For a year, my husband and I looked for a weekend home in the Lake Isabella, California, area (three hours from Los Angeles). What we wanted most of all was a home that looked like a vacation cabin, not a family home.

We finally found it in an 1,800-square-foot A-frame perched on the mountainside in Wofford Heights, five minutes from the quaint town of Kernville, five minutes from the lake and the Kern River, and 15 minutes from Alta Sierra Ski Resort.

After inspecting the house and winning a bidding war that may or may not have been manufactured by our realtor, we began the process of transforming the cabin to our tastes.

We started with the walls. The entire interior was a light mustard color. I think it was originally intended to be cheery yellow, but over the years the walls had faded and endured normal wear and tear. We decided to repaint the interior white in order to provide a neutral backdrop for all of the stuffed bass, antique skis and moose heads we'd be hanging on the walls (just kidding about the moose heads...a pair of antlers will be sufficient!).

We knew we'd be redoing the floors, too, so we made it easy on the painters: They could paint to their hearts' content without worrying about the carpet. They didn't even have to drape dropcloths.

Hmmm...I don't remember getting a discount for that.

By the way: a.) That's not the bedspread—we just needed to protect the mattresses from dust, and b.) for our guestroom, we had a handyman pull out all the built-in furniture in what had been an in-home dental office. (If anyone is in the market for some antique dental lights, let me know.)

We continued with the floors. Tan carpeting covered the entire house save the kitchen, pantry and laundry room. Even the master bath was fully carpeted. Although the carpets were relatively new, the previous owner had several indoor dogs and one very active parrot. Once the smell of baked cookies wore off (clever realtor!), we were knocked backward by the stench of pet urine and dander.

We chose to install Shaw Engineered Hardwood. It has what's called the VersaLock tongue and groove system (easier to install) and is protected by DuraShield, which allows for our two boys (ages 6 and 8) to play on it without giving us a heart attack. The hand-scraped, distressed style is called "Vicksburg" and the color is "Harvest." So far we've dropped a heavy tape measure on it...twice. No dents.

The floors came out beautifully. Here I am standing in the loft, holding the photocopied house description from when we first visited the house.

Check out the handrail on the right...installing floors is a dusty process!

We found this floor-model breakfast nook deeply discounted in a Bakersfield furniture store and bought it without fully remembering the dimensions of the wall it would be against. We ended up having our handyman lengthen the wall by two feet so the nook wouldn't jut out into the entryway.
Bottom line? With the cost of the wall extension, that nook was no bargain.

This is my favorite "before and after" shot. It's taken from the vantage point of the loft.

And, of course, you can't have a country cabin without a tire swing! This is my husband, father-in-law and the two boys breaking it in.