If you've ever needed a place to exhale, just breathe, you already understand why Hidden Springs exists. We built it because we needed what you're looking for: a place where the noise stops, the water moves, and something in you finally gets to rest.
The first day on the property · Rome, Georgia · 2021
We were newlyweds at the height of COVID, starting over mid-life, looking for a place to rebuild our lives. We were outbid on property after property, watching houses go for way over listing price. Then a property in Rome stopped us cold. The house was a wreck. The land was breathtaking. It was going to silent auction that day, cash only. We made some calls, and were blessed enough to get a family member to say yes to helping us invest in this once in a lifetime find. We put in an offer well above the competition, and they rejected us anyway. Ten days later, the phone rang. The other offer had fallen through. The property was ours!
What followed was seven months of building by hand. The house already on the property had to be completely rebuilt from the ground up. Chris worked at Suzuki each day, putting in a full day's work, then each evening, changing clothes, and rebuilding until long after dark — while we lived on the property in a camper. We utilized every resource we could find, borrowing from everything we had.
"Those days were really tough. I was exhausted, but I had to just keep going." — Chris
When the house was finished, we finally moved in after 7 months living in our camper. Although the main house still had a lot of work to do, we turned our attention to the property itself.
Hidden Springs Cottage started as an idea — let's build a small cottage and we can rent it out. We'll use the money to restore the property to its original glory. We thought maybe people would want to stay there a few weekends out of the month, enough to cover some of our expenses. But what actually happened was something we didn't expect. Strangers started arriving and calling it magical. A grieving guest sat by the water and said something in her healed that was broken by a heavy loss. Friends met to reunite here. Honeymooners arrived nervous and left glowing. Families came to mark the moments that matter most. The vision expanded. What began as survival became a calling.
The spring pool garden — restored, rebuilt, renewed
We began to explore the spring, which led to the discovery of an intricate water system that once ran through pipes to bring fresh mountain spring water to the surrounding homes. The spring-fed plunge pool, built in the early 1900s, was fed by the same water, and Chris worked to restore this water system as it had originally been designed. The water found its way again.
We never imagined Hidden Springs would become this — but nature has a way of telling its own story. That's exactly why it is.