Get ready for a photo-heavy post everyone! You have been warned. Last weekend Daniel, my Parents, and myself visited a planned community near Chattanooga for the Grand Opening of their show home. We drove about 30 min. to Chickamauga, Georgia on the back of Lookout Mountain to the neighborhood of Cloudland Station. This Old House partnered with this Southern Living inspired neighborhood to design a 1,700 square foot classic American style home.

But before we get to the cute house, check out some pictures I took of this awesome planned community (before my Mom’s camera died).

When you enter this community off a country road, you drive past a pond and arrive at this large event barn. There were a few other buildings here as well that I assume the community members can use for events and activities. This would be a lovely space for a wedding!

Next we hopped on a hayride for a drive farther into the community where we saw a few new homes being constructed. Even though the plans for Cloudland Station and many of the amenities (pool, pond, fire pit area, and community buildings) have been around for many years, and the area has over 300 home sites, they are in the very early stages of development. I believe only about 7 families actually live here in finished homes at this time.

We drove past this little swimming hole area.

Below the 2 new constructions was this infinity pool. It had some really nice sitting areas, lounge chairs, a pool bath building, and a fabulous mountain view!

Here is the view standing at the base of the new constructions with the pool below.

We walked back towards the entrance from the pool area and stopped at this neat little country store with a water mill. It looked like maybe the water mill building was being used for community events and such. Even though these buildings look old and weathered, they are actually relatively new constructions. The planners did a great job of creating so much character for the families that will be living here.

 

Just past the water mill and country store was this great fire pit area.

Finally, we walked by this nearly completed home and just HAD to check out the inside. I actually liked this home better than the main attraction, the one built by This Old House that we came to tour.

I love the exterior color of this home and the interior shiplap walls and ceilings painting in whites and grays was just lovely.

And now for the main attraction:

All photos below are from the This Old House website. This is when Mom’s camera died 🙁 It would have been hard to take pictures of these spaces myself, though, because it was fairly crowded. For even more photos of this house, click here.

 

The exterior of this home boasted a huge wrap-around porch for plenty of outdoor entertaining

Upon entering through that bright green door, we walked into a cozy living area. It was nicely decorated and of course, I love the walls, but would be snug for a family with children as this is the only real living area in the home.

The living area is open to this cute kitchen with room for a narrow dining table in between (not pictured).

At the back of the house is this mud room area with the laundry room at the back.

Back at the front of the house near that bright, green door again, is the entrance to 1 of 2 master bedrooms. I actually think this space could have been better used for extra living or dining space, as I preferred the master bedroom on the upper level, but this would make a lovely space for guests.

Upstairs we walked into this little foyer area that had a desk and some storage. For being a relatively small house, there was actually a ton of storage tucked in everywhere! Props to the builder.

Off the upstairs foyer is the kids bath, a kids room with bunks (not pictured) and the 2nd master bedroom.

I absolutely loved this Master bedroom! It was so bright and cheerful and the tall ceilings were fantastic.

Attached was this fresh and bright Master Bath.

Back in the foyer area, we climbed these steep stairs to a kids loft area and another kids room.

What a fun place for kids to play!

The kids room on the top level was really cute, but certainly not practical as any other space as the ceiling was incredibly low.

So, my final thoughts on Cloudland Station and the show house: I love the idea of planned community living. It’s a great way to enjoy country living outside city limits while still being able to enjoy things like the pool, swimming hole, pond for recreation, fire pit area, country store, community events, etc. But, you obviously pay for these amenities and are limited in the style of home you build. From what I read and saw, the available home sites were fairly small, so you would still have neighbors close by, which I feel is the whole reason for living way out in the country. I don’t want to hear or see neighbors, I want to enjoy the woods!

Needless to say, Daniel and I have no intentions of building a home at Cloudland Station, but I did enjoy seeing what it was all about and getting lots of ideas for charming home interiors.

Hope you enjoyed it too!

-Jamie