Family ditches city life for a fairytale cottage in the country

hey guys jenna here welcome to my channel where  i take you on tours of unique homes today's home   tour is straight out of a storybook some say  it looks like real life snow white's cottage   in fact i didn't even believe it  was real until i saw it in person   we're gonna meet the owners who  purchased the house just a few years ago   and learn why they think this is the perfect  home to raise their four kids they're gonna   take us on a tour of the whimsical grounds as  well as the jaw-dropping fantastical interior   do you think you could live in a storybook  cottage like this one make sure to comment   below if you think you could and if your answer  to that question is seriously yes then why not   try it out for the night they do rent part of the  cottage on airbnb and you can find a link to book   in the description and if you like these kind  of videos well i publish one to two videos   every single week just like this one so make sure  that you subscribe and hit that notification bell before moving here we were both living in portland  oregon and we would oftentimes make dream boards   about you know our dream home about a month  into coveted lockdowns i was in the kitchen and   doing dishes and pondering our existence and  what we were going to do and he texted me from   another room and it was a link to this property  and was like you want to go live in a the snow   white cottage completely tongue-in-cheek i wasn't  serious right and uh and i responded with uh why   not the second we drove through the gate and onto  the property it was grander and more magical than   we could ever imagine the kids actually thought  we took them to an amusement park and we were like   we're like oh no no don't don't get excited it's  not that it was everything that we had set our   intentions of one day getting that manifested and  we would love to be able to pick up kind of the   baton and continue the legacy of the home and add  to it and make it everything that it could be now the construction of the home  started in the late 60s or 70s   at that time it was just land it was forest it  obviously was a couple of decades of work for him   and 82 was when he officially registered it  as the home that it is today it's perfect for   a family of six we have four kids ages eight  nine eleven and fourteen we're like this is a   great family home and then as we started to work  on things and realized there's a little more space   than we actually need we loved hosting so we  converted the big master suite into an airbnb over the next several years as our children age  out of the home we've definitely discussed to have   the entire space be kind of a bed and breakfast  you know we've been here over a year and a half   and i'll catch myself seeing something for the  first time we've spent countless hours just   laying in the living room or laying in bed  watching the light hit different surfaces   and create shadows and that's really just amazing  part about this home is that it's always changing   it's it is organic and alive welcome to the lala  forest retreat located on the kitsap peninsula   just at the entrance to the olympic national  forest and we run a couple of airbnbs out of   here as well as just have a wonderful fun magical  unique place that we get to enjoy every day   the home itself was built using just a traditional  wood frame they went in and laid almost like   thick chicken wire mesh a lattice over everything  and then started to add concrete on top of that   which gives it its very unique and organic form  the shingle work in the roof line is different   than most homes it's called an oscillating sea  wave roof it's functional but it's also very   artistic in style and the purpose behind it is  to create a sense of movement almost a flow kind   of in the natural environment that makes it feel  like it's dropping back into its surrounding space   the gentleman who originally built the house fell  a number of trees on the land and found ones that   were just the right circumference to create  kind of all these different spaces and then   wrap the roof line around it which gives you that  really nice organic character as well you'll see   to the left and the right we have the lead glass  windows which were installed effectively so that   you could exit them if you needed to in case  of a fire or anything along those lines so   they really thought about all the detail  but the craftsmanship itself is it's just   absolutely lovely he milled all the lumber on site  for a lot of it all the framing of the windowsills   as well as all of our interior and exterior  doors one of the the pieces that was awesome   custom built is the door handle to the main  entrance and the doors are all hung with this   iron work and then we of course you've got this  massive door knock the stonework they basically   put dye in concrete and pour the concrete and let  it set it looks like a bunch of skittles or m m's   or something it's a lot of fun so let's go around  to the side here show you a couple other features this is the well closet where our water stored  um people love to take pictures here it's kind   of this fun little door so just to add some whimsy  and surprise there's a little skeleton in here if   you choose to peek in that greets you and it's  definitely something that we really want to   you know share with people is the  whimsy and the magic of the home in the back of the house we've got about a 3000  square foot patio space so there's plenty of   room to come out here enjoy yourself we've  got the hot tub and then over here we have   an outdoor kitchen with a sink a grill cooktop  so you've got really everything you need to   host an event have a party which  is lovely in the summertime   it's a great place to come and hang out the  house is set on the very back of the property   so you've really got what feels like a ton of  land to explore out in front of you that you   can just go out and walk around we'll go  ahead and take you down and show you that   now we're at the front of the property about 100  feet down the hill from where our house is located   in this open meadow we've got just this wonderful  network of ponds and canals running to waterfall   and those all surround the tree fort the  tree