SUCCESS!!!!

As the search continued for the perfect house we also considered an existing B&B that might just be for sale. I had fantasies of fast tracking this undertaking with nary a lath and plaster dust bunny to be seen. Alas it was not to be, the ones I could live in were waaaaaaay out of our price range and the one that might have worked had suffered the fate of having all of its character stripped out of it, sigh, back to square one.

There was however one house added to our list fairly late in the game and I for one was quite excited to view this one. Finally the day came, and I must admit as we drew closer my heart was doing a little salsa but in a good way. My first impression, green. Not a good green, picture a mint variation of pepto bismol. On the plus side, it was quite large, right on the old highway, a two lane route favored by tourists, and the price was great.

To say my Mr. was uninspired from the outside would be an understatement, partly because his heart had not recovered from the rodent infested morgue we had seen previously. As we entered what would come to be “our house” I instantly saw the potential of this big old place and went to work on convincing my better half why this needed to be the place for us. Was it the dream house I had envisioned? Well, no, it seemed to meet the criteria of location, style of home, this would be a start up operation and it was the right size for the venture we were looking for, having said that, this old gem needed a lot of work. A LOT of work! I could envision it working, my Mr. spent roughly 10 minutes in the house and was then outside checking on property criteria.

As is usually the case in house hunting it is often the woman who holds sway, and although I did some convincing that was certainly the case here. Slowly we both came to realize that with a wall moved here and a bathroom constructed there, this just might work, so then on to the technicalities of purchase. Once the decision was made we once again through our rose colored glasses fixed firmly in place felt this would all happen without a glitch and we would be ensconced in our new home in the near future.

Some advice for any out there planning a similar endeavor, as we quickly learned, some mortgage companies will not endorse a home being used as a B&B, this we found out soon enough and I must admit were quite deflated as we had been with this particular institution for some time. Thankfully for us finding another mortgage was relatively easy as I had been associated with my bank for many years and they took care of us without any issues, even though we had not yet sold our current home. Having said that, at the time of purchase the home was just that, a home, not a B&B, therefore we purchased it as such, so be advised that we can at times give more information than is really necessary and thereby shoot ourselves in the foot needlessly.

So mortgage hurdle accomplished, next would be insuring this old treasure, easy peasy right? No. Again be advised that some insurance companies will not insure a B&B, we had to search, but did eventually find one that would, obviously they are out there as there are a proliferation of B&B’s in Nova Scotia. So another hurdle successfully jumped.
I have included a few pictures to give you an idea of what we saw initially and give you a feel for the place, enjoy.

The Elimination process

                                 

So the decision has been made to begin our new life as B&B owners, so predictably out comes my checklist. Prepare house for sale, check. List our home with a local agent, check. Stage the home to look like a model home at all times, check. Prepare for our house hunting trip East, check.

These were exciting times, as often is the case the idea or anticipation of a dream is more of a high than the actual reality of that dream.  Don’t get me wrong, there have been a lot of highs since the dream became a reality; however I believe to take such a monumental plunge we do really need to see things at least initially through rose colored glasses.  It’s the old “If I knew then….” but who would take risks, chances, adventures if all you could envision were problems and obstacles? I digress.

We felt fully prepared when we arrived in Nova Scotia with our stack of MLS listings in hand. In fairness, it is mostly thanks to our lovely daughter in law, who is a native of this gorgeous province that we were as organized as we were. She helped us chart a route of house hunting so we could maximize the 7 days we had to find and then hopefully purchase our new dream home. We really had no criteria for location, but as we began looking at homes we soon realized that there were locations that would just not work.

One example was a stunning stone mansion with most of its original features intact right down to the indoor recessed shutters on all the windows. Size was perfect, layout would need some work and grounds lovely, however it was so far from any beaten path that tourist drive-by traffic would be virtually non-existent.  In another instance the home once again was a large Victorian but the price was high and then to factor in renovations to make it B&B worthy, well, too rich for our blood. One home in particular that my Mr. had been fond of for years turned out to be the greatest disappointment upon viewing it.  Location was in a very popular town so that was a plus, price was ok as well, upon entering this one we were hit with the unmistakable odor of decaying rodent, in fact I am sure there were more than one. Nothing says GET OUT like the smell of dead mice, but to be fair even if we could have championed the deceased, the home had been broken up into apartment like dwellings and would cost a small fortune to restore to a single family style dwelling. Add to that was the fact that this particular town had regulations an arms length that you had to meet before you even began to get the dream from fantasy to reality, it was over before we began really.

First the dream

                                            First the dream

Welcome to all of you who will share in the documentation of our B&B experience.

We will start at the beginning and my writings will include stories, anecdotes, perspectives, opinions, how-to blurbs and hopefully a lot of humor!!

Writing about this adventure and at times utter insanity is almost as fulfilling as actually taking on the challenge of not only a move to another province, buying a large home and then proceeding to gut it in order to begin the B&B journey.

Our first introduction to the B&B experience came by way of a gift, and while I was very grateful for the gift of this weekend away from 3 young children, I must admit I had mixed feelings. It has been my experience that typically it is the male counterpart who is most likely to balk at the thought of staying at a B&B, but in our case it was me who had the issue as I felt that staying in a complete strangers home was, well, just a wee bit creepy.  Once I got past the initial awkwardness, I was able to see what the attraction was. This particular home was a beautiful sprawling Victorian bursting with antiques; one didn’t know where to look as there was just so much history and character to be felt there.

Over the years we or rather I broke out of my comfort zone and frequented a variety of Inns and found ourselves critiquing (not in a malicious way) the places we had chosen to stay. Eventually the path led to us realizing that this was something that not only we would love to do, but that we would be darn good at. So due to circumstances, 3 kids at home being the largest of those circumstances we kept the dream alive by discussion (at times rather animated) of what and when we would endeavor to run our very own B&B.

Fast forward to roughly 2 years ago when we said “ok, this is it, now or never.”

So specifically we were looking at a few criteria:

• Where
• Style of home
• Existing or new start up
• Size of operation