If you go
› What: This Old House Cottage Grand Opening Celebration.› When: Noon-6 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.› Where: Cloudland Station, 9832 Georgia 193› Admission: $12 for adults, $7 for children ages 3-11 with $2 from each ticket donated to The Siskin Children’s Institute; available at the gate or at www.cloudlandstation.com.› Info: Tours of Cloudland Station also will be offered all day with a chance to see the historic Cherokee cottage built for a chief, the modern recreation center tucked inside a turn-of-the-century barn and amenities like a mill house that will one day churn ice cream instead of grind wheat. A big-screen TV will be hooked up so football addicts can watch Tennessee at Alabama or Auburn at Arkansas.
Perched on the crest of a steep hill, the This Old House Cottage is much smaller than the other Cloudland Station houses yet hard to miss because it is the deep, rich hue of blueberries and topped by a silvery metal roof that sparkles in the sun.
It looks as whimsical as Cloudland's name sounds and would be a perfect home - full of secret nooks, quirky character and lit by electric candles - for a family of hipster hobbits.
Each year, the minds behind the TV classic "This Old House" select a location for what they call an "idea house," a showcase for current trends, clever innovations and striking combos of color and design.
The 2015 choice was Cloudland Station, a gated development snuggled against Lookout Mountain a few miles south of St. Elmo. This Old House Editor Scott Omelianuk says the 1,900-square-foot cottage is packed with "actionable, do-it-yourself inspiration throughout the entire home."
The public gets its first glimpse of the cottage at this weekend's grand opening celebration with hayrides, crafts vendors, food trucks, pumpkin decorating, games and live music. The event doubles as a fundraiser for the Siskin Children's Institute.
But the cottage was already drawing curious visitors last week, when a couple persuaded Cloudland developer and architectural designer John Tatum to give them a sneak peek.
"We were driving from our home just outside of Augusta to Louisville, Ky., and my wife, Connie, insisted we make a side trip to see the cottage - and I'm glad she did," says Rick Normandeau. "We have six grandkids, and they would love this place."
Tatum smiled broadly at Normandeau's comments, because the cottage showcases both the booming trend toward smaller houses packed with character and the growing number of grandparents who buy homes designed to enchant grandkids.
The cottage's gabled roof hides a children's bedroom in the loft with the privacy and sweeping views of a pirate's nest. The loft's steep ladder has steps just wide enough for a child's foot. "The ladder is up to Walker County Code," Tatum reassures an adult visitor with bigger feet.
The eaves are trimmed in buttery yellow and strings of pink, green and purple paper balls with a spiky white starburst lantern to illuminate the bedroom. Across from the bedroom is a small sitting room with poofy child-sized pillows, picture books and a small window easy enough for a child to open.
"I love the built-in bookshelves and - look at the ceiling above the porch - in Charleston ceilings are painted that pale powder blue to scare away ghosts," Connie Normandeau exclaims.
A large fireplace welcomes families to gather indoors, while the porch wraps around three sides of the little Craftsman cottage, providing a view of a landscape dotted with amenities that look as if they were plucked from a child's picture book.
"The goal for us was to create places and activities that would draw a child away from his handheld devices and give a family fun things to see and do," Tatum says.
This Old House Marketing Vice President Claudia Jepsen worked closely with Tatum on the cottage's layout and grace notes.
"The developer pays the cost of building the idea house each year because the developer gets to keep the house when it is completed," Jepsen explains. "But our designers and partners often donate materials, furniture and decorative elements. This year, about $100,000 in furniture and materials was donated to the Cloudland cottage."
Those donations can include unique light fixtures, elegant plumbing fixtures, cutting-edge heating and cooling systems and furniture like a silky, aqua ottoman that was a hit with the Normandeaus.
Jepsen says Cloudland's fanciful amenities were a major reason her team chose the development as the location for this year's idea house. In Cloudland, a clapboard, faux-19th century schoolhouse serves as a banquet hall with a chef. A mill house built from grayish moss-hued bricks sits on a river. Instead of grinding wheat, one day the mill will churn ice cream.
A treasure chest inside the mill contains brightly decorated glass jars stuffed with clues scribbled on slips of paper for a treasure hunt. A family that successfully completes the hunt gets a prize. Across a little bridge sits a vintage sweet shop with an antique, child-sized Coke machine. A posh rec center is concealed inside a gigantic weatherbeaten barn.
Cloudland Chief Operating Officer and attorney Chuck Lyle met Tatum years ago when he hired the developer as a law clerk. Lyle swears that all these fanciful delights in Cloudland come straight from Tatum's imagination, then "we sketch them on a paper napkin while we eat lunch and give them to a designer to create."
"But we've discovered some genuinely historic sites on here," he says. "There was an ordinary-looking building in bad shape over the river there, in the forest. And inside it we found a log cabin the Cherokee built for one of their chiefs. We tore down the ugly outer building and restored the cabin."
Lyle is clearly delighted and proud of the cabin although he saddens when he points to small square holes cut into two of the walls.
"The previous owner cut those to fit light switches into the walls," Lyle sighs. "We just left them alone. There's no electricity but the fireplace now works. It isn't likely a 19th-century chief would have had glass windows. But we needed to protect the interior."
He tracked down window glass that would be accurate for the period. Instead of smooth panes, the glass is ripply and swirly, which fragments the sunlight, making the outdoor world appear slightly surreal.
"I feel like the cabin senses it is a safe place now," Lyle says, smiling. "We also found the ruins of an old farmhouse with a chimney and fireplace intact. We'll restore it and use that as an outdoor firepit.
"This job lets me spend a lot of time exploring the forest, and I love that. I bet we'll discover more treasures out there."
Contact Lynda Edwards at ledwards@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6391.