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 The Carriage House As many of you know, for twelve years we have been talking about, dreaming of, looking at and wishing for the 160-year old original barn that went with our property. The owners before us went bankrupt and split the property, selling the barn. Since then it has been turned into two apartments. This structure is where the original owner, Sam Watts, stored his fine carriage. So, in his honor, we have christened the property, the Carriage House. We are excited to announce that we have just secured the right apartment, renting with an option to buy (uh, that would be after some sort of financial windfall we hope). It has three bedrooms and two baths, a full kitchen (with dishwasher!), living room and dining area. We will be renting it as a whole-house vacation rental - for the first year we will keep the prices the same as The Olde Stone Cottage - $235/night Sunday through Thursday nights and $260/night Friday and Saturday nights - based on two adults. Kids under twelve stay free. Additional adults are $25/day. We are now accepting reservations for The Carriage House.
Here's a picture of the back deck. Yes, we will have a table, complete with umbrella and a grill. I can smell the chicken now! So the quest is on for finding furniture, sewing drapes, and making it our own. We invite you to follow our journey until we open - sometime this spring.
This is really the fun part - searching through antique warehouses and stores in nearby Adamstown to find items that are fun, functional, and uh, within our budget. This is an old tool box and we think it will make a great magazine rack - with a little cleaning.
Here's a little children's table - complete with ABC's painted on the top. What a cute end table it will make....
We think these old trunks can be cleaned up and used for a end tables. They will go well with a black rocking chair.
Our neighbor, Eric, happened to stop by when he saw us unloading furniture. Bad mistake. Guess who took my place!
Eric and Bruce move in the TV cabinet. I stopped in to Garden Spot Used Furniture on Route 322 in Ephrata and found a bunch of furniture that we just couldn't live without. In fact, I found so much that we decided to change the Rose Room bed to a king because there were two twin headboards and footboards that would go perfect in that room. It was a happy day when the delivery guys arrived with our bedroom and dining room furniture.
This is the mirror for one of the art deco pieces that belong to the bedroom suite.
Here's the dressing table with matching chair.
And the rest of the set.
This Hansel and Gretel set will go perfectly in the dining room. Isn't it just the cutest thing you've ever seen?
The next day the mattresses arrived. Though they'd never admit it, these guys just love getting their pictues taken.
Well, at lease they were smiling before we showed them the steps to the second floor....
It was the last turn where we nearly lost them....
And now for more shopping! Bruce adjusts the bins above And because there is a kitchen complete with everything that
These vases will look oh-so-cute somewhere. Well, I just
The master bedroom starts to come together. It has a king-size bed Ok, now the real plotting begins. This is the patch of grass that currently sits
in front of the Carriage House. It just will not do.
The new sofabed and chair are delivered...
and the kitchen starts taking shape...
This is the clock that my mom got us as a housewarming gift for The Carriage House. I bought two hanging baskets, but the one was so big that there's no room for the other!
Oh, no! Bruce with a power tool - adjusting an antique full bed to fit a queen mattress. This could take longer than we thought.... Costco has started to greet us like long-lost friends. I swear they have our picture hanging in the employee's break room. We must be the only people that can squish over $1,000 worth of merchandise into one cart. On several trips. I think we are the "customers of the month" since January. Well, at least we had our coupon for $2.75 off the garbage bags.....the cashier actually laughed at us. The grand opening of the Carriage House will be June 1. Reservations can be made now for your next girlfriends getaway or vacation. Stay tuned for more!
Another day, another picture of Bruce with a tool - a rented one at that, as he is a man of few tools....especially a drill bit that could hold up to 200 year-old stone. I was a little worried with the angle of the ladder...
but after three tries, the star turned out just fine. Funny, it looked so huge in my car...
The lower garden gets planted at the Carriage House.
Here's the living room - the old picture above the sofa is a cigar sign - from cigars produced by Sam Watts - who owned the cigar factory which was once housed in the Carriage House. He's also the gentleman that built our home, The Artist's Inn, and owned 110 acres in Terre Hill. If you are familiar with Terre Hill, ah, that's about all of it.
This is a view of the living/dining area - the kitchen is on the right.
This is the kitchen - as you can see, our color is Red.
This sage green bedroom is on the first floor - along with a bathroom with a walk-in shower. Onto the garden...
Bruce turns over the dirt...
Plants start to appear....
and more plants. On June 10, Terre Hill takes the brunt of a ferocious storm and we suffer a lot of tree damage. Our 150-year old Norway Maple, whom we refer to affectionately as our Grand Old Lady, looses lots of limbs...
mostly spewn in our neighbor's back yard....
But this was nothing compared to the lightening strike that two trees suffered at our church down the street:
So after a few days of clean-up, we are back to working in the garden:
More pictures to come!
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