Our lake getaway: Bella Donna tiny house cabin stay

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February 23, 2016: Our second night at Deep Creek Lake was also spent at Blue Moon Rising (the area’s tiny house resort). This time, we stayed in the Belle Donna, a tiny cabin that is slightly bigger than the one we stayed in the previous night, Luna Bleu.

The cabins are located across the lane from each other. So our check-out/check-in process involved carrying our things from door to door.

To learn more about these cabins here’s a video from the builder, Hobbitat (based in Garrett County, MD). And below is my tour of the Bella Donna tiny house.

The Bella Donna is a pretty little cabin that boasts a front door and a back porch.
  

Inside, the cabin features an open,spacious layout with a kitchen counter one one side and a large, square-shaped island in the middle of the room.

There are two chairs in the main living space. One next to the back porch door (kitty corner with the kitchen island).

The other matching chair on the other side of the room (same side as the front door).

On the other side of the island you’ll find the sleeping and bathroom spaces. There is a queen size bed nook on the main floor and two twin size beds in the sleeping loft.

A fixed ladder is positioned to the right of the cabin (facing the back porch door) and leads up to the sleeping porch. More below on tips for climbing this ladder (a bit tricky since it’s located right next to a wall).

There’s a ceiling fan mounted on the wood plank ceiling.

This is the queen size nook…a cozy spot with overhead shelving for books, magazines and other small items. There are two windows in this space, so it gets plenty of light during the daytime.

You also have two wall-mounted reading lamps above the bed and a convenient power outlet. We used it for charging devices we wanted to keep close at hand (phone, iPad, Apple Watch…)

The kitchen space has two shelves on either side of the kitchen counter nook. There’s the highly coveted French press with coffee mugs and magnetic knife block.

The other shelf holds drinking glasses, the 2-way phone/radio (used to contact BMR staff), and I found a spot for my pills and vitamins and, of course, the Phone Haus box.

To the right of the kitchen sink, there’s the dish rack (which doubles as our snack storage spot).

The island has a very large work surface area that provided plenty of dining (and crafting) space.

This place has everything including a large size kitchen sink.

Now that we’re settled into our cabin for the first of two nights, we laid out the snacks and the wine. Let the cabin chillaxin’ begin in earnest! But we’re not done with the tour…keep reading. 🙂
  

Kitchen cabinets with plenty of storage (and just enough counter space to accommodate our 24″ flat screen tv and laptop. We watched HGTV via our SlingTV account using WiFi. Worked out great.

Utensils (provided by the property). Everything needed is here (including wine cork screw…thank you much).

Pots and appliances located in bottom left cabinet.

The top drawer of the island held plenty of dish clothes, pot holders and a cutting board.

In the island cabinet, trash and recycling bins. Just like my pullout trash/recycling cabinet in the condo. This made me feel right at home. 😉

The island also contained a half size fridge with plenty of room for beverages, snacks and leftovers. No freezer though.

So, time to check out the twin bed sleeping loft. As mentioned earlier, the ladder is fixed and is positioned right next to a wall. This made it tricky for us to climb…nowhere to place our right hand…no fencing or post to grasp while climbing.

There is a pipe fence on the left that can be used while navigating your way up.

I hung on to the ladder rungs with my right hand to hoist my way up.

My efforts were rewarded. The loft is real rooming and was a comfortable space for me to relax, lounge and work on some  small craft projects.

There is a convenient storage box between the twin beds at the window. I used this to stow away craft supplies while working on projects on the loft.

Plenty of leg and head room up here.

And it offered a beautiful view of the cabin. The ceiling is especially lovely.

Front door from inside the cabin. I like the choice of door and window treatments.

As with the other cabin we stayed in, Luna Bleu, there is a shoe and boot tray placed right by the door. A very thoughtful and necessary touch, given the amount of dirt and gravel outside of the cabin from the melting snow.

Moving on to the bathroom, the most distinctive feature is the sliding wooden door. The bathroom is located across from the main level sleeping nook under the loft.

 

When you step in, you first see the bathroom sink and vanity diagonally from the door.

 

A window is located to the left of the bathroom vanity.

To the right, you have the mounted pipe rods serving as towel hangers.

The commode is in the corner behind the towel rods.

In the spirit of conservation, the builders used metal siding from another construction site for the shower interior.

  

The light mounted above the shower greatly added to the space. Made what was already a spacious room appear even larger.

And we have the back porch to enjoy as well. Below are the steps leading up to the porch from the hiking trail.

Two rocking chairs on the porch to enjoy a close up view of the trail.

And a solar porch light is conveniently mounted next to the back door (much needed and appreciated back here as it does become quite dark at night).

We absolutely enjoyed our two-night stay in the Belle Donna. I approached our visit as an experiment (to see how we would do sharing such a small space as a retreat for a couple of days). We did fine…better than fine actually. My favorite feature was the loft because I could retreat to that area for some private time while focusing on craft projects but can still enjoy the overall space with Bruce. We can still see and hear the TV from both levels, enjoy the same music, etc. It’s a nice way to have your own spot but still feel connected to one another.

We’ve also learned to become more efficient with our space (and our things) in a hurry while sharing a tiny home. For example, the Belle Donna has plenty of copper pipe nipples for window rods, but not as many hooks for hanging coats, bags and such. My quick fix for that was to pick up some giant S hooks from the neighborhood Lowes.

  

The space under the queen bed platform is an excellent storage spot.

As was the “dead” space under the loft ladder. This was my luggage parking spot on checkout day.

Not all of the windows had curtains (like this one next to the back porch). Now I’m from Brooklyn, so privacy is a big deal for me (and I didn’t like the idea of someone potentially walking up and looking in on us enjoying the main room space.

Binder clips and a couple of dish towels I brought along for the trip fixed this issue. I got the dish towels from AC Moore in Rockville, MD.

And lastly, paper clutter control was a must in such a small space (even for a couple of days). That’s why a pack of expandable file folders ended up in my cart at the local Walmart Sunday morning. Some washi tape to decorate and reinforce and, voila! We have a book, magazine and loose paper storage box that stands up on its own (and can be placed on the many ledges in the cabin that can double as storage shelves).

Nice to know that our stay in these cabins continue to inspire creative, crafty solutions to our living (and vacation) spaces. I so enjoyed our time spent at the Belle Donna. I look forward to returning to Blue Moon Rising at Deep Creek Lake for another visit! V-