Update on the Remodel

The project has grown a bit. We've got to built out from the main building in order to work around our well on one side and the intakes for the oil tanks on the other side. So it turns out that we're going to keep much of the footprint of the existing porch and build the addition beyond that. The area where the porch sits is now going to be a large closet, an entrance to the basement (replacing the bulkhead), and maybe some shelving and the like. We might put the kids' computer and desk in there.

I'm worried about two things. First, the cost. We're not borrowing any money for the project, but it's going to fully deplete the cash reserves of the business and force me to loan the business some money from our personal accounts in order to have enough cash for working capital/emergencies until we get to winter again.

Given the craptacular state of the economy, this feels a bit risky. We've saved a nice cushion in a personal money market account over the last couple of years that has psychologically offset the punishing losses to our mutual fund and retirement investments. This will recapitalize the business, but drain our personal accounts. Will we have enough positive cash flow going forward to replenish that and still make our IRA contributions, take our planned trip to France, etc? Probably, so long as people keep staying at the inn and M keeps her job. Both things seem pretty stable at the moment, but you never know.

Second, it feels like a kludge. I'm not sure how to get around this. I've thought of different options for expanding the business in every direction and I can't come up with anything that works any better. And the good thing about this plan is that if things turn sour for the business, or when future innkeepers take over, or our kids move out of the house, there will be a fully contained one bed/one bath unit that can either be rented or used as a perk for an assistant innkeeper, or whatever. A tangible asset for the business.

More on the Garden Relocation

Turns out that the garden relocation was unnecessary. The addition will be further to the north than I thought. I spent several hours digging what was either chunks of bedrock or the foundation of an ancient lost city from the ground, together with laboriously sifting out the smaller rocks and pebbles from the soil of the new garden space.

Sheesh, it's no wonder people fled northern New England as soon as the Ohio Valley opened for settlers. Throw in the very short growing season and it's a wonder any farmers lived up here at all.

The carefully tended and double-dug former garden is now just a hole in the ground, but I think I should go about refilling it with purchased topsoil, compost, and the like, and double the size of my vegetable garden. I'll also need to collect new stones from the river to use as my garden border.

We Need a Room - FAST!!!

Crazy Things Guests Say and Do: Part 87 of a 737 part series

A couple came into the lobby this afternoon, asking if we had a room available. I started to give the price, etc., and the woman suddenly broke in, "Uhm, is that a bathroom behind that door? Can I use it?"

She hurried in, and the husband said, "Can I see one of your rooms?"

"Would you like to wait until she's out?"

"No, that's okay. I can decide for both of us."

I took him down to the first free room, he made a cursory look inside and said, "This looks great. I'm just going to use the bathroom here really quick."

"So, you'd like to rent the room?" I asked.

"I don't know, I'll have to talk to--here, hold on one second," he said, as he pushed past me into the bathroom.

I was a little too quick, and I could see how this was going, so I stepped into the bathroom with him and said, "Unless you're sure you're taking the room, can you please use the bathroom off the lobby? Otherwise, I'll have to come clean this bathroom again before it can be rented."

"I don't know if I can make it," he said, with a note of urgency.

But there was no way I was going to let this guy foul up the bathroom, so I repeated myself. He went back to the lobby in a hurry and fortunately, the woman didn't take long. As soon as the toilet flushed, he was knocking on the door and he practically bowled her over the instant she unlocked it.

Once they'd both done their business, they mumbled something about maybe being back later and continued on their way. The whole thing, it would seem, had been a ruse to get to a bathroom as quickly as possible.

There was a certain, uhm, pungent odor in the bathroom after they'd left. Whatever they'd eaten, it didn't agree with them.

Moving the Garden

Yes, I've spent the last month traveling and the most exciting thing I can think to write about is my garden. Feel free to skip to the next blog.

We're getting ready to start our addition in the next few weeks and this means my vegetable garden will come under assault by backhoes and other construction equipment. Some of that space may remain once everything is finished, but not without suffering extreme abuse.

So I've walled in another section below the Buddha Garden of approximately the same size and have been transporting my hard built soil down from the old garden. I have some potatoes sprouting to plant there and am going to do carrots on about a third of the plot.

In addition, I tore up a bush between the main building and the lodge this last fall and since this spot gets a little more sun, I'm going to plant some tomatoes once we're past the last frost (June 5!) and see if I can coax some tomatoes out of our very short northern New England growing season.