# About Name: NextHome Our Town Description: You can add a great description here to make the blog readers visit your landing page. URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com # Navigation Menu - Home: https://nhot.superblog.click/ - Articles: https://nhot.superblog.click/sample-page - About Cristi: https://nhot.superblog.click/search - NextHome Our Town: https://nexthomeourtown.com/ # Blog Posts ## Connect with Cristi Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/connect-with-cristi ![Cristi McGowan](https://prod.superblogcdn.com/site_cuid_cmubfe4o801fw01z6yzyzlqdf/images/ccristix-1790021984239-compressed.jpg) --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## About Atrium Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/about Atrium is an inn at the head of the valley, built against the cliff in 1908 and run by the same family since. Eleven rooms, one kitchen, a stove in the lounge, and the lake walk from the door. ## The rooms Eleven, no two alike. Every one but two faces the valley; the two that do not face the peak, and they are the ones people ask for. Room 4 has no television, and the others are following. ## The kitchen Jonas cooks what the valley grows: bread from the village oven, butter from the farm below, trout from the river on Tuesdays, and whatever the orchard has done that year. Breakfast until eleven, because of the lake. ## This journal Where we write about the walks, the rooms, the kitchen and the seasons as they actually arrive. One post a week, on Mondays, when the rooms are quiet. ## Getting here The bus from the station stops in the village square four times a day. Tell us which one you are on and we will meet it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] Linen, and the argument for white Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Rooms Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/rooms URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/linen-and-the-argument-for-white ![A bed with rumpled white linen by a window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1588840103995-02893d4eb8fd?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw1fHxob3RlbCUyMHJvb20lMjBtb3JuaW5nJTIwbGlnaHQlMjBsaW5lbnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjQ2NzI3fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) White linen shows everything, which is the point. A sheet that hides a mark is a sheet that is not clean, and a guest who cannot tell is a guest who has to trust us. White means they do not have to. ## The rules - White, and only white. Cotton, heavy, from the same mill since our grandmother's time. - Boiled, not washed. The machine in the cellar runs at ninety degrees and the sheets come out the colour they went in. - Line dried when the weather allows, which in the valley is more often than you would think, because of the wind. Dried on the line, they smell of the meadow, and people say so. ## The year we tried grey In 2021 we put grey linen in two rooms, because a magazine had said it was the thing. It looked like a hotel, which the inn is not. The guests said so, kindly, in the book. The grey went to the staff rooms, where it is still in use and still looks like a hotel. ## The cost White cotton at that weight is not cheap, and a sheet lasts about four years before it goes to the rag basket. We replace a fifth of the linen every spring, which is a line in the accounts and a day in the town. ## What we will do differently Nothing. Sixty-four years is long enough to be sure. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The lake walk from the door, and the hour of the day it is best Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Walks Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/walks URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-lake-walk-from-the-door-and-the-hour-of-the-day-it-is-best ![Alpenglow on a mountain ridge at first light](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1541800239-251649433ccf?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwzfHxhbHBlbmdsb3clMjBtb3VudGFpbiUyMHBlYWslMjBzdW5zZXQlMjBvcmFuZ2V8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODY0Nzk2NXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop)The ridge above the lake, from the terrace, at ten to seven. The lake is the walk every guest asks about at check-in, and the answer has not changed in three generations: go before breakfast. Not because the walk is hard, but because the lake is a different place at seven than it is at eleven, and the seven o'clock lake is the one on the postcards. ## The way up Out of the door, left along the lane, and onto the path at the wooden signpost. The first twenty minutes are through larch, on a track wide enough for two. Then the trees thin, the path steepens, and for ten minutes it is honest work. The last stretch is a shelf of rock with the lake suddenly under it, which is the moment people stop talking. - Fifty minutes up at a walking pace, twenty down. - Three hundred and ten metres of climb, all of it in the middle third. - Boots are better than trainers on the shelf. Poles are unnecessary. ## The colour The water is turquoise, and the turquoise is real: it is rock flour, ground by the glacier that feeds it and held in suspension. What changes with the hour is the light. Before the sun clears the ridge, the lake is lit from the sky and the colour is deep and even. Once the sun is on it, the surface throws the sky back and the colour goes flat. By eleven the wind is up and the surface is broken, and the lake is a lake. ## The hour Between seven and nine, from May to October. In July the sun clears the ridge at about nine; in September, at about half past nine. We put the sunrise time on the board by the door each evening, and the walk is worth setting an alarm for. ## What we changed for it Breakfast used to finish at ten. It now runs until eleven, and it runs until eleven because of this walk. Nobody should have to choose between the lake at its colour and Jonas's bread warm. > "We went up at seven and came down to breakfast. It was the best morning of the year." From the book by the door, most weeks. