Overview and FAQ’s for Donner Lake ski lease, Winter 2009-10

Overview

The shared winter lease is for the Hann Cabin on Donner Lake. It covers the five-month period from Dec 1, 2014 until April 30, 2015. This year, the week of Dec 19-26 is reserved for Hann family use and unavailable to the winter lease.

Located on Donner Pass Road, the cabin is on the northeast shore of Donner Lake, adjacent of Donner State Park, and about a mile west of the town of Truckee. It belongs to Helen and Jay Hann of Piedmont, CA. The cabin consists of three attached living areas; the main unit on the lower, lake-level (Unit 1) and two “apartments” on the street level (Units 3 & 4). Collectively they comprise three kitchens, six bedrooms and six bathrooms. Including foldout couches in each of the upstairs units, there are beds for 22. There is also a lake-level studio apt situated on the east side of the property (the “boathouse”) that is reserved for Hann family use and not part of the winter lease. The lease includes heat, electricity, water, gas, cable TV, towels, bedding, kitchen/bath consumables, monthly cleaning, trash collection, high-speed wireless internet, ski tuning bench/tools, firewood, and plowed parking for approx eight cars.

Background

The cabin has been owned by the Hann family since 1980, and serves as a vacation rental in both summer and winter. Winter has usually been structured as a five month lease. Beginning in the fall of 2006, Byron and Cindy decided to take over the cabin in winter and organized a group of like-minded folks, mostly families with school-age children, to share the winter lease. The five month lease is shared between a number of individuals including the four Hann sons (Jay B, Byron, Mike, Robert).

Policies

The cabin policies are below; please take a minute to review. In general we have had very few problems, and have had success with the notion of having less structure in terms of a strict set of rules. So far (now in it’s ninth season), the shared winter lease has been a great success.

Cost

The total lease payment ($18,400)is divided among 16 paying partners. Also included as non-paying members, are the families of the four Hann brothers. This works out to be$1,150 per partner. We ask for a $575 deposit by October 15th and for a check for the entire amount by December 1. Please address checks to:

Byron Hann

1171 Larch Ave

Moraga, CA 94556.

Keys

Every member will be provided with a key to the front door (located at the end of the entry hallway). All inside doors, including the door to the garage, should remain unlocked. Inside the garage there are several sets of keys that include exterior door keys to the two upper units. Keys are distinguished by red/green/yellow color coding of the three keys. Feel free to hold onto a key set if you are occupying one of these units, but please remember to return these keys to the garage before you leave! For most users, the single front door key will be sufficient.

Leaving gear at the cabin:

Cabin members are welcome to leave gear at the cabin. Skis/poles/snowboards can be stored in the garage. Clothes, helmets, boots etc., can be stored in the laundry room. Everything (including skis and poles) should be clearly labeled. For clothes, duffle bags are a good system. Wet clothes and ski boots can be left to dry in the laundry room. There are drying racks in both apartments, and a place for parkas and an upper shelf for boots in the laundry room. Good places to store duffle bags include the laundry room, the closets and upper cabinets in the master br and closets in the hall bedroom and in units 3 and 4. Please remember to bring home ALL gear at the end of the season. There is a lost-and-foundbox in the laundry room that tends to overflow. Please take a look next time you're up. At the end of the season these items go into a community ski clothes basket/goodwill donation.

Calendar/booking/room choice:

Specific dates can be reserved at the cabin by using an online booking system (below). The cabin policy is that any one partner can have up to four calendar reservations at one time (a calendar reservation is defined as either a week or weekend for some time in the future). This is to avoid calendar congestion. After one of your reservation dates has passed, you can go ahead and add an additional calendar reservation. We use a google calendar ( for booking space at the cabin. Please email Robert Hann () for information on how access the calendar. After you have access, you can go ahead and make bookings (see below for booking suggestions).

Note: to maximize cabin usage, book only the NIGHTS that you will be staying over (we want to have an idea of available bed space). Do not book the calendar for the day you depart.

