This was a quick getaway weekend for our family. There are definitely some pros and cons about our experience. None of the cons were major, just a few suggestions to improve the experience.
The pros: The kitchen is beautiful, plenty of room for cooking and dining. The hardwood floors are beautiful. The master bedroom is huge. The house was clean and the laundry/mudroom was helpful for leaving wet boots and clothing in to dry. Beds were comfortable and heated blankets were welcome. The scenery was great and we took plenty of walks down past the campground and up the forest service roads. It was nice and quiet since it was winter. Overall a nice, quiet getaway. There is internet service at the house. Besides our first evening, we were comfortable for the remainder of the weekend.
The not so pro’s: Communication was frustrating. I messaged the owners with a few questions multiple times. I did not get any answers until two weeks later, the evening before our arrival. When we arrived (evening, winter, snowing and in the 30’s), the house was 40 degrees inside. The main heating source, a gas fireplace was set to 45 degrees in the living room. The bedrooms and bathrooms were significantly colder. Since there is no central heating system, it took several hours for the house to heat up to a reasonable temperature (60 degrees). It made unpacking and dinner quite chilly. I understand conserving energy, but perhaps it could be arranged for the heat to be bumped up the afternoon guests arrive, I don’t feel like that is unreasonable. There is no garbage service in Sierra City. The options given to us were 1) Pack your garbage home. 2) Make a dump run, which has exclusive hours and days. 3) Use the campground dumpster, which is not open in the winter, so not an option for us. Packing a smelly, possibly leaking garbage bag home is not ideal. Sometimes guests are not going directly home and would have to find a place to dump it on their way, leading to illegal dumping. A suggestion that the owners provide a bear box with a garbage can and arrange to have someone make a dump run once a week, or as needed. There were many instructions placed around the house, it would be helpful if they were all located in a central binder. We found two different sets of check out instructions, with different information on each. The master bedroom and bunk bed room both have glass bedroom doors leading to the living area.