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] Breakfast at the window table Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Kitchen Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/kitchen URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/breakfast-at-the-window-table ![A breakfast table set in front of a bright window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1769637565381-f21f88e7b4d6?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxicmVha2Zhc3QlMjB0YWJsZSUyMGlubiUyMHdpbmRvd3xlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjQ2NzI3fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The window table seats two and faces the valley, and it is booked by the guests who were here last year before it is offered to anyone else. This is not a policy. It is what happens when people write in January asking for it. ## What is on the table Bread from the village oven, which is lit at four and sends a boy up with the loaves at half past six. Butter from the farm below the inn, which you can see from the table. Jam from our own orchard, apricot in summer and plum in autumn. Eggs from the neighbour, whose hens are the noise you heard at six. Coffee we roast ourselves, in a drum in the woodshed, badly at first and adequately now. ## What is not Anything that came up the valley in a lorry, as far as we can manage it. There is no orange juice, because there are no oranges within two hundred miles. There is apple juice, pressed in October and kept in the cold store, which is better anyway. ## The window It faces east, so the table is in sun from the moment the sun clears the ridge until about ten. In winter the sun is low enough to reach the far wall. The view is the valley, the river, the village roofs and, on a clear day, the pass road climbing out of the far side in hairpins. ## How to get the table Ask when you book, and ask early. Failing that, come down at half past seven: the couple who have it usually leave for the lake by then, and the table is free until nine. ## What we will do differently A second window table. The carpenter is coming in April, and the room will lose the sideboard nobody uses to make space for it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] Room 4, and why it has no television Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Rooms Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/rooms URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/room-4-and-why-it-has-no-television ![A white hotel room with a bed and a window](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1549638441-b787d2e11f14?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxob3RlbCUyMHJvb20lMjBtb3JuaW5nJTIwbGlnaHQlMjBsaW5lbnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjQ2NzI3fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Room 4 is the corner room. It has a window to the valley and a window to the peak, a bed that took four people to carry up the stairs, and no television. It has had no television since 2019, and it books first every season. ## How it happened The television in room 4 broke in the spring of 2019, and we did not replace it because the electrician was busy and the season was starting. Nobody complained. By the summer we had decided it was an experiment, and by the autumn we had decided it was a decision. ## What people do instead - Read. There is a shelf on the landing, and it empties into room 4 faster than any other. - Sit in the peak window at dusk, which is when the light on the ridge does its thing. - Sleep. Guests in room 4 come down to breakfast later than anyone, and they say so. ## What people say In six years, one guest has asked for a television, and he was here for a football match. We lent him the laptop from the office and he watched it in the lounge with Jonas, which was better for both of them. ## The other rooms Rooms 2, 6 and 9 lose their televisions this winter. Rooms 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10 and 11 keep theirs, for now, because we are not certain and would rather find out slowly. If you have an opinion, the book by the door is where it goes. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The first snow, seen from the terrace Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Seasons Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/seasons URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-first-snow-seen-from-the-terrace ![A snow-covered mountain village at blue hour](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1585659021623-e64de9430370?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxzbm93JTIwdmlsbGFnZSUyMGV2ZW5pbmclMjBsaWdodHN8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODY0NjcyOXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The first snow decides the season. Before it, the inn is a walking inn: boots by the door, packed lunches, the lake walk on the board. After it, the inn is a different one, with the stove lit at four and the sledges out of the barn. The change is a single night, and this year it was the fourteenth of October. ## The night It started at about ten, as rain, and turned at midnight. By six there were twenty centimetres on the terrace and the valley had gone silent the way it does, with the sound of the river muffled and the birds gone. The photograph at the top is from the terrace at half past six, before anyone had walked on it. ## The morning - The terrace furniture went into the barn before breakfast, which was late. - The lake walk closed for the year. The shelf is not safe under snow, and will not be until May. - The road stayed open. It usually does, for the first snow; it is the third that closes it. ## What it changes for guests The walks list shrinks to the four valley walks, all of them safe in snow with the right boots, which we lend. The ridge path opens instead, with a head torch, for the village lights at five. The kitchen moves to the winter menu the same day, because Jonas has been waiting for it since September. ## What we will do differently Stack the wood in September. We stacked it in October this year and did it in the snow, and it is the kind of mistake you make once. _Revised 2 November: the road closed on the twenty-ninth, for a day, which is earlier than usual. The note about the third snow stands; it was the third._ --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] What the kitchen does with a Tuesday Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Kitchen Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/kitchen URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/what-the-kitchen-does-with-a-tuesday ![A chef plating a dish in a small kitchen](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1577106263724-2c8e03bfe9cf?