This is yesterday in Boone! You can’t tell from the photo but snow was falling, the clouds were engulfing the mountain tops, and higher elevations were covered with the most mysterious looking “freezing fog!” I love the winter weather – as long as I am INSIDE the car, with my heated seats warming my backside toasty!This is just the first of many hunting trips – we are planning for our future. I love the mountains – always have.
I am much more of a mountain girl than a beach girl…..and it is my dream to have a getaway cabin for long weekends in the mountains of Western NC. But we have guidelines too. It has to be big enough to have 3 friends join me in quilting….which means I need at least a 3 bedroom. I don’t care about the size of the kitchen, I care about enough room to set up machines!
We’d love a place with a mountain view ----but we need something within a realistic budget. I don’t necessarily want something way out in the sticks with no access to anything ---but I also don’t want a lot of yard work. I want natural landscape. I wouldn’t even mind a condo ---with a view ----and this one we looked at was great except for the home owner’s association dues were $1,000 per QUARTER!? And there was really no services included in that – it’s all natural landscape so it isn’t like someone is mowing grass and planting flowers. It’s $330 a month for a PARKING LOT!? No thank you. ((Sigh – because this was a large open condo with lots of sewing room and would have been perfect!))
Feet in freshly falling snow!
We ended up looking at three places, two of which were very nice ----but each had their own down falling. The third one was a log cabin, but it had fairly close neighbors. It was also A-frame ---listed as a 3 bedroom, but it was really 2 bedrooms with an open loft, which to me is NOT a bedroom. There are no walls and no privacy. And the living area was pretty tiny, not enough room to set up tables for quilting weekends.
Those white dots on me are NOT lint –or thread! It’s falling snow!
I do love the freshness of a snow-fall day -- like the world is being washed clean and blanketed by angel dust.
We did confirm that we LOVED the area. And we also really liked the Realtor that took us around. She learned about us, and what our needs are and will now be on the lookout for other locations that might fit the bill. The adventure has just started. Like many other things in life, it not a race. It is about taking time to find the right place. And enjoying the process!
Couldn't you just quilt forever with this view?
((Blue Ridge Parkway on the way home))
Enjoy your Sunday, everyone! This girl is Texas Bound!
24 comments:
I feel the same way about the mountains Bonnie. I am trying to get there as fast as I can!~ Hubby just won't cooperate. I think he is just "comfortable" here where he knows everyone. Having lived ON the beach for years, I am so tired of it. I hate the heat and humidity and the $1000/mo. insurance with hurricanes,etc. ugh. Not worth it.
Well, same with condos here. Honey, you never really "OWN" a condo.... think about that... Same with living in a "gated community". You just never REALLY own it. not for me.
When I do get to the mtns, I'm thinking Franklin to Bryson City area, I am just getting a little house on a dirt road, not far from town. Nothing fancy.
A frames, having owned one, are a lot of work and the space if strange and limited. Our windows always leaked,etc. But, that was ours...
You will know it when you find it. SO HAPPY FOR YOU!~
I have to sew up a charity quilt today to get in the mail to Alaska to a friend's son's fundraiser for his cancer treatment, so that is what I'm doing today. Be safe in your travels. XO
two of our children are on the western side of the mountains, in Johnson City, TN :) This year they took a car to college, so I'm going through mountain withdrawl, not running down to bring them home for breaks! My very bestest trip down was for spring break a couple years ago--it had been raining and thawing, but this day was partly sunny, and there were little waterfalls coming out of the rocks, quilt barns all along the Daniel Boone Highway, and baby calves and sheep playing in the fields :) Love the convenience of living in Cincinnati, but sure do love those getaways!
Love that view! But I'm just the opposite - I'm a Pacific NW beach girl :D I'm lucky enough to have been born into a family with beach front property on Puget Sound on the shipping lanes north of Seattle. Just a little one bedroom cabin our grandparents built during the depression - not even a bathroom at first, just an outhouse! But I love to take my Featherweight and set it up at the dining room table looking out the french doors that span nearly the whole front of the cabin and watch the ships go by. Ahhhhh......
good thing we all like dif. things and places or we would all be in one place..lol I love where i am at but would love the Mt. too. That is def. not in my future. too old to move now. lol and Texas has few Mt.lol. so I am blooming where I am planted. I am so happy you are are looking and will find a place just for your needs. I can watch from afar and enjoy your journey. very exciting. have safe trip and lots of fun.
