Buying a B&B

[bergerka]

Oh, congratulations!!! Please please please keep us up to date...this has been a secret dream of mine for years.

...need any, er, classical entertainment?

K

[tanabutler]

congrats and the best of luck. you're apparently doing what i don't have the balls to.

Go, Tommy! Live your dream!

[gsquared]

And let me know if you need a website. I've done several B&B sites, and I would love to help.

Thanks, Tana. I may just take you up on that.

Will you be keeping your house (with its gorgeous veranda)?

Alas, no. We are going to sell it. Immediately.

Do people swim there?

Indeed they do. Thanks for the input, Linda. Interesting thoughts.

You're in the South (at least, ughhhh, the SOuthern Hemisphere) so why not serve these little devils.?

Corn meal is a staple down here and will for sure find its way onto the menu.

this has been a secret dream of mine for years

And of ours. Realising it still seems unreal. And scary, as we are betting the farm on the venture. But then how do you place a value on a dream?

Thanks all for the good wishes. I shall keep you informed of our progress. Maybe a B&B blog recording the adventure?

[Pan]

Best of luck, Gerhard! Thanks for sharing the beautiful pictures. With that view the talent for great cooking, presentation, and hospitality that was obvious from your blog, I find it hard to imagine that your B&B won't be a success!

[tanabutler]

It's the oddest thing for me to be all excited about someone on the other side of the world. I can't imagine ever getting there, despite how gorgeous it is. (That didn't stop me from doing websites for people across the ocean. God bless digital cameras and uploading files!)

I have no idea what you'll do with the place but I do feel rather sure that people will come. Clearly you are committed to considering your ingredients.

This is a clear case of you choosing a property that is a sweet destination. People will want to come.

It is so beautiful.

I hope you will elaborate on the climate and the year-round views. It really is a gorgeous place.

[fifi]

A blog on your adventure is definitely in order. My first thought is to start it in Adventures in Eating. We could all vicariously join in your adventure. It would be really fun to follow what you do with the place. Contrasting the pictures from your blog and the pictures of the place that you have shown here, I can see where your special touch will probably be applied to this place with great effect. It appears to have "good bones" that will respond well to your touch. Menu development as you go along would really be interesting.

For some inexplicable reason, I am fixated on the flower baskets as shown in your blog. Would you be carrying that tradition to the new place?

[beans]

G -

What about that sweet little antique stove? Will that remain with your house or will it add to the charm of the B&B?

What is the Garden Route?

I once gave very serious consideration over travelling to Madagascar to meet up with a friend. I really would enjoy to visit your part of the world one day. It is positively stunning.

Yes, someday.

[gsquared]

For some inexplicable reason, I am fixated on the flower baskets as shown in your blog. Would you be carrying that tradition to the new place?

I am not sure whether I will be able to. The climate is temperate with an average summer hi/lo of 25C/15C and a winter (June-Aug) of 19C/9C, but I do not know what effect the sea breezes will have on flower baskets. Annual ave rainfall is 715mm.

[gsquared]

What about that sweet little antique stove? Will that remain with your house or will it add to the charm of the B&B?

Regrettably the stove will have to stay. The agents that will sell the house reckon it is worth a lot in terms of generatiung a good offer.

What is the Garden Route?

It is an area of the Cape coast on the Indian ocean with long stretches of unspoilt beaches, indigenous forests, lakes, lagoons and rivers. The climate is temperate and the many scenic attractions has made it into one of the most-visited coastal areas in the country.

[beans]

What is the Garden Route?

It is an area of the Cape coast on the Indian ocean with long stretches of unspoilt beaches, indigenous forests, lakes, lagoons and rivers. The climate is temperate and the many scenic attractions has made it into one of the most-visited coastal areas in the country.

I know how you will miss that little antique. I "had" one once myself. It was my first house rental in a very historical district of Cleveland. My landlord was threatening to toss it and I begged him to reconsider. Oh yes I'd enjoy the modern conveniences of a sparkling new stove, but I really cherish the antique/tried and true.

Regarding the Garden Route: Much of what I suspected to be a most lovely destination.

Like Katie, adoption is still available here too! And I've happily worked on a resort island of maintaining guest quarters ... full service! Accommodations and drink! Okay, seriously, there is some sort of peacefulness that cannot be explained to another in folding warm, clean sheets. We had a tight crew and I really loved spending time with our wonderful head housekeeper those Mondays when we were deserted as we laughed together folding freshly washed linens. As odd as it sounds, quite fond memories.

And, there is much joy in repeat guests. They were a true pleasure.

Purely from speculation of your wonderful blog, you're guests may never leave after sampling your lovely cooking and plating efforts!

