#TahoeBearDen Available to Book Now!
Jason and I have been coming up to Lake Tahoe every year for the last 10 years, often several times a year. Lake Tahoe is gorgeous in both the winter and summer, and is conveniently only 3.5 hours from San Francisco making it a nice weekend getaway.
We even did a ski lease with a big group for a couple of years which was amazing to have a home base where we could leave our belongings over the winter months and have a familiar setting that felt like ours for the weekend. While I’m not a “winter sports” kind of girl, Jason grew up snowboarding and absolutely loves spending the day up on the mountain. I on the other hand love to spend my days cooking, cozying up on the couch in front of the fire, drinking wine and sitting in the hot tub. Can you relate?
Every single time we’ve been up here over the years, we would end up having the dreamy conversation of one day owning our very own Lake Tahoe mountain home – a place we could make our own, spend long weekends with friends and family, be outdoors away from city life, and just relax. This always seemed like a distant reality, a very much “one day” type of discussion.
Making the decision to invest in a mountain vacation home
COVID has certainly changed our perspectives on many things, like I’m sure it has for you. Traveling was such a large part of Jason & I’s relationship and something we really planned our lives around. We had big dreams when we first got pregnant of spending a month in Italy with our baby while we were on maternity and paternity leave (more about that here), not to mention all the long weekend trips we thought we’d be doing to introduce Caden to our closest friends. It’s crazy to think that we haven’t been to an airport since our babymoon in early March and Caden hasn’t been on a single plane ride.
Late this summer we decided that the time was right to make this vacation home dream a reality. We aren’t traveling (and won’t be for the foreseeable future), we both are working from home through at least July 2021, Jason is on paternity leave over the holidays and through early next year… it was time for us to make our move.
Buying a home is always stressful, and this experience was nothing short of that. But after many chaotic and uncertain moments, last minute trips to Tahoe and hours spent in the decision making process, we are officially Tahoe Donner homeowners!
Introducing the #TahoeBearDen
Our home needs some TLC. It has good bones, but needs “a little lipstick” you could say. We’ve spent literally hundreds of hours planning updates and design for #TahoeBearDen to make it a modern mountain getaway to be highly desired on AirBnB (and any other rental website). Our plan is to rent it out most of the time for others to enjoy, and when it's not rented we plan to be up here enjoying the fruits of our labor.
#TahoeBearDen is perfect for large families: 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 2 living spaces, fully equipped kitchen, large area for dining, hot tub, big open backyard, and big driveway for multiple cars. We’re also going to be adding a nursery and eventually a 3rd bathroom. We’ll be furnishing it with 2 desks, perfect for WFH during the weekdays. And did I mention its a super easy quick road trip from the Bay Area (check out my 9 tips for a road trip with a baby).
It’s in the amazing community of Tahoe Donner which has its own mountain and cross-country skiing in the winter and multiple pools and private beach access in the summer. It’s a quick drive from the Bay Area, a 10 minute drive to downtown Truckee and an easy 25 minute drive to Northstar and Squaw/Alpine mountains.
A little note about the name: while yes there are many bears in Tahoe, this specific “bear” is named after our Bernese Mountain Dog, Bear. Bear LOVES the snow and is very excited about his new mountain getaway.
Tahoe modern mountain vacation home design inspiration
Now that we’re officially the owners, the fun begins! We want our place to be a Modern Mountain Retreat and are working on updates and improvements to make it that cozy and trendy design you’ll love to spend days in. I love this part!
I always start my design process with tons of inspiration photos. I’ll be posting soon about my complete design process for this home, but in the meantime here’s a taste of what I’ve been dreaming up:
Book a stay at Tahoe Bear Den on AirBnB
Come see the place for yourself! Summer, Fall, Winter, Spring, you'll love it any time of year.
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