When we were contemplating living in Lake Arrowhead and looking at real estate online, the concept of living by the actual lake and having lake rights, didn’t really rank high on our list of must-haves. We are not boat people and weren’t interested in becoming boat people or being part of the lake community. In fact, one of our favorite houses located higher up the mountain, didn’t include a view of the lake or rights to use it at all, and from where we stood, we were okay with that. But as we settled into our suite at the Lake Arrowhead Resort last Monday evening, the lake view out our windows was captivating and after a little adventure on foot around the lake and village, we were slowly becoming more and more fond of the idea of being as close to the lake as possible.
Tuesday morning we met with {an awesome} realtor in Lake Arrowhead, flipped through pages and pages of houses for sale and decided we wanted to look at about 15 of the 18 homes we emailed him that we liked prior. We hopped in our Prius {even though we should have driven the LR2 up instead ;} and we followed behind as Keith and his adorable dog, Olive, took us up and down and around this little mountain town.
The first 3 homes we looked at were up in Sky Forest, without lake rights and in the midst of acres of land filled with brush and trees the size of skyscrapers. We immediately began to feel a bit isolated in this already small town but we had yet to see our favorite house and were still open-minded. As we pulled off the main road though and onto a narrow gravel and dirt road that led up to our “dream house” the higher up we drove, the less we liked the location.
While it was still my favorite house all-around {major WOW factors and moments throughout}, it was far too remote for us city folk who would have to not only be responsible for all the land, worry about more wildlife from bears to coyotes, plow our own roads in the snow, and deal with harsher weather conditions than the rest of the mountain town, we realized there was no way in hell we’d be able to handle the added stress of all of these things {that some may enjoy, like my brother} in an already new environment where we knew only one person, our real estate agent.
As we drove up and down and around the lake, we soon decided that we were not necessarily looking to be even more isolated than we already were by moving up to the top of the mountain. The added trees and brush in the higher areas had us more worried about fires and maintaining land that we wouldn’t really be able to use. We decided that we’d even give up a gorgeous lake view to be close to the lake, the village and thus, more people.
After looking in house after house of wood paneling, dark old kitchens, and bear-themed rooms, we took a bumpy back road and pulled up to a house that was very low on our list. While we were on the road, the husband vetoed the house because of the bumpy ride, not knowing there was an alternate way to get there. I have to admit that I hated this house when I saw the photos online {and even the photos I took here do not do it justice}. I only agreed to keep it on our list because it was walking distance from the lake and above and over our square footage minimum {2700sqft}. Also, after seeing house after house built into the side of the mountain with only decks as yards or outdoor space, this house, while mostly concrete, was on a large flat lot.
At this point, however, we were under the impression that we were probably not going to find a house that day that would not only suit our needs but that we would love and not have to completely remodel if we moved in. We are willing to make some changes but don’t want a full remodel, and everything we had seen had been just that.
We walked through the front door of this house and found new plush carpet, white walls, tons of windows, plenty of space and bedrooms for work and guests, an open living room and large kitchen and found ourselves saying “yeah”, “okay”, and “wow, this could work” as we walked from room to room, upstairs and even outside. We agreed that it didn’t have that much character but liked the fact that we could add our own to it.
After we left this particular house, we couldn’t get it out of our minds really and compared every house we saw afterward to this one. It’s funny how much we agreed on every single thing {except where to put the TV, lol} and both were leaning towards the same thing. This had become our number 1 and after seeing about 5 more houses, we asked to go back to this one before we returned to the hotel. And while at first we didn’t want anything to do with a boat or a dock, we found ourselves talking about next Summer when we rent a dock and learn how to drive a boat.
So while these photos from my iPhone don’t do this house any favors, here are a few of a house that is a number one contender on our list. In fact, it’s the only contender and we are taking a little day trip on Tuesday to see it again… and if we have the same feelings we did for it last week, we will put an offer on the house when we are there 😉
NOTE: it was just about sunset at this time so the shots are a little dark… and since we have watched so many scary movies that happen to take place on lakes, we kind of thought everything had a bit of creepiness to it in the photos, but in actuality, it doesn’t at all. {click to enlarge if you like}
would be my office off of the living room… sliders to the back deck
which includes a walk-in closet & it’s own bathroom ~ note the proximity of neighbors which makes us a little happier than the acre that would be between us at the top of the mountain
a park-sized playground in our backyard… which probably would not stay {sorry Delilah ;} and the stairs up
the master on one side of the stairs & the hallway and other 4 bedrooms upstairs
the gorgeous public trail around the lake that we can walk to {imagine in the snow!}
and the docks along the trail
