Versatile Packing

When you visit Lakeview Cottages, you get a cute vintage cabin in a fabulous setting. The cabins have personality and are clean, but are very simple. The guests make the cabins their own for the week or two weeks they are mountain cabin dwellers. Some guys come up to the lake, throw their sleeping bags on the made up beds, fill the refrigerators with prepared food, then hit the lake for 24/7 fishing. Other residents really move in - with wall hangings, special dishes and appliances, rugs and lamps! It is fun to see the cabins take on the personalities of each current guest.

Being simple cabins, there is not much furniture or storage. There might be a bedside shelf, but no bedside table. Since I like a place for my book, reading light and other necessities, I set out to find a bedside table that could multi-task, be inexpensive, rustic, and not take up lots of room in my car.
My solution is borrowed from my college days when everything I owned fit in a '62 VW bug. Crates are great! You can pack them, then at the destination, unload them and stack them into shelves. Since they're used for carrying supplies they take no extra room in the car. My college age daughter combines them with 1x12 boards to create longer shelves. The crates in the top photo are from Michael's. These crates are a little sturdier than the ones sold at Joann's.

Cindy, in Cabin G, found this sectioned box at ----. It stands on end to fit a narrower wall space.

I also use plastic storage bins to transport and store my cabin linens and supplies. They don't look quite at home in our rustic cabins, but they do make a great shelf for holding a suitcase off the floor.

When you're packing for your mountain getaway, look for containers that are spacious and can be put to use when you get to the cabin. I recommend using versatile crates. (George says, "Be crative with crates!")

This Little Light of Mine...

I love those little lights glowing on our porch. They are just so friendly! Mark took this photo from Cabin G on October 10, 2008 (now you see why we don't extend our rental season). Some of the regulars at the cottages (both summer time guests and owners) bring little white lights to put around their porches. Not only does this provide soft lighting while enjoying the lake view at night, but it lends a bit of individuality to "your" cabin. Putting up unique lights also tells others a little about your personality.

Mark and Cindy (Cabin G) put up quilting star lights around their porch. Cindy is an avid quilter and can often be seen at Lakeview piecing quilt tops on her vintage green Singer Featherweight! I 'd like to find some motorcycle lights for Mike (Cabin E) and tie dyed t-shirt lights for Jim & Annie(L)! Hmmmm, more essential shopping for the cabins!

George spends his early morning and daylight hours down on the lake fishing, but in the evening, his trout lights cast a cheery glow on Cabin F. OK, most people who see the lights from the road think that the lights are chili pepper lights, but that's just because the trout are rainbows and have a pink side to them. We found these lights at the Forest Service camp ground check in office and gift shop. They had other lights, too. Below is George's "stringer" of plastic fish. It takes two strands of the novelty lights to go around the front porch.Porch lights (sold as patio lights) can be found in all different themes. The firefly and old lantern lights would be great on our porches. Target has many styles and they're not expensive. Porch lights are friendly and mark the cabin as "yours." They are like a welcome sign. They don't take much room, so pack them in next summer and let your light shine!

Let There Be Light ....Pulls

Our vintage cabins don't come with much internal wiring. Our one bedroom cabins have light switches at the doors to the bedrooms. The two bedroom cabins have sockets with pull chains. The first photo shows the basic fixture (on our front porch) with an extension cord attached - that's it for outlets! I think it's funny to have the modern corkscrew light bulb in the old socket. The pull chain is classic lake - driftwood tied to package string.

Indoors we can get a little more classy. In honor of our resident bald eagles and osprey, I found an eagle pull from Home Depot.

Looking for a unique, relevant pull chain became a fun obsession while we were on vacation this sumer. I found the rowboat at the fishing supply store in Bridgeport, CA (on Hwy 395 north of Mammoth)

Cindy (Cabin G) found a cabin accessory store in Clovis. The western star (lone star, marshal's star) belongs in this rustic setting.

Her mountain cabin has resident bear!

The cool thing about collecting light pulls is that they are an inexpensive and easy to install cabin accessory. I wonder if we can find enough different pulls to have unique pulls for each cabin. Let me know where I can find other mountain themed pulls. What a fun way to yank someone's chain!