Live 24-Seven - Wye Valley Homes
“I can’t wait to have some parties now it is finished and decorated for Christmas. A lot of my friends are
London-based and it is somewhere I can invite them all together, where they can bring their children and use it like it is meant to be used.
”
Catherine Elsmore has just finished renovating a picturesque log cabin in wooded countryside near the Buckstone at Staunton in the Forest of Dean and she is eager to celebrate there before she makes it available for holiday lets.
“I can’t wait to have some parties now it is finished and decorated for Christmas. A lot of my friends are London-based and it is somewhere I can invite them all together, where they can bring their children and use it like it is meant to be used.”
Cath has turned the former adventure centre cabin into an idyllic family holiday home, which will accommodate up to 14 people – or more if anyone wants to camp in the half acre of grounds which surround the property. It was her fond memories of childhood days there which prompted her to put in an offer when the cabin came on the market. She was determined not to miss the opportunity to buy it and keep it as a place “for family fun and friends.”
“When I was little I used to come here with Mum, Dad and my brother. My friends and I used to play in all the bunks – the idea was you had to get from one side of the cabin to the other without touching the floor! We would also come and run around the woods and have a camp fire.
“The cabin came on the market 18 months ago and because of my memories and the nostalgia I held for it I thought it would be a shame to miss the opportunity. Places like this are so few and far between and they don’t come up that often so I grabbed at the chance with both hands.”
So many people were interested in the log cabin being sold off by Gloucestershire County Council that it was put in a silent auction – so Cath, who is director of Salt and Pepper in Monmouth, counts herself lucky to have got it.
She always had a clear vision for the cabin and has devoted hours of hard work and planning to transform it, renovating it and rearranging the accommodation into a large open plan kitchen, dining and living area, with two double bedrooms on the ground floor, two bunk rooms with four beds in each and an endearing escape-from-it-all double room in the roof eaves, accessed up outside steps and with a stable door giving views over the adjacent woodland.
“It is designed for multi-generational family use and people can bring dogs too, because they are part of the family,”she said. “If a group is bigger than 14 they can even bring tents and camp.”
The builders worked from Cath’s own drawings and sketches, contributing some of their own ideas too. “That was wonderful. The builder was very clever. He had the perfect team for this sort of project.”
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