itself was a douglas fir constructed   into this really cool kind of almost mother's  goose tree fort so we're still kind of trying   to figure out what we want to do with it we've  got lots of ideas we've thought about finishing   the interior and turning it into maybe some  sort of a small home space we've thought about   turning it into sauna it does have a wood burning  fireplace in it so could do a sauna in there   there's two levels on the inside in the second  level you know you could build a little loft   space in there we're gonna get everything wired up  so that this this space is lit up at night it does   have running electricity to it so you know there's  there's lots of fun things we could do with it we would love feedback from people of what  could the treehouse be what would you love   to see in an airbnb space that is different and  unique we welcome that through our instagram   page or you know youtube video comments um  or even emails that would be really really   cool and really helpful and yeah again how  fun is it to see like hey that was my idea welcome inside of the olala  forest retreat we love our   entryway all of our beams were  sourced here on the property   we have beautiful stonework throughout the  home and the interior and exterior that was   also sourced from a local quarry all of  the doors in the home were handcrafted   by the original owner he sourced everything  as well from the property he and his friends   and colleagues would all get together work  on the iron work on the doors and work on   forming them completely and they're  all molded for each door jam   we sourced this live edge ourselves here on the  property sanded it down so we could have an eating   area with our children and then if you look above  all of the beams also have the same iron work that   was hand hammered by the original owner as well  this tree is one of our favorite parts of the home   so it looks to us as if it was actually cut into  three pieces and then put back together to be able   to maintain the substantial weight of everything  above it because it does run all the way through and then into our kitchen it's probably where i  spend the majority of my time in the home it has   a beautiful view again all lead glass windows  look out into the front part of the property   all of the cabinetry in the kitchen  was handmade as well everything   we came in looked to be actually hand hammered  very similar to the doors inside of the house   i was not a massive fan of knotty pine so i  talked jacob into painting everything black   and then all of the live edge on the property  as well as all hand cut and formed as well as   trim all throughout here and we loved we took off  all the cabinet fronts i love open cabinetry just   kind of gave it an airy feel i think there's  a total of four fireplaces in the home we   have this pizza kitchen fireplace and then we  have a double-sided fireplace in the main den   as well as a really cool rock fixtured one  that's in one of our children's bedrooms   and then in one of our airbnb  suites as well a big stone fireplace   so from the kitchen we walk into  what is now our master bedroom so we converted this space into our master bedroom  it originally was a garage which we didn't really   need then we converted it into a dining hall and  then we really kept looking at the space and we're   like it's such a shame we can't use it for more we  love the ceilings we love the tree going through   it even gets a moss on it at times which we love  and we just kind of decided that the best thing   for this room would to be a master suite we  put some steps in leveled this off we closed   up a door that was actually going to the outside  patio on the side as well and it by the grace of   the universe just barely fit a queen-size  bed it feels amazingly cozy in this room   we sleep really well we feel centrally located  in the house by our kids bedrooms but also to   have some privacy to ourselves had enough space in  here to make it a really cool den area eventually   we'll be willing to rent it out as an airbnb  but for now we're going to keep it to ourselves   i also needed an office space so back over here  in a corner we have a little office space i had a   dream about this room and i just kept drawing it i  just kept thinking of it and then i kept scouring   pinterest and social media and could never  quite find what it was so everything in this   room was either free secondhand or built  by us it becomes really fun and playful and   creative and just getting to reuse things you  already have instead of creating so much waste   so this area as we said before was a pre-existing  garage we did decide to keep the concrete floors   and just seal them so they were waterproof but  what's really cool is that all of this got sealed   in recently and turned into french doors what it  originally was were the doors that you all saw on   the exterior two great big barn style doors that  close and while they're beautiful and we will keep   them for aesthetic purposes they certainly weren't  great at keeping the home waterproof and warm and   becoming energy efficient on this property is  really important to us as well and then from   our master bedroom we head back into the kitchen  area and up these amazing staircases into what   is now our little tv nook for our kids to enjoy  and also doubles as a spare bedroom for guests   so the staircase obviously was all handmade  it's all carved soft edges bull nosed and   curved and then we have these amazing  cutouts as you go up the staircase as well   again everything in this house was all made  by hand nothing is a flat surface they're   all smooth but definitely have curves to them as  well which makes them so organic and beautiful and   all of these cutouts um we're learning as  we go and repair and replace things that   they were hand carved out there's a mesh wire  underneath everything some wood framing and   then it's stuccoed and stuccoed and stuccoed and  so then into one of my other favorite rooms in   the house we've got another handmade door the  tree that was downstairs comes all the way up   and a soft carved out and then we have  probably the coolest bathroom ever   we've got a swan back clawfoot tub we've got a  rock wall all throughout here and in the summer   months when