All language subtitles for The.Cabin.Chronicles.S02E04.River.Cabaan.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-NTb

I think
in your 20s and your 30s

you're always chasing something
and you're not sure what it is.

This was what made us happy,
like really, truly happy.

We've never been people
who meditate or can stick

to yoga or anything like that.

But we can come out
here and sit down there,

and it feels like meditation.

It feels like our whole
equilibrium has changed

since we bought this place.

We're originally from
New Zealand, landed

in Portland via New York.

For
most of our lives,

we were really into living
in the city, in apartments.

And then we got to New
York, which was the dream,

and lived in tiny apartments.

And we loved it.

And then we moved to Portland
and it was a really big shock

The city is so much
smaller and felt

like everything shut at 9 PM.

But pretty soon after that,
we realized that also Portland

had this incredible playground
of places that you could visit.

And so that's when
the idea of, well, we

should make the most of this.

So that's when we started
looking for cabins.

We had
talked about, growing up,

was there a place that you went
as a kid, like, all the time.

Is there a place
that you keep going

back to that formed this
super strong connection with?

And I never had that.

And I was always
jealous of friends

that had like one camping
spot they always went to.

The minute we rocked up to this
place, it was like, oh my god,

like, we found it.

It was crazy.

It was literally tears
running down our faces

because it was it, you know?

We wanted something that we
could work on, obviously,

but that wasn't gross.

There's a million things
we would like to do to it,

you know.

And it's just kind of
like looking at the list

and figuring out what
can we do ourselves.

What can we do first?

We just went for it.

When we first
saw it, it was quite dark.

The bedroom, you
could almost not see your hand

in front of your face.

We just wanted to, like,
lighten it up, brighten it up.

I still think that the bright
white space can be cozy.

The main thing that was here
was this big beautiful deck,

and it oriented
towards the river,

which was important to us.

When you walk into this
space, this wall of windows

is just so beautiful.

And we love the way that the
wood contrasts the whites,

so that your eye just, like,
pulls all the way around,

through to the river.

Everything is about
orienting towards the light,

so we get sunlight
all year round

flooding through these windows.

And I love just kind of the view
down the barrel of the house,

just looking through
to that fireplace.

We got married in
front of the fireplace.

It was pretty amazing.

The fireplace is
the focal point.

You had to convince me
that painting it white

was the right thing to do.

But as soon as we got the
first coat on, obviously,

it was the right thing to do.

Having fires there as
the center of our space

on these cold, rainy
nights, and then just

having that as a space that
we just actually hang out on.

We sit there.

We read books.

We play games.

I love
changing art work

and getting to different
artists in Portland

and bringing that stuff in here.

We like to bring things
from New Zealand as well,

and put them here, things
that are unexpected.

It's us everywhere,

and things that we love.

The cabin is about an
hour and 15 minutes

from Portland, Oregon, and we
are in a rainforest, basically.

People think
it rains a lot in Portland.

I think it rains two and a
half to three times as much

out here.

And we didn't really know
that before we moved out here.

We sort of found out afterwards.

Being out here, we're
just trying to figure

out a way to, like, live--

With the rain.
- with that weather.

Yeah.

There's nothing
we can do about it,

and it controls
everything around us.

It changes our landscape
every few months.

Now that
we have the breezeway,

kind of outdoor living area,
that's amazing, when you've

got kids, to be able to go
outside and not get totally

saturated.

The drive from
Portland out to the cabin

is pretty magical, over the
ranges, through the forest.

And it sort of sets you up
for sort of your arrival

when you get here.

You know, the
focus is the river,

and you feel like you're
in it when you're here.

You're in nature.

It's overwhelming
yet super calming.

You just are transformed to
this sort of other world.

Everything else
sort of falls away.

And I think that is the
magic of this place.

Oregon is as
beautiful as everybody talks

about.

We're right next to the Oregon
coast, which is pretty amazing.

And there are a lot
of parallels with New

Zealand, like, the climate,
the size, the population.

The beaches look
really similar to where

I grew up in New Zealand,
rugged, kind of wild beaches.

And you see, like, our daughter,
you know, she gets there

and she kind of boosts up.

And she can just run as
far as she can screaming,

and as fast as she can.

Home
being so far away, I

think we started thinking
about this place as a way

to sort of escape
and almost transport

ourselves to this place that was
a little bit like New Zealand.

Now that we haven't been
able to see are families for so

long, it's really
nice to know that we

have this little sort of center
here that keeps us grounded.

It's made us, like, really
bonded to Portland and Oregon.

To have a place where you
can have the doors open,

where the kids can be in and
out, I think we see a change.

We can't mention to our
toddler too early in the day

that we're coming to the cabin--
Yes.

because
every three minutes.

We want to go--

We want
to go to the cabin.

Yeah.

Having our first daughter,
Lolo, and we spent

so much time with her here.

Lee's parents came
and stayed with us,

and we all were out here.

And it was super special.

And we've just had
our second daughter,

and she's three months old.

So we're always trying to
figure out ways that we can

be here as much as possible.

There's still so much
that we wanted to do.

But now that we have
kids, it definitely

feels like we need to
start thinking about ways

that we can kind of expand
and add areas where we

can all hang out as a family.

We love sharing this place.

So we want to have people visit.

We want to have our parents
come and our friends

come and them bring their kids.

And so it has changed
how we use the cabin.

I think the place
has become this amazing place

for our family to sort of
hunker down and sort of connect

and build these memories.

Bring family here,

we want to bring our kids here,
we want to do all of our things

here.

It's like you have this, like,
other member of the family

that's this physical
space, which is, like, so

much more special to be here.

You're humbled by the
river and by nature.

And this is just,
no way around it,

you can't put into words how
you feel when you're here.

And I just want our kids to
keep benefiting from that.