i keep a diary

September 08, 2016

Cabin in the Woods

After years of browsing tracts of land for sale in upstate New York, I finally found a listing that interested me enough to drive up and see it!

After a few weeks of coordinating with the realtor, on Thursday I rented a car to make the three-hour drive up to the New York / Vermont border.
Drove up 87 through Albany...
...and into Rensselaer County!
I met up with the realtor at 1pm and followed him in his truck over to see the property.
driving
As we turned onto a tiny private road across a stream...
cabin ˆ driving
...I spotted the cabin we were on our way to see nested way up in the hills!
cabin ˆ driving
See it hiding out up there?
cabin
We turned off the main road and onto a private mountain road!
driving ˆ mountain
It was really fun / scary to be driving a pickup truck through the forest!
driving ˆ mountain
After a bumpy, crawl of a ten-minute drive, we turned a corner...
driving ˆ mountain
...and the gorgeous cabin came into view!
cabin
The cabin was built by a professional crew for a TV series! They tore down an old barn and then built the cabin out of the lumber and materials they scavenged.
cabin
View of the valley from the yard!
scenic overlook
Fire pit area.
Close up of the view!
scenic overlook
Cabin view from the front.
cabin
As soon as I stepped into the cabin, I had an overwhelming sense of deja vu. I smelled the old barn wood and thought to myself "I have spent a lot of time here in the future."
cabin
Climbed up into the loft to check out the bedroom.
In addition to a full bedroom upstairs, there are four bunk beds....
bed ˆ bunk bed
...in the room down below.
bunk bed
View out the front door.
cabin ˆ swings
I went back outside and waited for Pete to demonstrate the cabin's coolest feature....
cabin
...the upstairs bedroom in the loft can be ROLLED OUTSIDE with a motor so you can sleep under the stars (in a little screened in room!).
cabin
Side view of the upstairs slide-out room!
cabin
Attached to the side of the cabin....
...is a composting toilet.
toilet
There's a rainbarrel on the back to catch rain water so you have some water to wash your hands and do dishes.
cabin
After we finished checking out the cabin...
cabin
...we rolled the bedroom back inside, locked it up....
cabin
...we walked back up to Pete's truck.so we could drive around and explore the rest of the property!
hiking
Pete drove me back down the mountain to my car and said farewell.
driving
I decided to drive around a bit and get a feel for the area.
driving
After stopping for a bite to eat, I decided to head back to the Thruway for the three-hour drive home!
driving ˆ lake
me
On the way back I took this picture when I had the thought "Oh shit, I think I'm going to buy this place." LOL. (Took me 8 months of thinking about it...but I eventually pulled the trigger in April of the following year!)
driving ˆ excited ˆ sunglasses ˆ me
Nothing like coming back to a sea of weekday rush-hour Manhattan traffic to make the case for needing a little country hide-away! Many more cabin pics coming soon...
nyc ˆ taxi