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.