Klossner's Mountain Cabin: We Are Living The Dream.....

We've moved into our new mountain home, living our dream and we haven't blogged since we got here! Not that we lost interest, but we got a bit overwhelmed by so much to do! So...after 8 weeks of living in our new home, here's the most current update:

We moved into our new home officially Saturday, May 21. We slept our first night here, amid chaos, but in our new home! It was amazing and a bit of "Holy crap...what have we done" feeling!

I took a week off from work from Saturday, May 21 to Tuesday, May 31 to "get settled"...famous last words! What we didn't realize was it would certainly take us more than a week to go through 20 years of accumulated stuff! This first week we still had workers coming in to do last minute touch-ups, had no phone, no internet, no TV. So that first week we had Quest, Hughes Net, Direct TV, construction workers, and chaos! It also made me a bit anxious, knowing I had no way to contact the outside world if something should happen! Only thing I had going was a vehicle to drive to town to get my cell phone to work!

We also lived the first 8 weeks without a fridge. You see, the first one that was ordered turned out to be really BIG! Sticking out 9 inches was just to much for me! So...we had them order us a new one and it seemed to take forever! We lived those first 8 weeks with 4 coolers sitting in the kitchen. Needless to say...it wasn't a great experience! However, we're campers...so we adapted! I was getting at my wits end by June 27, as we were having house guests on July 1. So, after much complaining and threatening to buy one and charge it back to the construction company, our new fridge arrived on Monday, June 27! And, it's beautiful...as much as a fridge can be beautiful! (See the picture below!)

We have made huge progress at downsizing and putting things away. Our motto is: "As we unpacked it and it didn't have a home...out it went!" Whether to Goodwill or to the trash...it didn't matter, as long as it didn't stay in the house. It has proven to be a good motto...and so far we haven't missed a darn thing! Amazing at what you can do without if you don't have it and you are to far away from a store to go buy it!

Over the 4th of July weekend we had our first house guests...Chris and Lorrie Farver. Chris and Lorrie have been supporters of our cabin since we first met them 15 years ago. What great friends they are. They took vacation to come to our house to work! And work they did! We needed some "landscape architects" and we decided that Chris and Lorrie would be our experts.

We had 30 tons of "dirt" delivered, along with a machine called a "Bobcat" and a dump truck. Chris became our expert Bobcat operator, Hans was the dump truck driver and together they moved the original 30 tons of dirt that was delivered and 33 more tons of dirt from around the property.

Chris and Hans built up the basement walkout. We have a wonderful walkout basement, but the hill was so steep you starting running down as soon as you went out. However, with the Farver-Klossner team we now have a "terrace"....where we are going to put a flagstone patio. (See the picture below)

Chris, Lorrie, Hans and I moved rocks, cut down trees, cleared views, built garden "burms", and generally had a wonderful time! At least the Klossners did...let's hope the Farvers did as well. We showed off our hometown of Victor, took a tour of the Cripple Creek/Victor Gold Mine, shared a BBQ with the LaBountys, and had a great visit! It takes special friends to give up time to work really hard...and the Farvers did just that! We are truly blessed to have them in our lives! We have to say: sharing our view, our porch, and our new home with dear friends really does mean a lot to us.

Thanks to all of you for caring and sharing our dream with us. We will keep more posts coming as we create memories here at Klossner Mountain!

Here are some of our current photos...with captions of course!

Our new fridge arrives after
8 weeks of waiting!

Our dining room table...intimate!

Our liquor cabinet!

Our living room..with Josie!

Our front porch, with swing and rockers all set to enjoy!

Cohiba and flower pot with humming bird feeding station
on our porch!

Lorrie's suggestion for use of old chairs...holding
my plants!

Other side of porch with humming bird feeder

Open porch...sunny and warm on late afternoons.

Doggie beds to sit on the porch!

Kitchen all set up!

Storage/office getting set up. Hans and I are
sharing an office. Once full of boxes...now usable space!

Our bookcases in our office, with filing cabinets all set &
ready to go!

Storage room looking from our office!

Our desks...we share space!

Guest bedroom...with Stella!

Sitting area in downstairs living room

Guest bedroom...once filled with boxes!

"Linen hutch"...no linen closets in our new home...
so we had to be creative!

Terrace patio created by Chris and Hans

Master bedroom

View of terrace patio from door of basement

Mom's "secretary" in Master bedroom

Putting rock around terraced patio...one load at a time!

View of flagstone terrace from outside view

Burm created by Chris...I will plant flowers and trees in burm

Looking at hillside before terraced and with the trees before
cutting them down!

Master bedroom looking from Master bathroom

Antique sewing machine in honor of my Grandma Bruno

Gift from Chris & Lorrie. Mirror made from Aspen
logs that we took to Ohio for Chris. Chris has etched
"Klossner Mountain Home...Established July 2011"
on the mirror. It hangs with honor!