A beautifully crafted home for sale in a Northern California mountain-resort town looks like it belongs in Sweden.

That’s where the dwelling’s owner got his inspiration for the 1,350-square-foot, one-bedroom, two-bath retreat in Bear Valley. The getaway also includes two sleeping nooks in the living room, plus a large loft, offering more space to host guests.

Listed for $840,000 with Joel Barnett, of Bear Valley Real Estate, the home has always been in the same family. It was initially listed for $1.6 million in March 2022

In 1967, the seller—the late Dr. Johan Viking Hultin—bought the 0.37-acre lot in the Sierra. But the one-of-a-kind abode wasn’t completed until 2008.

Viking Hultin was a pathologist who grew up in Sweden and biopsied skin samples of those who died in the 1918 Spanish Flu. He commissioned the design from architect Donald MacDonald. The San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, completed in 2013, was one of MacDonald’s higher-profile projects.

This throwback cabin was built with old-growth redwood that was milled on site. It was modeled after a 14th-century building that was situated on the grounds of Stockholm’s open-air Skansen museum, which was relocated from a farmstead in Norway.

The home’s maple stair railings were inspired by a Norwegian church from 1650. Other design details include handcarved, wooden shutters and trim, as well as hand-painted rosemaling by Norwegian artists.

The property also boasts a replica of a 4,000-year-old labyrinth.

Modern features include radiant-floor heating, an interior fire-sprinkler system, and an on-demand water heater.

“It was literally built to last 1,000 years, just like the original [in Sweden],” says Barnett. “It’s needed very little repairs over the years.”

Bear Valley sits 70 miles south of South Lake Tahoe. This cabin overlooks national forest land across the street and boasts sublime views of the Dardanelles and Yosemite.

It’s designed for year-round living—if you’re a hardy soul.

“You can’t drive a car to a house in the ski village during the snow,” says Barnett. “Residents get around on snowmobiles or cross-country ski. It’s ski in and ski out, literally.”

Trails are groomed and patrolled, and there’s also ski-shuttle bus service.

“We are cheap(er) on a price-per-square-foot basis than almost any [the] nearby area, such as South Lake Tahoe and the Sacramento area,” says Barnett.

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