Feel free to indicate a room preference when you book, but keep in mind that these are non-binding. We ask everyone to be flexibile re room/bed usage to allow efficient and comfortable cabin utilization. On rare occasion, this may mean relocating during your stay.

When booking please indicate the number in your group (Adults (A) and Kids (K)), as well as any guests that you are planning to invite. Important: please remove any bookings as soon as you know that you will not be coming! No shows cause confusion.

There is a dry erase/magnet board (on the stairs as you enter) that can be used to indicate who’s sleeping where and for late arrivals to know what’s available, etc.. Please use this.

Q: I want to come up but the cabin looks pretty full, what should I do:

A: If the cabin appears to be fully booked, you can do two things: 1) email everyone on the calendar to confirm their intentions to come up, 2) just come up and plan to sleep on the floor, couch, etc.. Don’t panic,, there is always room someplace; often times folks forget to take themselves off the calendar, or have last minute change of plans.

Q: How can you tell when the cabin is fully occupied, and for that matter what IS fully occupied?

A: In the three units (Main House, Apt 3 and Apt 4), there are a combined total of 22 beds (see description below). Having said this, there have been times when upwards of 30 have stayed happily (lots of creative solutions in this sprawling complex). See notes below re guests; in general the policy is for guests to tuck in with hosts if things are snug.

Food policy

Cabin users should avoid leaving perishable food in the refrigerators. The exception to this is milk/butter where the policy will be that you should/can leave items that will not pass the expiration date before the next group arrives. Any food left up at the cabin will be considered communal. Even non-perishable items, however, can quickly accumulate, and we strive to keep to a minimum the amount of left food, including frozen food.

Cleaning policy

Cabin users are expected leave the house clean when they leave. This includes doing up dishes, wiping counters, emptying perishables from refrigerators, vacuuming and cleaning bathrooms if necessary, etc…. It is agreed that the dishwasher can be loaded and run when you leave, and the next person can unload it. In general, please leave the cabin as you would like to find it the next time you arrive. Once a month or as needed, there will be a thorough cleaning of the main house and both apartments by a hired service (included in rent). This will include cleaning toilets and showers, vacuuming, etc…

Towels/linens

There are two sets of linens for each bed, and extra towels. The policy for beds/linens/towels is as follows: when you arrive, a set of sheets, clean & folded, will be found on each bed, unmade, and a second set (used) may be in a basket in the room (or on the floor near the bed). This way, during your stay, you can wash/dry the dirty set of linen (there are washing machines in main house and in Apt #3 closet) but don’t worry about the washing the sheets that you are using. When you leave, beds should be stripped. The sheets that you washed should be left, folded, on the unmade bed. The used linens can be left in a basket in each room for the next user to wash. This way washing can be done over the course of the weekend and you will be free to make a fast get-away if you so desire. Similarly, towels can be washed during the course of your stay, and dirty towels left for the next tenant to wash and dry.

Note: please do no leave your dirty/clean linens in the laundry room when you depart; they may never find their way back to the correct room!

The cabin will provide all consumables such as toilet paper, dish soap, etc,... Please deposit receipts for any consumables purchased into the guest book for reimbursement from Byron.

Furnace/heaters

The cabin is heated by a wide variety of methods: steam, which is generated from a central steam boiler (located in the main house laundry room), hot water radiators, and gas-fired stoves and electric space heaters. Wall mounted heater units or thermostats are located in most rooms and designed to be adjustedindividually. The steam units should be adjusted empirically, the indicated temp numbers are not always correct. Some of the bedrooms contain wall mounted or baseboard steam/hot water radiators. Use the knob on top or wall mountedthermostat to adjust. In the main rooms of units 3 and 4, heat is provided by gas fired pot-belly stoves. These are controlled by wall mounted thermostats. Please remember to turn all heaters down to 50 F when you depart.

Feel free to build fires in the main house fireplace. Wood is stored in workshop and outside, on west side of house, accessed through a door at the back of the workshop. Please do not remove ashes from the fireplace; a good bed of ashes helps the fire burn well.

