If you’ve been following our cabin-building project it’s been quite a fun project and our whole family has been enjoying the process so far. It’s neat learning about how a home is made, choosing how we’re going to utilize our space and imagining how we’re going to live in this place in years to come.
We’re finding that Snoqualmie Pass is such a perfect place for Seattleites to adventure to. It’s only about an hour’s drive away and the drive on the I-90 is spectacular especially now as the leaves are changing to their brilliant fiery fall colors. Sometimes we’ve had to stop for rock-blasting and other things, but on the whole it’s easy to get there and back, even if we only have a morning and the hubby and I are excited for days ahead when we can sneak up to the mountain in the snow season and get a few runs in before the kids get home from school.
We’ve even found neat stops along the way, like a bakery in North Bend (Snoqualmie Pass definitely needs it’s own bakery one day!!!!), a ramen shop in Bellevue, or the McDonald’s in Issaquah that has a play place. I forget how much fun these free playgrounds are and if it’s early enough, like during McMuffin hours, it’s not very busy. (And, how much longer are my guys going to be able to play on these EVER again. Cue tears and rewind back to how I felt about the first week of kindergarten.)
The cabin itself is now becoming more than just a foundation. We’re watching as the big beams and wood frame get put together. Snoqualmie Pass has a shorter building season than Seattle-we need to get the roof on before the snow comes or our project will get really delayed and to do this we need some really dry days.
Thankfully, we’ve had a lot of them lately. We adventured up the mountainside for a short hike and it is so amazing that we’ve been able to wear t-shirts and shorts in OCTOBER in the northwest.
I’ve also been visiting a lot of great plumbing shops to figure out how to put together our bathrooms, kitchen and laundry area on a budget. This is a whole new range of shopping for me and I’m looking for products that are not necessarily brands I recognize, but brands that have good durability for their price and I’ll definitely update you on my finds when we make our final selections.
I think the biggest thing we’ve had going for us is that we talk often with our contractor and we make sure that we get the stuff we need to get done as soon as we can. Things like not making appointments or not selecting the fixtures/colors/styles we want in a timely manner could definitely throw off the whole project. I’m finding that by just throwing my ideas into a pinterest board (and sharing it with my team) it helps me keep what I want fresh in my head for when we meet and everyone has an idea of the things we’re looking for. (Can I tell you how much I LOVE pinterest for projects like this one!)
We’re loving exploring the area, and we’ve found a beautiful lake (Keechelus Lake) where we’ve spent an afternoon watching hang-gliders land in a landscape that mimics scenes from Iceland.
We are excited about the Snoqualmie Tunnel and even though it’s dark, terrifying and freezing, we’re definitely hoping to cycle through it this October with blazing flashlights and bags full of snacks. The Seattle Times even wrote it up yesterdays as a good idea for this month. Of course, it’s the perfect real spooky place for Halloween haunting. 
So stay in touch and if you’re building a mountain cabin or home in the woods or if you’ve found some fun places to explore in between Seattle and the Pass I’d love to hear from you!
(PS. I may have also purchased these Lincoln Logs from Amazon that were on sale this morning to tuck away for my guys for Christmas so that they can build mini cabins of their own. I love these toys! They are so creative and apparently this is a good deal because my friends at ThriftyNorthwest Mom are so good at finding amazing ways to save cash.)
(PPS. Apartment Therapy is definitely my current daily read of choice for cabin project inspiration. They have many affordable solutions for small spaces and beautiful design ideas.)
Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys. She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live. She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)