Four houses make a village. It may seem small but it doesn't take much to feel like you have a chance to build an universe. What would it be like to be able to create your world from scratch? To be a modern demiurge who juggles between urban and rural, between built and grown, who leaves the city behind and hangs his dreams on the eaves of an old house, at least from time to time!
The Blue and Origins houses are over a century old; in their early lives they protected the sleep, smiles, and anxieties of families up North. In their new life they were relocated among the plum trees of a Vâlcea village, 25 km from Râmnicu Vâlcea and 87 km from Sibiu. They now master more than 14,000 square meters of land next to a barn that has become the hearth of the village. From a distance and especially from above the property has the appearance of the unsought rustic, with houses scattered on a land devoid of symmetrical plots, separated only by a path like a tree of life.
In the shingles of the roofs, glass openings lazily open the eyelids; the porch is raised on river stones and its wood pillars bear beatiful slits and mysterious folk signs. On the outside, the eye meets an electrifying blue, but in the walls of the houses the heart feels the brick that keeps the heat of the oven that burned it and the calluses that smoothed the wood and tamed it on the walls of the rooms.
Currently, the village receives guests who want peace and an opportunity to look at the mountains outside and the hustle and bustle inside themselves. The owners decorated the houses with great- grandma’s fabrics, antiques from the markets of France and pieces of furniture or decorations made by the hands of young artists or gray-haired artisans. The beds are comfortable, the showers have hot water and seasonal products from nearby Sibiu farmers arrive on the barn table (but the bread and cozonac are made at home).
At the age of 150, Casa Amurg/ Dusk is going strong, as it can be seen from the oak wood fiber left visible in the living room. It has two bedrooms with a double bed, a bathroom with a shower, a generous living space on the ground floor and, of course, a wood-burning stove.
Casa Zori de Zi/ Dawn reminded the current owners of "those chic grandmothers who always wear lipstick and earrings with precious stones, even when wearing a dressing gown." It is designed for a family with many children to fill it with laughter - a master bedroom and one with four single beds take care of that. The generous living room and its wood-burning stove on the ground floor are ready for stories.
Because of its sobriety, the house Rădăcini/ Roots wears the colors of autumn; its massive wood pieces attest to its antiquity, its origins. There are two bedrooms here, both with double beds, and a wood-burning stove in the living room.
The fourth house, called Origini/ Origins is the one that received the personal fabrics and decorations of the family, inherited from the grandparents. In the attic there are two bedrooms for four people and a bathroom with shower, and on the ground floor there is the living room with a wood stove.
The heart of the village is the barn, the place where the wine in the glass invites meditations, and the Cozia montain peak asks to unfold stories. The table made of a single piece of wood gathers around it the villagers, and the stove requires books, tea and a cat (Juliet the fox also comes to the village in the summer to listen to stories). At present, the villagers are invited to take part in mowing, harvesting hay or picking plums when the time comes, making brandy, zacusca and jam or pickling vegetables.
The beauty of this property lies in the flexibility it offers - it can be simultaneously home, investment, business and holiday home; it does not require a decision, a label, a waiver but only longing for nature and the simple life of yesteryear.


Photo Florin Pepene