October 2009

It all began at the end of October 2009.  I had been early retired for over a year and had been busy working on renovation projects at our house. With the help of two gardeners, Jim and I dug out and built six retaining walls, put in brick walkways, and added new plants to the front and back yards. Additionally, Jim and I added new oak doors to the main area of the house and added re-furbished oak baseboard trim.  It was a busy time and I was getting physically tired of being retired. 

For years, I had dreamed of owning a get away cabin.  Something rustic, on a lake where you could either relax in an Adirondack chair or walk out the back door, to the dock and jump into the water.  We wanted a place that was above the poison oak line yet accessible in winter so that we could ski, sled, and snowplay.  Whenever I started to dream a bit too seriously, Jim reminded me that our house basically was our cabin.  He also reminded me that we could camp at any lake, rent condos at the ocean and rent cabins to go skiing in winter.

And that is what we did for about 25 years.  Every other year we rented a large cabin at Lake Tahoe during Christmas with my sisters and their families.  And every year we all camped together at various lakes around northern California.  And we also had a family reunion each year – usually at a lake and usually around Memorial Day.

So, my pipe dream waited.  And I spent my down time looking at cabins for sale via flyers and on the Internet.

Then one day in October 2009, I came across a Craigslist ad for a cabin at a place called Emigrant Gap.  The ad stated that the cabin had about 4000 square feet, was on 3 ½ acres, had 5 bedrooms (or ten – the ad was not too clear) and 5 bathrooms.  The property was a foreclosure and had been boarded up for over a year.  I was intrigued. The price had been dropped from $375,000 to a more reasonable $129,900.  I called Katie and asked her if she thought it would be a cool B&B.  She thought it would be great for our family (and also as a B&B).

Pictures on the ad showed a front view of the cabin, a picture of the living room and a picture of the kitchen.  I finally talked with Jim about contacting the agent and he said okay.

I arranged an appointment to look at the place and took Katie and our new puppy Quincy with me since Jim had to work that day.  We brought along a camera to take photos of the good, the bad and the ugly to share with Jim.

TOURING THE LODGE

Before we toured the lodge, via emails the real estate agent had told me that it was not on forest service land, it had a well and had a septic tank.  Yes the price was correct, and yes it had 10 bedrooms.  But she also shared that since it had been vacant for so long there was a lot to be fixed at the property. 

Katie, Quincy and I took I-80 to Emigrant Gap and since the agent was late, decided to drive around the area a bit.  That drive was very easy since we had no idea where we were going and we did not want to drive too far away from the freeway (Emigrant Gap can get very remote very fast).

When our agent finally did arrive and took us on the tour of the cabin, we were somewhat happily surprised with the state of some rooms and quite frightened by the state of other parts of the cabin. 

The living room had a large hole in the ceiling where the free-standing fireplace vent had come loose and had opened a natural skylight through the ceiling and roof.  The picture windows were loose and had hornet nests attached to them.  The kitchen had a stove and a sink – but neither looked to be useable (the sink had no plumbing connected to it).  There was no fridge except an antique commercial fridge that did not have a freezer and looked not to work (there were critters nesting in the motor).

The top floor 5 bedrooms had indoor outdoor carpeting that was in poor shape, each bedroom had shaky, cracked single paned original windows, some kind of fiber wallboard above the wainscoting and on the ceiling, bare bulb light fixtures on the ceilings, and one plug per room.  And there were plywood free-standing armoires.

The top floor bathrooms were a wreck.  The ½ bath had a toilet and no sink. The window was broken and the linoleum was peeling up.  The back two baths were in worse shape.  There were no toilets, the claw tub was not plumbed, the sinks had no working pipes and the back bath tub was so badly damaged – we knew we would not be able to save it. 

The side door had been broken into so many times, there was only a partial door left (which was nailed shut).

The bottom floor was a complete contrast to the top floor.  Each of the 5 bedrooms had been remodeled (unfortunately removing any character that was part of the original structure).  The walls had new drywall, there was new carpeting, there were new double paned windows. Each room had a light fixture on the ceiling.  There were new doors. 

The three bathrooms had new tile, new sinks and new tubs / showers. 

However, there was NO HEAT.

Katie and I took pictures of everything, including each of the basement areas, the circuits and panels, the well storage tanks, the fire escape, the deck, the property, the closeness of the train and the freeway.

BUYING THE LODGE

When we returned home, we showed all the pictures to Jim and discussed the property quite a bit.  The price was right, the size was right but it was a huge construction commitment.  I was certain that with the inspection we would find that the well was bad or the septic tank was not working or something would be such an obstacle that we would not be able to proceed.

Jim and Lynn went up to the cabin next.  They gave it a more critical inspection that we could depict in our photos. Both Lynn and Jim said it looked OK but it needed a lot of work.

Then Dave, Pat, Jim and I went up. Dad said all the copper needed fixing.  Again – it looked OK but needed a lot of work.

Next we moved on to our offer. We made the offer contingent on three inspections; the home inspection, the well inspection and the septic tank inspection. 

The well was fine.  The septic needed only a small amount of work.  The list from the home inspection was endless – but we felt we could take it on.  So – on December 17, 2009, we purchased the Historic Emigrant Gap Hotel Annex AKA the Allen Hotel AKA the Woodmen Lodge AKA the Bright Lodge NKA our family lodge.