Tent Living - A Unique Wine Country Retreat

Our neighbors, Gerry and Glen in the wine country have plans to build a home on their 160 acres of land. In the meantime though, they live in tents! This is their vacation retreat, where they have created a beautiful compound consisting of three tents and an outdoor kitchen.

We met Gerry and Glen at another neighbor's annual luncheon, and I was intrigued by their story. The guys drive the 8 hours nearly every weekend from their home in Los Angeles to this upper Sonoma County magical retreat! Metropolitan Home even featured this couple in their July 2009 issue.

This is their living room tent decorated with an old 70's stove and matching sofa upholstered in outdoor fabric. The stove is in front of a large window so they can sit and be warmed while watching nature outside.

The outdoor kitchen under the California Oaks. The refrigerator and stove are powered by propane, electricity is solar generated. A leaf blower works well for clean up! What began as a temporary housing, now is their passion. They even planted 1200 olive trees on the property! They plan to keep the compound for guests when their permanent home is constructed in 2011.

This is their view overlooking their pond stocked with Koi.

All four photos above from July 2009 issue of Metropolitan Home.

These tent cabins are made by Sweetwater Bungalows in Truckee, California. They have been around for over ten years. Their cabins are used as guest houses, art studios, resorts; Yosemite National Park even uses them for camping guests.

Here are a few more photos from Sweetwater Bungalows:

How much fun would it be to decorate one of these tent cabins?! I have plans to someday have three of these on our wine country property for guests. I can just see them lined up with a gravel path connecting them all. Each one would have a different theme. The "Out of Africa" theme, the "Fisherman" theme and the "Shabby Chic" theme!

The images above from El Capitan Canyon Resort, near Santa Barbara featuring Sweetwater Bungalow tent cabins. Read about it here.

Read more about Gerry and Glen's tent compound in Metropolitan Home here.

Sweetwater Bungalows has a beautiful website here.