The First Guests have been and gone ..
We had our first guests into the The Squirrel’s Drey. We were very nervously waiting to hear if they enjoyed their stay.
They had a great time and left us a fantastic review on Airbnb. We were delighted and relieved too. Brian and I have been thinking and planning this for a while. It was going to be a retirement project but I had a period of ill health and we brought the plan forward to enable me to work from home. Although I really loved my career as a teacher and was very sad when I had to consider stopping, I am loving my new career too. We started in January with Bed and Breakfast in the house (Bridgend Cottage, Gartmore) and that has been really successful. We have met really lovely people from all over the world, who have been really kind in their reviews. Now our first cabin is operational it has brought a new dimension to our plan.
Our second guests arrived last night. I received a message this morning to say they love the cabin. Again, delight and relief!
Jamie, our son, is working on finishing the website now we have the lovely pictures and that will be operational soon. He is in New Zealand so we have to have late night conversations, or early morning ones. We trust him to put his own slant on it and get it complete soon – no pressure Jamie. Today I am going to spend time putting the cabin on to other sites such as Home and Away, Trip Advisor, Booking.com etc. I cannot believe we are at this stage. What will Brian and I have to discuss when we are not talking about solar panels, drainage, planning, topographical reports, heating systems, recycling, pitch of the roof and other such matters? We will be looking at each other blankly! Brian has been working like a machine since January, 7 days a week keeping his own business running and creating the infrastructure around the cabins which he has done in his usual beautiful, talented and artistic style. I have been running keeping everyone fed and watered along with a few other little tasks thrown in along the way!
Will leaves us on Sunday. He has been here for many weeks and we are going to miss him and Kimber when they go. I think that is a pretty fantastic thing we have achieved between us. To do a project of this size and to not to have had a single issue or cross word is fantastic. He has been a dream to work with. As well as that, we have had lots of laughs and fun. He has also been part of our endless discussions over dinner about the best heaters, toilets, pricing, etc which he would have been well within his rights to tell us it was nothing to do with his part of the job! I know he will have been sick listening to us obsess over it! We have, between us all, come up with a product we are absolutely delighted with.
From this first peg going in …..
To this 4 months later ..
