Thursday, March 20, 2008

First day of spring

Today is the first day of spring and our saucer magnolia is in full bloom, the grass is starting to green up and before long the trees will once again be full of leaves. In a couple of weeks everything will be lush and green. Speaking of green, The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast is, we are proud to say, the only Green Bed and Breakfast in Lynchburg.

We have just completed a complete overhaul of our website and added a calendar of events under our “Area Attractions” page. Besides our website update, quite a bit has happened since the first of the year. We received an award from the Lynchburg Historical Society for our four and a half year restoration of the interior, we were voted the best Bed and Breakfast in Lynchburg by the readers of Lynchburg Living, we were just featured in Showcase Magazine as a get-away destination and we are currently participating with the folks from Cotton and Hallmark Magazine in a national sweepstakes where the grand prize is…, you guessed it, a trip to The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast!!! We were asked to participate because we are a “Green” Bed and Breakfast as well as a woman owned facility. For more information on these and other awards/recognition please check our website.

The Old City Courthouse was just reopened and houses the Lynchburg Museum and is a must see. Poplar Forest, Thomas Jefferson’s summer home, opens on 1 April and garden day at the Old City Cemetery is on the 24th of April. Not only is spring the time plants spring back to life, life around Lynchburg kicks into high gear. There are numerous events at the Academy of Fine Arts, all of the colleges and universities have lecture series open to the general public and in a couple of weeks you can take a class in tombstone repairs at the Old City Cemetery.

The Watts House, aka The Carriage House Inn Bed and Breakfast turns 130 years old this year. Built in 1878 by RT Watts this Italianate Mansion survived with many of its original architectural elements in place. The four original bath tubs are still in use. Two of the original bathroom sinks are here. Many of the original light fixtures, doors, moldings, mantels, mirrors, and bathroom cabinets are still here. To celebrate we are offering all of our rooms at $130.00 per night (taxes and gratuities are additional) when you stay a minimum of two consecutive nights Sunday-Thursday! We will guarantee you a room with a private bath but the room assignment will take place when you check in. You can choose any room you want that is available. PLEASE MENTION THIS PROMOTION WHEN YOU BOOK YOUR ROOM.

Interested in old homes? There is a tour of historic homes in the Daniels Hill section of Lynchburg on Sunday, 28 September from 1-4:30. Our home will be one of the homes on tour. This would be a great opportunity to see several homes in various stages of restoration. Call us now to make your reservation for that weekend. October 23-25th there will be a ghost walk tour in the Rivermont section of Lynchburg and this is always a lot of fun. Again, if you wish to be here for this call us for a reservation and if you book two nights during the week you get the promotional price (above).

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Why Lynchburg

Welcome to my Blog. I’m writing this to describe the joys and frustrations of restoring a historic home which we have now turned into a bed and breakfast. The first question I am often asked is why Lynchburg? Are you from here? Do you have family here? Did you go to school here? The answers to the last three questions are no, so why Lynchburg?

I obtained my real estate license in 1972 and have always enjoyed buildings and architecture, especially the character of older homes. From the late 1980’s I have always wanted to live in and restore an old home so our quest began. Everytime we traveled outside the Northern Virginia area we visited the older parts of cities and towns looking for the right house. We found beautiful homes, in cities that were declining or great properties out in the country, next to the land fill trailer park or worse so we continued to keep looking. Our quest for the right property took us as far north as Michigan south to Georgia. Finally one day while searching the net looking for homes 100+ years old we saw an interesting property in Lynchburg. We made arrangements to drive down and look at it, and while it had possibilities, it wasn’t quite right. That home was originally built for a family by the name of Watts who was in the hardware business in the late 1800’s While looking at this property we noticed that the City of Lynchburg was being revitalized so we decided that while that house wasn’t the right one, Lynchburg was on our list of possible places to relocate. A year went by and we kept searching for the right property until one day another Internet search located another old home in Lynchburg. We called a local Realtor and made arrangements to look at the house and immediately knew this was it. Ironically, this home was also originally built for the Watts family who was in the hardware business in the late 1800’s. Evidently both of the Watts brothers along with a fellow by the name of Jones established a chain of hardware stores in the Lynchburg area after the Civil War.

We hadn’t made it upstairs while looking at the home when we knew that this was the place for us. We went back to the Realtor’s office and wrote the contract and became the proud owner’s of what would ultimately become our new home.

We are often asked, Why Lynchburg? The simplest answer we can give is this is where the house is. When we found “the” house it happened to be in Lynchburg, a small city that has the charm of “small town America.” It is a great place to live where the people are friendly, the City officials go out of their way to assist you and the quality of life is great. We were fortunate to find “the” house in a great place. That was in the spring of 2003. The home wasn’t in bad shape and I foolishly thought I could have most of the restoration completed by the following summer (2004). Little did I know what was in store for me…