Guest policy

Space available, accompanied guests are welcome. There is a fee of $10 per guest per night for each guests aged two and above. The host will be responsible for seeing that this fee is collected and left in the guest book in the kitchen drawer. These monies will be used to cover costs for consumables, and whatever’s left will be split among the partners or used to purchase a gift for the cabin.

When the cabin is at full capacity, cabin members have priority over guests. In these cases, guests should tuck in with their hosts to the extent possible. Shuffle room assignments to maximize cabin usage and find creative solutions!

Hot-tub policy

There is an outdoor hot tub on the deck outside the master bedroom. The top folds up towards the boat house. When there has been new snow, the lid can be swept with a broom before opening (please avoid using sharp edged shovels to protect the cover). Push/sweep snow toward the lake and/or back wall. To keep the hot-tub clean, please shower and rinse feet before entering. Upon exiting the Hot Tub, please add a teaspoon of chlorine granules in the tub for each user and press the clean button on the control panel (see instructions posted next to tub). Please observe standard hot tub rules. Kids under age 15 are not allowed to use the hot-tub unattended. An adult does not need to be in the hot-tub, but should be present. The temperature adjustment control should be operated by a responsible adult (remember, it takes some time for the temperature to respond). Please use hot-tub towels found in laundry room. Hot tub should be left on and covered and jets turned off when you leave, and brooms & snow shovels should be stored upright in a corner of the deck. Hoses, if used, should be disconnected and drained.

Other

There are fire extinguishers in each apt and in the main house. A first aid kit is stored in the laundry room of the main house. Emergency flash lights are provided and located in each unit.

There are two circuit breaker locations. One for the main house kitchen, is located in back of the laundry room (on the left, behind the washer/dryer). The other is located under the carport on the east side of the house (at street level).

Garbage pick-up is on Mondays. Trash should be bagged and placed in cans inside of bear-proof container located at the side of parking area. Recyclables (mixed paper, metal, glass) need to be bagged and tied in special blue-colored bags (available at Mountain Hardware) and placed in metal bins on side of garbage container.

Description of the cabin layout

The house is divided top to bottom. Downstairs there are four bedrooms and upstairs there are two one-bedroom apartments attached with an internal passage. . The functional sleeping areas are shown in bold. We can use more than the six sleeping areas shown, but it will take some coordination to use the living rooms with sleeper sofas, etc...
Main house (beds for 12)

Entrydown inside stairs on west side of house. Big kitchen, living room, large dining room table. Three bathrooms. Large deck (with Jacuzzi) and outside bbq.
Master Bedroom - off living room and opens to Jacuzzi deck. One king-size bed and small couch. Attached bathroom with tub.
Lakefront Bedroom - Off entry hallway and kitchen. One queen. Shares a bathroom with shower with Hall bedroom.
Hall Bedroom - Off entry hallway and kitchen. One queen bed and one single bed with trundle lined up on one wall and touching. Shares bathroom with shower with Lakefront bedroom.
Bunk Room - Off Laundry / drying room. Four single beds and attached bath with shower. Good for kids
Unit #3 – Upstairs (beds for 6)

Entry at top of stairs. Wood burning stove and small kitchen. Two small baths, each with shower. Connected to Unit #4 by door.
Queen Bedroom - Entry from outside and Unit #3 Living room. One queen bed and one trundle bed (two singles, where one rolls out from under the other). Attached bath with small sink and toilet and shower. Stacked Washer and Dryer in closet.
Unit #3 Living Room – Full size futon couch, small bath with shower.
Unit #4 - Upstairs (beds for 4)

Entry from carport, or via door from Unit #3. Newly remodeled fully equipped kitchen, bathroom with bathtub, thermostatic controlled gas-fired stove.
King Bedroom - King-size bed.
Unit #4 Living Room -Queen-size sleeper sofa.

Other rooms:

Garage (inside entrance at top of stairs); for ski/snowboard and sled storage, x-c boot storage. Big garage door, lockable, can be opened as well.

Workshop (off of laundry room); work bench with ski tuning equipment, waxing iron, etc… There are and an assortment of tools in the workshop. Feel free to use ski tuning vises, but please clean up when you're finished. If you scrape wax, please do so over a trash bin.