The North End Loft: moving into our cabin

I'm so excited to share moving into our cabin with you today!

Furnishing our little mountain vacation cabin in McCall, Idaho from our primary residence in Boise took a lot of careful planning and preparation, especially on our very tight budget. Our actual move-in was the weekend of October 22, 2016, but I started daydreaming about my decor and collecting ideas weeks earlier, before we even closed on our cabin.

Pinterest ideas for our dream mountain life.

I started by gathering Pinterest photos that reflected our emotions and dreams for our future mountain living experience. I think most of us have a picture in our minds of what a perfect vacation place would look like, from rustic log cabin to cute lake cottage to sleek modern beach house, we all dream. I wanted to capture our dreams in photos to help me choose the right decor for our cabin.

What we had to work with; the before cabin photos from the real estate listing.

Next, I carefully studied the real estate listing photos of our cabin to remember where windows, doors, baseboard heaters, electrical outlets, etc. are located, since I couldn't simply run over and refresh my memory in person. I also created floor plans with exact measurements that we made during our real estate inspections.

Cabin floor plans and measurements with our furniture inserted.

I measured our furniture and spent many hours fitting it into the floor plans so it would work. Seating in the living room for six (the size of our family) was essential, so everything had to fit perfectly. Our cabin is so tiny, it was like putting a challenging puzzle together.

My final idea boards created on Photoshop.

Once I knew where the large furniture pieces would go, I filled in with the smaller furnishings and decor and created a mood board for the entire cabin on Photoshop. My color scheme is red, white, navy blue, grey, black, and white. I used these boards, along with lists from Pinterest of items every vacation rental should have, to put together my own lists for everything we'd need. Even though we won't be renting our cabin, we will need all the things renters would need. Those lists that I printed and took shopping with me made it a lot easier.

Purchasing our cabin stretched our budget to the max, so it was essential to furnish as much as we could from what we already had. Luckily, we had saved lots of our old furniture over the years tucked away in our loft, and we filled in what little else we needed from Boise thrift stores. The few things we couldn't find at thrift stores, we purchased at less expensive department stores.

Shopping, gathering, and packing for moving day.

For a couple of weeks before moving day we stored everything in our Boise living and dining rooms. We had one day to pack the truck, make the two hour drive over winding Highway 55 to McCall, unpack the truck and return it, so organization was key. We saved money on mileage charges by choosing a truck rental company in Boise that had a drop-off point in McCall.

Finally, we were all set and moving day arrived. With lots of help from my daughters and sons in law we packed up the truck and headed for McCall.

Legacy Park, McCall, Idaho.

Mile High Marina, McCall, Idaho.

Ponderosa State Park and Payette Lake, Idaho.

The summer crowds had disappeared, and fall had arrived in the central mountains of Idaho that day as we drove into McCall. We were completely enchanted with beautiful autumn colors and mild weather for our moving-in weekend.

Tucker is making sure his dog food got packed.

We started right away unloading the truck and had the furniture set up in no time. Later that weekend, while Tucker napped after the hard work of unpacking, I snapped some photos.

Our thirty year-old custom built sectional with newer denim seat cushion slipcovers just barely fit, minus the corner wedge.

Our old ottoman and a new $99 Overstock rug.

Freshly laundered curtains from the previous owners, inherited end table painted black, and a new Target lamp.

Inherited refinished maple drop leaf table for both a desktop and dining, thrift store art, diy prints and signs and family photos.

Shelves made of drawers from the bottom of our old Boise hutch.

A painted yard sale telephone table and a thrift store lamp with a new Walmart shade.

Our front porch wicker chair, the TV from my office/studio, and a dvd "fireplace."

Our mattress from our Boise guest room, yard sale painted table, Target headboard and duvet, and Home Goods "welcome to the lake" sign, a cabin warming gift from my daughter and son in law.

Homemade cross stitch and painted Amazon lamps with USB chargers in the bases.

Ikea cart, Target towels and rug, Anthropologie shower curtain, a gift from my other daughter.

DIY chalkboard and our folding camp table. Walmart microwave and blender.

A red Keurig, our one splurge!

Still the original kitchen.

An Idaho state-shaped cutting board, a gift from my nephew and his wife, and thrift store blue and white dishes and cookie jar.

Flatware from Shopko and red and white striped tea towels.

Our first McCall purchase, a moose hook from our local May Hardware store.

We just love how our tiny cabin looks now. We can hardly even remember what it was like before we scrubbed, caulked, patched and painted (read about that here!) Now that we're all moved in and cozy, in future posts I'm planning on sharing what it's really like to spend weekends on mountain time in a 470 square foot space. I'll also be sharing more cabin DIY, as we renovate our kitchen, paint the outside, get a new metal roof, work on landscaping projects, and much more. I'll be writing about the charming little town of McCall, hiking the grandeur of the Payette National Forest, mountain biking and snow shoeing in Ponderosa State Park, kayaking on beautiful Payette Lake, and anything else I can think of about our fun new weekend mountain lifestyle.

Thank you for stopping by today! I hope you'll continue to join us on all our new adventures!