill - leading to the backdoor of the kitchen. The deck built around massive rocks & tress leading down a long drop to end of the Buffalo River... which incidentally had trickled down to a 'creek'.
I never got over the feeling that we had come to visit an old aunt who happened to not be at home. Family pictures on small laced tables, photo albums from a very distant past here and there. All in all, what seems tiny on the outside would easily accommodate 10-15 people.... seriously, there are little nooks and crannies everywhere.
The strangest of all... we never did met the owners. Shortly after we arrived and came back from an explore we found some homemade cookies with a note hoping everything was to our liking with a phone number to call if we needed anything else ~ leave the key under the mat when our visit was over. It was shortest 7 days I can remember and I could write a book on the adventure.... but I'll stop and soon post a few more pages from the vacation to a fairy-tale like place.
If I had one wish... it would to visit this little patch of heaven again before I leave this life.
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