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwzfHxpbm4lMjBraXRjaGVuJTIwY2hlZiUyMGNvb2tpbmd8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODY0NjcyOXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) Tuesday is the quiet night. Eight guests, sometimes six, and one menu. It is the night the kitchen cooks the things a full Saturday will not allow, and it is the night Jonas would choose to eat here himself, which is why we are writing it down. ## The menu There is no menu, in the sense of a choice. There is what Jonas decided at the market on Monday and what the farm sent up. In autumn that is usually a braise, started at two and in the oven until seven, and something from the orchard after it. In summer it is trout from the river, which the river warden brings on Tuesdays because Tuesday is the day he fishes. ## The dish The one that only happens on Tuesdays is the risotto. It takes forty minutes of stirring and cannot be done for twenty people at once without becoming something else. For eight it can. Jonas makes it with the stock from Monday's roast and whatever the hedgerow has: nettle in spring, mushrooms in September. ## The table On a Tuesday everyone eats at one table, the long one by the stove, at half past seven. This is not compulsory, and once or twice a season a couple asks for a table of their own and gets one. Mostly people sit together, and mostly they are still there at ten. ## How to have a Tuesday Book a Tuesday. The room rate is the same. The kitchen is at its best, and it knows it. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The stove in the lounge Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: House Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/house URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-stove-in-the-lounge ![A wood stove burning in a wooden cabin interior](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1678274909137-ae0677d24a9b?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHx3b29kJTIwZmlyZSUyMHN0b3ZlJTIwY2FiaW4lMjBpbnRlcmlvcnxlbnwxfDB8fHwxNzg4NjQ2NzI4fDA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The stove was here before us and will be here after. It was installed in 1962 by our grandfather, who bought it second-hand from a hotel in the town that was going over to oil, and it has been lit every winter evening since, which is about eleven thousand evenings. ## What it does It heats the lounge, which is the room everyone ends up in after dinner. On a still night it heats the corridor above it too, and the guests in rooms 5 and 6 know this and ask for those rooms in January. It dries boots, which stand in a row in front of it every evening in winter and are warm by morning. ## The rules 1. Lit at four, by us. Not earlier, because the room does not need it, and not by guests, because the damper is a matter of practice. 2. Fed until eleven, by anyone. Guests are welcome to add a log. They are not welcome to add three, which is a lesson the lounge learned one January. 3. Never left with the door open. The stove draws hard and an open door is a room full of smoke in a minute. ## The wood Larch and beech, from our own wood above the inn, cut in spring and dried for two summers. A winter takes fourteen cords. It is stacked in the shed behind the kitchen, and the stack is a thing people photograph. ## What we will do differently A second basket of kindling by the lounge door, so nobody goes out into the snow for it at ten at night, which somebody does every winter. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The cows come down in September Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Seasons Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/seasons URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-cows-come-down-in-september ![Cows grazing on a mountain meadow with peaks behind](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1713439340151-6f1e7f6fb9c9?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxtb3VudGFpbiUyMG1lYWRvdyUyMGNvd3MlMjBzdW1tZXJ8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODY0NjczMXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The cows spend the summer on the high pasture above the lake, and they come down on a Saturday in late September, through the village, with bells and flowers on their heads. This has happened every year for longer than anyone has records, and it is the best day of the year at the inn. ## The day The herders start at four. The first bells are heard in the village at about nine, from a long way up. By ten the herd is on the lane below the inn, and by eleven it is in the square, where there is a band and a great deal of cheese. The noise, from the bells alone, is something you feel in your chest. ## What to know - The inn is full a year ahead. We are sorry. Book for the year after. - The terrace is the best seat in the valley, and it is for guests. - The road is closed from nine until one. Arrive on Friday. ## Why it matters The cows are why the meadows look the way they do, why there is cheese, and why the village is still a village. The day they come down is the day the valley says so. ## What we will do differently Nothing. It is perfect, and it is not ours to change. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The inn from the valley Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: House Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/house URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-inn-from-the-valley ![A wooden chalet built against a cliff face](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1717934900693-b55ae98cf532?