Gracious countryside retreat NE of Pittsburgh at Artist’s Cabin

You feel the welcome of the land and the house the moment you arrive. The wide handmade front door greets all travelers and you take in the view of the 72 acre landscape of field and forest.

This storybook cabin was built over decades by our family, beginning in the early 1970s. It started as a one room cabin on stilts with a pot belly stove. Successive decades saw additions: a new room, a new feature, a new wing.

Step inside the foyer and feel the warmth of the space. To the right, the dining room opens to the well stocked, new kitchen with all stainless appliances including an induction stove. A door leads to the new, inviting covered deck ready for morning coffee or glorious summer dinners outside.

To the left of the main entry, the living room vaults open, anchored on one end by a generous seating area with a loft above and on the other end sits a games table and comfy reading chairs.

Just beyond the living room is the freshly renovated first floor bathroom with a double vanity. Another couple of steps and you're in the large main bedroom conveniently located on the first floor with a large laundry room adjacent to the bedroom.

A distinctive, hand crafted staircase climbs to the second floor loft library outfitted with a color laser printer. Just beyond is a queen bedroom with 8 foot tall vintage French doors.

A single step down from the hallway and you’re into the loft reading nook that overlooks the dining room. A small, third bedroom in that loft offers two twin beds making for cozy quarters. A fully renovated second floor bathroom features a tiled floor, shower with glass doors, and loads of natural light.

The home was originally designed and built by the late Pittsburgh-based engineer and prolific, internationally recognized painter, Kamal Youssef.

This is authentically a 'cabin'. To us that means hand crafted, rural, cozy, and quirky. It is best for those who want an off the beaten track experience and who embrace the artistic.

With our massive renovation of 2024, we upgraded many creature comforts; think new bathrooms and new kitchen, as well as completely new electrics, new roof, new water system, and tons of new insulation. This is a very well maintained, high craft house constructed in phases over the past 50 years. This retreat holds a mix of vintage, rescued, made by hand, and often locally or sustainably crafted goods, furniture, decor, walls, floors, you name it.

You will find furniture pieces handmade by the second generation owner and sculptor, such as the dining room table. The long, wide planked pine table grounds the space, glowing with the patina of many evenings of good food and equally good conversation.

This home was ‘curated’ when curated wasn’t cool. It was lovingly restored in 2024 with comfort, serenity, and enhanced modern amenities in mind. We hope to continue the tradition set by the original owners, Maria & Kamal, of welcoming guests to share this unique and beloved space.

All of the hardwood floors and most of the wood paneling you see is from trees mindfully harvested on this very property and milled in the same valley, less than mile from the cabin.

Explore the fields and forests of the 72 acre property. Just downhill from the house, runs Cowanshannock Creek which sports a healthy population of minnows. Cross the creek on our footbridge and set off to walk the paths through the fields past blackberry bushes and milkweed stands for Monarch butterflies. The paths will take you to the breast of the large pond and then around to the woods on the far side. In the forest you will crunch over hickory nuts and acorns in the fall or trod on the spongier, dense forest floor in the summertime. In spring you can catch a glimpse (or sniff) of skunk cabbage, a plant native to the Eastern Woodland forest.

If you're a birder, get ready to add to your list. If your not a birder- this is your chance. Download Cornell University's Merlin app and learn about the wonder of identifying birds by their song.

This family cabin exudes a perfect balance of seclusion and convenience. We’re rural but with an easy gravel drive and parking area immediately off a country road, you’re quickly parked and heading in the door.

Where We Are:
We’re an hour from Pittsburgh’s Highland Park Bridge but light years from the city bustle as you will notice when you hear our neighbors rolling by in their horse drawn buggies.

We’re about 4 hours from DC and 6 hours from NYC, with stunning Appalachian scenery on both drives.

Take a day trip to Pittsburgh to explore the treasures of the Heinz History Center and the Carnegie Museums. Enjoy the rich offerings of the August Wilson Center or the murals of Maxo Vanka at St. Nicholas Croatian Church.

We’re on the Baker Trail, as the yellow trail marks on our trees will testify and we’re just a 5 minute drive to the rally point and finish line of the 50-mile, Baker Trail Ultra Marathon set for August 2025.

It’s 30 minutes to the picturesque town of Indiana, PA where you might be visiting IUP or attending the Westsylvania Jazz & Blues Festival over the Memorial Day Weekend.

A hop, skip, and jump gets you to Smicksburg where you can find the charming Little Mahoning Creek Pottery which is a must see especially during the Indiana County Potters Tour each October when the autumn leaves are riot.

Or make a short drive through rolling hills to enjoy the artisan wares offered in the village of Smicksburg and surrounding farm shops.

The cabin is set in the shadow of the The Great Shamokin Path, an ancient cultural and trade route that connected tribes and nations of the eastern part of the continent with those more inland, all the way from what is now eastern Pennsylvania to the Allegheny River at near by Kittanning. While we don’t claim to be experts on the peoples that once lived in this specific area, we do acknowledge that we now reside on their ancestral homelands and we try to be the best caretakers we can be.

Good to Know Before Renting:
This is a community of working farms, resource extraction, and artisan enterprises. Potters, saw mills, dairy farms, handmade quilt shops, and even maple syrup sugar shacks and local honey if you time it right. Cows don’t take weekends off so neither does the cool, silver tanked milk truck making daily rounds collecting creamy supplies from local farms.

This is a very rural area. The cabin is not within reliable cell service range. En route to the cabin you will encounter dropped cell service, especially as you get within the last few miles. We strongly recommend you have the driving directions and home entry directions stored off line or on hard copy,

Do we have internet/wifi at the cabin? Yes we do. As of April 2025 we have upgraded to a lightening fast fiber optic internet service and so far it has proved to be very reliable.

We do not have televisions or cable access at the property. Bring your tablets or laptops if you like.

We do not recommend this as a stay for people who suffer uncomfortably from allergies to animal dander, pollen, or other common airborne allergens. The rural environment and nature of our neighborhood and house does not allow us to control for these factors.

This is a very rural area so plan to bring your groceries and medicines with you. The closest large grocery store is a 35 minutes drive. There is a very nice small, family run grocery store 15 minutes away with more limited hours.

The cabin does not have AC. We offer high grade, portable plug in cooling fans for each bedroom as well as variety of standard fans. In the heat of summer the home could be uncomfortable for those who need or prefer a reliably cool environment.

Many of our neighbors use horse and buggy or walk by foot on the winding country roads. Dogs, chickens, cats, and farmers young and old walk across the roads from house to barnyard at all hours. So please, stay alert and drive slowly. Thank you!