Turning a Weekend Cabin into a Long-Term Home

When does a house become a home? Is it the moment you decide to move because it’s the safest place to be? Is it when you’ve finally moved all of your belongings from the old place to the new place? Is it when you install shelving? Is it when you’ve cooked 100 meals in the kitchen, or slept 100 nights in the bedroom, or started 100 fires in the wood stove? Is it when you’ve witnessed every season through the kitchen window? Is it when you find your children’s names scribbled on the furniture or when their school photos are hanging on the fridge? Is it when you buy houseplants?

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When we moved from an apartment in Viña del Mar to a small cabin in the country at the end of March, we weren’t sure how long we would be staying here. At the time, we had been living in Chile for 4 months, and were just starting to feel settled with our life in Viña. Our original plan had us visiting the country only on the weekends and the updates we made to the cabin were to make it more comfortable for those weekend trips. (See all about the cabin renovations here: before, kitchen, living room, and bedrooms) We never anticipated living here full-time, but when the pandemic arrived, it became our best option for safety and sanity. Eight months later, and we still aren’t sure how long we will be living here. But as the weeks and months have passed, I have done my best to transition this place from a weekend cabin to an “until whenever” home.

And we’ve come a long way! This is what the kitchen looked like when we moved in just after the renovations were completed. It was a perfectly good kitchen for a weekend cabin, but it wasn’t enough for full-time needs. It was difficult to cram my weekly pandemic grocery shop into the mini-fridge, and as fall turned to winter our little water heater (that white appliance on the wall in the corner) couldn’t keep our showers warm anymore. And honestly, how long could I deal with that big blank white wall glaring at me every time I washed the dishes?

These days, it looks more like this, although usually a lot messier: a family-friendly, long-term living, “cocina de verdad verdad” (real real kitchen) as my younger son calls it. Bigger fridge, bigger water heater, shelving, a backsplash, and of course, plants.

We’ve shared many meals and celebrated all of our birthday’s in this bright little kitchen, all tucked in around a small folding table with three folding chairs.

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Eventually we were able to replace the folding table and folding chairs with non-foldable versions. After several months of not being able to fit my legs under the table, it took me a while to break the habit of sitting sideways to eat.

We don’t have a single closet in the cabin, so shelving has been the key to our storage needs. The kids room also had a big blank wall, but after installing these cypress shelves, this room gained a lot of function and personality. Now they have a place for their books, LEGOs, rocks and sometimes bread.

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We even tucked some shelving into our little hallway to make room for homeschooling materials. These shelves were handmade by my father-in-law, making them an extra special addition to the cabin.

These changes have happened slowly over the last 8 months. When you don’t know how long you’re staying, you don’t know how much of yourself to invest in the living space. Just last week I added a lamp shade and a world map to the living nook and it definitely feels more homey.

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While I have succeeded at making the cabin a more comfortable place for our family, I can’t say that it feels like home. I think home is a place where you see your future, but circumstance brought us here, and when circumstances change, we will return to a different version of our lives. And that’s ok. It’s still a good place to be.