"Bob's house of beds." That was how the neighbors referred to the shabby 1970s A-frame on Serene Lakes, a Mayberryish resort community near Lake Tahoe. "Bob's" because a guy named Bob owned it, and "House of Beds"...well, what else do you call a 2,500-square-foot rental that slept at least 12?
"It was the kind of place you'd find neon beer signs and Levitz furniture," says the cabin's current owner, Jeremy Kidson, a San Francisco retailer who doesn't even like A-frames. Still, he was looking for a house in the area, and when he saw how the cabin sits right on the lakefront, he gave in. "You can fix any ugliness in a structure, but you could never replicate this setting," he says.