We Saw It and Knew
July, 2019 — We drove up the long drive at the base of Stoney Clove Notch and stopped in front of a house that looked like it had been forgotten by time. The paint was peeling. The roofline sagged. There were cats everywhere. A woman lived in the middle house — the one that would later become The Lodge. She was a hoarder, and the inside of the house felt more like a maze than a home. Still, we stood there and saw what it could become.
We were broke.
Our son Deckard had just turned one the March before. Brian was running the Deer Mountain Inn. I was splitting my time between a baby on my hip and the coffee shop I had built from scratch — Bear and Fox Provisions. We had just opened our first Airbnb above a shop on Main Street the year before.
We had no time. No money. But somehow… we had a very clear picture of what Stoney Clove could be.
It was overwhelming — completely. There were trees growing too close to the buildings. A creek you could barely access. Outdated everything. But under all the chaos was magic. The bones of something rare.
So we decided to go for it.
We didn't know then how much work it would take. Or how long. But we knew it was the right kind of crazy. The kind of overwhelming that means you're building something that might just change your life.
And in many ways, it did.
July 2019
July 2019
July 2019