Today we’d like to introduce you to James & Camila Garwacki.
Hi James & Camila, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
We fell in love with the peace of the North Georgia mountains and set off started our vacation home journey in 2019 with the purchase of a 3 Bed 3 bath overlooking Lake Blue Ridge which we named The Toasted Marshmallow. The home needed a little work but the feeling we got each time we looked at the views could not be replicated anywhere else. We just knew this would be a place many would be able to find peace and solace from their busy lives. We dreamed of creating a rental what was more than merely a place to rest your head at night- we wanted to create an experience. We meticulously curated our Toasty slice of Blue Ridge to encompass different ideologies of what people imagine when they think ‘cabin in the woods’. Guests constantly rave about all the little details we’ve put into our space and it’s incredibly heart-warming to hear that they make their stay that much more special.
In 2022, we set out on a much more ambitious project with a quirky two-bed 1.5 bath riverfront home that we just couldn’t get out of our minds. The home itself was a complete gut job which took nearly nine months to complete. Mad Hatter Cottage is the passion project of two incredibly overworked youths at heart in need of a creative outlet. We literally poured our blood, sweat (so much sweat), and tears into the creation of this Wonderland and still can’t fully wrap our minds around how we managed to pull it off. Every nook and cranny of this property has carefully thought-out little details of throwbacks to what we believe the world of the sanest madman in a fantastical realm would be like. We wanted guests to catch something new each time they walked the grounds. Ultimately, we just wanted our guests’ experiences to be summarized with one word- WOW. Went all in on this project and if we’re being honest, we created a world that is so “outside the box” that we may have gone a little mad ourselves in the process.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Fortunately, we work very well as a team. One of us creates while the other one plans out the logistics on making it happen. The Toasted Marshmallow had its challenges, as a lot of friends and family thought we were crazy when we first ventured out on such an expensive project. Learning the business side and proper marketing of running a successful vacation home certainly threw us a couple of curveballs but we were still young, bright-eyed bushy-tailed, and full of energy.
Mad Hatter Cottage was an entirely different beast of a project. We started off the project in the hot and very, very humid Georgia summer, camping in a tent under the covered porch. There was no water or electricity for a solid month and a half due to the relocation of the power lines. We had a strict timeline so the lack of utilities didn’t mean the work had to stop as well, we powered through and found a beautiful new camaraderie with each other amongst the dirt and grime. We showered with baby wipes, flushed the toilet with buckets of river water, and ate 3am gas station snacks as our dinner by emergency lanterns. We both work very demanding jobs so we’d work from Atlanta Tuesday- Friday, head up to Blue Ridge that evening, remodel until 3 or 4am, wake up around 7 or 8am, repeat through Monday when we’d juggle both jobs remotely from there, head back to Atlanta on Monday night- rinse repeat for eight months. We chronicled our journey and despite the exhaustion and uncertainty, we always found a reason to laugh. We’ve flipped multiple homes throughout the years, so the construction portion wasn’t a surprise, but we seriously underestimated the sheer scale of the project. Our bodies might still protest but we don’t regret our descent into Madness.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about The Toasted Marshmallow & Mad Hatter Cottage?
Our dream is still to provide vacation homes that are a destination in themselves. We want guests to experience our homes and make long-lasting memories with friends and family – including the furry 4-legged ones (Toasted is pet-friendly).
How do you think about happiness?
Though, few things top the joy we feel at the completion of a creative project, these days, we find way too much happiness in getting some sleep.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/ToastyRealty
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/madhattercottagega/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheToastedMarshamallowGA
Image Credits
All images were taken by us with the exception of: a) Woman roasting Marshmallow- credit to Tonya Hester b) View from Master Porch overlooking lake- credit to Caitlin Ramirez
