"Talking Water nature retreat"

We (Sonners & Suches) stumbled across this land for sale in February 2022. All three generations of our family were interested in creating a nature-focused vacation center. The land sat within rural Chattanooga, on a mountaintop, next to a state forest, and had a creek running through it. We knew this was our unicorn!

We spent time drafting ideas, exploring the property, and pulling together all of our resources to make this happen. We were aware that there would be much work to be done, but we were up to the challenge!

We purchased all 82 acres in April 2022, dubbing the land "Talking Water" for the loudly bubbling water along Suck Creek (one mile of the creek flows along the property). 

The first several months were spent cleaning up after decades of logging in the area which was to become Songbird Neighborhood. 

Decaying tree remnants, trash, and even several buried trailer homes were collected and disposed. 

And many a load of dirt was brought in to try to get closer to the natural elevation/control erosion (previous work on site had dug low into the mountain and pushed everything off the bluff line). 

Building foundations began appearing on the property in August 2022. Walls and roofs went up over the next several months. Progress was slow in our minds, but looking back, it was not too bad!

Water lines, septic, and electrical were all placed in the ground. Suddenly we had outlets to charge our tools with! It was a relief because the poor generator needed a break by that point.

The new year rolled in and many sleepless nights were spent painting, sanding, plastering, and furnishing each cabin. Designs were nearly a year old, but coordinating 3 different homes at one time got confusing! 

It was so exciting to watch the personality of each cabin take shape and to tweak them daily. But deadlines kept sneaking past us, kids were getting bigger (and being born!), and Talking Water became all-encompassing. 

We started out with a couple months of "slow-opening" in April 2023. Friends and family came to stay in our cabins, lend hands, and give us feedback. We ourselves stayed in the cabins for weeks at a time. We knew we were onto something - we loved our time out here, going to sleep under the stars and waking up to the birdsongs. 

Finally, we went live with our listings on July 4th, 2023. We are now able to share our cabins with the rest of the world and let Talking Water be a part of their adventures!

Although we finished construction on three of our Songbird cabins (Chickadee, Whippoorwill, and Blackbird), we still have one more to go. 

Goldfinch is a timber-frame building and bare walls. We are spending the remainder of the summer and this fall in-filling the walls with cordwood. This will be a slow, labor-intensive process, but we are addicted to construction, so probably the right people for the job :)