Hey there, neighbor. Well, maybe. I live about 15 minutes south of Murphy NC, in Georgia. Have you looked around in the Franklin area? There are some beautiful views all around there and it is not so far away from civilization. We love it here and our closest "big city" is Blue Ridge, GA but in a pinch we could get to Atlanta or Chattanooga, or Asheville.
Looks like a beautiful location. Hope you are able to find something to your liking. Good Luck in your search for the perfect spot to call home.
Now that is my idea of heaven! You are so lucky to have such a place to retreat to.
I had a cabin in the Poconos for 10 years and it was some of the best years of my life. Having 2 mortgages wasn't easy and I did rent (one tenant was great another a nite-mare). Mountains and seasons just fit together, we had to sell since I moved to the Midwest and we just didn't get back to the east.
We were in Boone in June. Much warmer. I love that part of NC: it was where I wanted my parents to move when I was a kid.
Looks lovely Bonnie...and cold on that day!!
That is a wonderful area Bonnie! You will love retreating there when your busy life allows it. My son and his wife graduated from Appalachian State and would have stayed there forever if they could have. It is still one of their favorite places to go to get away from it all. And my mother and her husband have their second home in Clyde NC. She loves living in the mountains! She writes on FB this morning that they are snowed in, their world has turned magically into a winter wonderland, and it is the most cozy feeling in the world. Safe travels!!!
Lovely view Bonnie, good luck in your search for the perfect place, I'm sure you'll find it one day.
Safe travels and have a great week!
As a Canuck living many miles NW of you, I have to laugh at someone in the Carolinas having a vehicle with tushy warmers! LOL! Of course, I don't have leather seats...the cloth ones don't get as cold. :-)
Have a great trip to Houston!
Sounds like heaven to me, too!
Our veiw changes with anywhere teh RV goes !
Yeah, I could knit and crochet and quilt forever with that vieuw. Beautiful. I surely love mountains, says this flat land girl. Succes with searching, groetjes, Gerda
lol right snow? i bet that is thread and your sewing machine is hidden behind a tree.
Safe travels Bonnie. Your view of the Blue Ridge mtns is beautiful. Speaking of Blue Ridges, I just finished my Blue Ridge Beauty, started out as a leader-ender project in March 2011 sewing together the 4 patches. I love it, thanks so much for all that you do for us quilters. Sad to hear the comments from a quilter about the 2013 Golden Quilter awards. I love what you do for all of us.
Signed up for Portland Block party, so looking forward to meeting you.
Carol
Saw your post, lucky girl. I live south of you in Kent.
Are you going to the Portland Block Party?
Went to sew expo on Friday, walked my buns off.
Enjoy the beach.
that is close to where I want to end up too! Still working on Michael!
Carol B - I AM going to Block Party! I missed out on Bonnie's first class on Thursday and will be taking Debbie Caffrey's class (substituting for Carrie Nelson) but will be in Bonnie's Friday and Saturday classes - yay! I was at Sew Expo on Saturday, turning in my pillow cases and walking my feets off and paying for it today....
Beautiful area where you're looking for your getaway home. Be careful of condos--associations can be a nightmare! I know you'll find what you're looking for. I love the mountains, too, and I'm always looking out our back windows at our Sheep Mountains to see how the light and shadows change all day. I've even set up my Singer 401A at the back window so I can sew and enjoy the view.
Mountain view are sooo beautiful! DH & I built a log cabin at Deep Creek Lake, MD. It is on the western side of the mountains, so we get a lot of snow. We are on the lake so summer is fun too! I take friends up for retreats in the fall and summer... at least I did until my dd took up residence there! Some day it will be "ours" again1
I signed up for her Thursday class. Wanted to take advantage of other quilters. So we will not be in class together. Hope to have a great time. If I can keep up with the young-uns......
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