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwxfHxtb3VudGFpbiUyMGlubiUyMHdvb2RlbiUyMGNoYWxldCUyMGV4dGVyaW9yfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2NDY3MjZ8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) The inn was built against the cliff in 1908, which seemed to the village a strange place to put it, until the avalanche winter of 1911 took the barn on the other side of the lane and left the inn untouched. Nobody has thought it a strange place since. ## The cliff It takes the wind, which comes down the valley from the north and would otherwise take the roof. It takes the snow, which slides off the face above and stops in the gully behind the inn rather than on it. And it holds the day's warmth into the evening, which is why the terrace is usable in October. ## The building Larch, on a stone base, with a roof that was slate until 1970 and is larch shingle again now. Eleven rooms, a kitchen, a lounge with the stove, and the terrace. It has been extended once, in 1954, and the join is visible if you know where to look, which is the third window from the left. ## The valley side Faces south-east, so the sun is on it from first light until mid-afternoon. Every room but two faces the valley. The two that do not face the peak, and they are the two people ask for. ## Getting here The questions below are the ones we answer most, and the answers have not changed. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] A high meadow in July Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Walks Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/walks URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/a-high-meadow-in-july ![Wildflowers in a meadow above a mountain lake](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1604440095301-4ec2f9230155?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxhbHBpbmUlMjBsYWtlJTIwc3VtbWVyJTIwaGlraW5nfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2NDY3Mjh8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) There is a meadow above the tree line, an hour past the lake, that we tell guests about and do not put on the map, because it is only worth the walk for three weeks and a map does not know what week it is. ## The three weeks The flowers come in the second week of July, when the snow has been off the meadow for a month and before the cows arrive to eat them. By August the meadow is grass. The window moves a week either way with the year, and we know it has opened because the herder tells us. ## The walk - The lake walk first: fifty minutes to the shelf. - Then the path along the north shore, which is flat and easy, for twenty minutes. - Then the climb, which is steep, faint and forty minutes. The path is a line of cairns rather than a path. - Then the meadow, which announces itself. ## What to bring Water, because there is none after the lake. A hat. Lunch, because you will not want to leave. And the willingness to turn back at the cairns if the cloud comes down, which it does, quickly. ## Ask at breakfast We will draw it for you on the back of the menu, and we will tell you honestly whether it is the week. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] The village at night Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: Seasons Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/seasons URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/the-village-at-night ![A snowy mountain village lit at night, seen from above](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1773997328334-02af453a35cc?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHw0fHxzbm93JTIwdmlsbGFnZSUyMGV2ZW5pbmclMjBsaWdodHN8ZW58MXwwfHx8MTc4ODY0NjcyOXww&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) From the ridge path the village is a handful of lights in a great deal of dark, and in winter, when the walks are closed, that view is the walk. It takes twenty minutes from the door and it is the thing guests mention most in the book, after the lake. ## The path Behind the inn, up the steps by the woodshed, and along the ridge to the bench. It is safe in snow with the right boots, which we lend, and a head torch, which we also lend. It is not safe in ice, and we will tell you if it is icy. ## The hour Five, in December and January. The lights are on and the sky is not yet black, and for about twenty minutes the village is lit from both sides. By half past five the sky has gone and it is just the lights, which is also fine. ## What you see - The church, lit, which is the brightest thing in the valley. - The bakery, lit, because the baker starts at four and finishes at five. - The inn, below you, with the stove going and the lounge windows orange. ## What we changed for it Head torches by the door, for guests, from November. And a flask of something hot for the bench, which you can ask for at four. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. --- ## [Sample Post] A year at the inn, in numbers Author: Cristi McGowan Author URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/author/cristi-mcgowan Published: 2026-09-21 Category: House Category URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/category/house URL: https://blog.hothomeswaco.com/a-year-at-the-inn-in-numbers ![A mountain lodge lit at dusk](https://images.unsplash.com/photo-1784871258487-eb403d369191?ixid=M3w3OTAzOTJ8MHwxfHNlYXJjaHwyfHxtb3VudGFpbiUyMGlubiUyMHdvb2RlbiUyMGNoYWxldCUyMGV4dGVyaW9yfGVufDF8MHx8fDE3ODg2NDY3MjZ8MA&ixlib=rb-4.1.0&w=1600&q=80&auto=format&fit=crop) We keep a ledger, and once a year, in the quiet week after the cows have come down, we read it out at the long table. This is the year just gone. ## Guests - Two thousand nine hundred nights, across eleven rooms, which is about seventy percent of what the inn could hold. We are not trying for more. - Six thousand breakfasts. Four hundred of them at the window table. - Eleven countries, which is fewer than before the pandemic and more than last year. ## The house - Fourteen cords of wood, all of it burned. - Thirty-one snow days, counting only the ones with snow falling. - The road closed four times, for a day each, and once for two. - One television removed, three more to go. ## The kitchen - Two hundred and eight loaves from the village oven, at breakfast alone. - Ninety kilos of apricot jam, of which none is left. - Forty-four Tuesdays. ## Next year A second window table. A bigger woodshed. The same eleven rooms, the same road, the same cows. --- This blog is powered by Superblog. Visit https://superblog.ai to know more. ---