life list #41: stay at luminhaus

Fill in the blank: People in glass houses shouldn't ____________.

After seven hours on the road, and a stop at Blue Mountain Brewery, we finally made it to the secret destination: Luminhaus. As we pulled in, the sun was setting and the house was starting to glow. We got out of the car and Larry exclaimed "This is awesome!"


And Luminhaus is awesome. It's a two-bedroom modern pre-fab home designed by architect Rocio Romero and built by Jennifer Watson and Barry Bless in the Blue Ridge Mountains outside of Amherst, Virginia. I'd been wanting to visit this place ever since we stayed at Lost River Modern in West Virginia last year. Modern homes are unfortunately few and far between in this part of the country. In fact, Larry commented several times during the weekend that he felt like we were in Northern California. Indeed.

The simple glass and metal rectangular structure is impeccably decorated with modern art and furniture. The views of the woods from the massive windows are stunning.

Surrounded by nature:


Dogs are not allowed at Luminhaus, so we had to leave the pups behind for this trip. But after admiring the large expanses of glass, I realized the number one problem we'd have living in a glass house: SNART. Yeah, this view wouldn't be so impressive with dog snot covering the windows:


As soon as we got inside and unpacked the groceries, Larry located the beer glasses. We poured a couple drinks and started exploring the place. Between my love of modern architecture and art, and Larry's love of books, music, and nature, this place was perfect for us! (Clearly the owners have similar interests!)

Beer glasses? Check!

Here's a tour. The living room:





Kitchen:


I would LOVE to be organized and minimalist enough to have a kitchen like this. Maybe it's only possible in a vacation house?

Bedroom #1. So colorful - I love all the art and patterns in here!




Bedroom #2. We chose to sleep in this room because it was slightly larger and the bed faced the window:

As soon as we arrived I hung up this birthday/art market garland to make the bedroom feel more festive:



And I left a little surprise on Larry's pillow. (It was a Nook.)
Even the bathroom was amazing. It was full of really cool art and it had a corrugated plexiglass ceiling - which wasn't exactly soundproof. (Tip: don't go to Luminhaus with anyone you aren't comfortable sharing bodily noises with!)

The house is situated on SIX heavily wooded acres. Basically, it's just you and the trees as far as you can see. We also saw several deer. Oh, and bugs. There are lots and lots of bugs. Luckily, we are never without our daily dose of DEET.

Here's a view of the back of the house. There's a platform deck for eating/relaxing/admiring the house from outside.

I really loved how the house glowed at night. There was even a little shed that lit up like a lantern in the evening. Larry and I already have plans to replace the dilapidated old shed in our backyard with something similar.




Once the sun went down, we discovered another challenge of living in a glass house: Moths are crazy for the illuminated windows. Seriously, the windows were covered with thousands of moths each night.

And not just any old moth. Meet MOTHRA:

EEeeeeeks! Mothra came back every night, flapping its wings against the windows. Let me in!

Self portrait with Mothra.

We slept well that night. Actually, we slept well every night. My body felt like jelly the entire weekend. It's hard not to be relaxed at Luminhaus.

I could get used to living in a place like this.