the sun sets later in the day this  entire room lights up and glows i absolutely   spend about an hour a night in here for sure  there's no doubt about it um a lovely gift from   my mother that gets loaded with a soda water and  candles and everybody knows like i hear downstairs   all the time i think mom's in the bathtub so  yeah this definitely gets a ton of our time so we're back by our entryway walking from the  kitchen um into our living room so again kids   love to scale this wall super fun they can just  reach um all of these stones came in from a quarry   and it opens up into a double-sided fireplace this  time of year of course we've got stockings for   christmas this little nook in the back we've never  really known what it was for possibly wood storage   for the fireplace but right now it houses a very  sweet little axolotl and we decided to just not   have any electronics in this room and just make it  a really nice space that if we have guests over we   can kind of entertain grab a book look out of the  window and just kind of have a quiet space to sit   and then this opens up into the hallway with  all of our children's bedrooms so first bedroom   to the right this is for our middle-aged boys  rooms so they've got double bunk beds all hand   carved built in so we've got a son that sleeps  up top he is nine we have a son that sleeps   on the bottom he is 11. and one of my favorite  things when we moved into the house was realizing   someone was wise enough to put two electrical  outlets here and two up here so the kids always   have nice little reading areas and this opens  up into one of the few closets in the home so with the stalactites in here and with the rock  wall they immediately fell in love with it i think   you know moving can be challenging and our  children were amazing they were so excited   the move was really seamless even though we were  during lockdowns and covet and remote learning   it really gave them something to look forward  to and to be fun and to have a safe place to   play where they could run around and be  loud and do whatever they wanted to do   to hear them really joyful about a space is the  whole reason why we bought it moving out of this   room back into the main hallway we have a third  bedroom off to our left this is our oldest son   he just turned 14 so we wanted to  give him a space as well that was   kind of transitional into a hangout room to have  a space that kind of teenagers can pile up into   and of course it looks out into the back patio  and pathway and then leads into the bathroom   so from the front of the house you can  fall a little pathway down that comes into   what we have as an airbnb suite i love that  it already had an exterior entrance as well   i love that it was all the way at the end of  the home so it could give guests privacy and   it's just something we really enjoy doing we love  hosting people it's fun it's fun to see people   get excited and open a door and come into this  amazing looking space this room as you can tell   opens up into probably the highest ceilings in  the home other than our master suite it's got   a queen size bed it has a faux fireplace that's  non-functioning so we have beautiful candles in it   found the perfect sofa for this space from a  neighbor we were like please we must have it   and then at our little kitchen area where you  can sit down and have coffee and meals i provide   each guest with fresh homemade sweet potato  biscuits and jam from our neighbor's homestead   and then it looks out into just the front of the  property and the ferns in the front of the home   and then moving over to the other side of the room  we have the entrance here and then a whole little   kitchenette area for you guests have their  own mini fridge with a freezer compartment   microwave kettle coffee maker and then we have  a really really pretty nice and tidy full bath in the rear of the house we have our airbnb tent   so for our glamping setup you've got an outdoor  kitchen that has just about everything you need   we've got all the cooking utensils we've got  a little outdoor sink wash station so you can   prepare your meals wash up as well we have this  outdoor shower and bathroom space the shower uses   a tankless propane hot water heater so you can  get the water up to about 95 98 degrees you can   take a pretty nice comfortable warm shower and  then a composting toilet this is the entrance to   our glamping tent it's got a covered deck it's  about five by ten feet so you've got some space   to sit enjoy yourself sip on a drink and enjoy the  hot tub which is completely private and secluded   the tent is a canvas wall tent the footprint  of the interior is 15 by 20 feet so you've got   a lot of space to just kind of spread out and  do everything you need we've got a king size   bed as well as a day bed that can double as a  sofa or if you've got kiddos staying or extra   guests you've got a place to sleep as well in  the wintertime when it gets a little chilly out   we've got a fireplace which  keeps you nice and toasty   that this thing will get the tent up to a  really comfortable temperature in no time everybody has this different vision of what the  home is the home has a heart it has a personality   it has life in it and you can see all of the love  and energy that was put into it just constantly   vibrating out of it if i could describe this home  i would describe it as lush just the environment   around it in the home itself it's rich and lush  and full of life i would describe it as eccentric   it's absolutely unique and one of a kind there  isn't another home like it there's just something   about it that makes you love everything about  it even things that can be a bit not convenient   it's just you love it it's fun and it reminds  you of like someone was playful and having   a good time we like things that come from the  heart you know there's a lot of soul in the home thanks for watching this week's video make  sure that you like share and subscribe and   i will see you soon with another unique home tour you

Channel: Tiny House Giant Journey

Views: 1,492,307

Keywords: tiny house giant journey, tiny house, Tiny houses, Tiny, Homes, tiny homes, tiny house tour

Id: mEe4fkEDis0

Length: 21min 24sec (1284 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 14 2022