Sincerely, all of my best with this exciting new direction.

[gsquared]

Beans- Thankee kindly, ma'am!

[Bicycle Lee]

Hey...if you guys need a chef/cook I am trying desperately to find somewhere to relocate...I would work relatively cheap and I can start immediately...

want a resume? hehe

[nanuq]

Oh, you lucky man. The Knysna coast is gorgeous. I have not been there in years, but have been trying to get to that coast my last few visits back to S.A. I'm not sure how I missed your blog, but having just read it, I can only think that if I had friends like you in Jo'burg I may not have left.

I hope to be a guest at the B&B soon, and I wil be sending a link to everyone in SA I know.

Sukses!

Tracey

[gsquared]

Thanks Tracey!

[Mottmott]

What a wonderful adventure for you. I wish you great happiness and success.

I hope you'll consider (and have time for) a B&B Blog. We could be your diary and the core of your GSquared Cookbook.

[fifi]

There is a really nice web site on Knysna here.

[gsquared]

We have now taken posession of our guest house and have more or less settled in. What would you guys prefer me to post: ball-by-ball, highlights only or just the food related stuff?

Edited June 23, 2004 by gsquared (log)

[Mottmott]

Wonderful to have you back. I think we can trust you. Start where you will and end with as much detail as you have time for. All paths in your garden will fork to the dining table.

[zilla369]

Whoo hoo! I'm particularly interested in the specifics of breakfast and service thereof, since i moonlight (sunlight?) at a B&B as cook a couple times a month.

But don't skimp on more pictures of the coast! You could always just tape a chive to the camera lens or something (to keep it food-related)

[piperdown]

Good Luck on your new Adventure.

Five years ago, a few years after my parent's Divorce, my Mom quit her job and bought a B&B. it was the best decision she ever made. It was definitely a gut wrenching one, but it was the right thing to do. I'm sure you made the right one as well. It' definitely a different way of life (having worked there on and off on holiday's), but it's an amazingly rewarding one as well.

Good luck, and have fun.

[JennyUptown]

GG - thrilled to have you back in action. I was worried that your new project would make you too busy for EG.

[Jake]

Post it all!!! Great stuff and the gory details. We have to live vicariously through you.

[gsquared]

Ok - here goes.

Of necessity I will probably have to tell the tale of our B&B in several episodes. Bear with me if the posts appear in a rather erratic fashion. That will be due more to a lassitude induced by living in paradise than the exigencies of running a guest house. Because that is where we find ourselves. Paradise.

After retirement from the hurly burly of the investment world, I decided to take a sabbatical. I felt that I owed a period of doing nothing to myself and my SO (hereafter referred to as The Artist). The problem with doing nothing is that it is difficult to know when you are done. After a year of sitting under the thorn tree, reading, sipping wine and eGulleting, I found that declining interest rates meant that I had to look carefully at our investments. Income producing property offered the best balance in terms of capital grown and income. The advantage of having a large thorn tree in the garden is that it induces, to the sitter beneath, a contemplative mood. Great place to contemplate your navel. The idea of a guest house or B&B arose and took hold of the Artist and me. We decided on the most wonderful place to live, and forthwith flew off to the Garden Route along South Africa’s Eastern Seaboard (Indian Ocean). Four visits later we found Mes Amis, a 10 bedroom B&B on a dune in Wilderness. We booked in and, this time sans the thorn tree but with a superb view over the ocean, turned to our navels again. As we were sitting on a little patio outside our room, a school of around 200 dolphins appeared in the breakers, playfully surfing the waves. That ended the contemplation, firmed our resolve, and produced an offer which turned into a contract the next day. Our house was sold a week later, the movers booked and plans laid for what we were going to do to Mes Amis to imprint it with our (we hoped) unique character.

Mes Amis has 10 lettable rooms, all en suite. Two with bath and shower, 8 with shower only. Each room has a small patio and a superb view of the Indian Ocean. Two, count them, two kitchens! Somewhat run down here and there and in need of a coat of paint, but we had serious plans. This would be the B&B where we would love to stay. This would be, well, just the best B&B on the Garden Route. This series of posts will tell the tale of ideas realised, of reality tempering extravagance and of how we came to realise that aiming at a specific market segment and shaping the establishment and what it offers to fit that target market is far more important than satisfying some personal desire.

Until the next post, here is an arial pic of Mes Amis, with our property outlined in red. Hang gliders often come swooping past, and we had a shouted conversation (in sections with lots of miming) with one of these foolish men. He somehow grasped what we wanted and turned up at the door one day with a slew of pics.

And the view from our front porch.

In the next post: How I wasted money on kitchens. Why moving house after 15 years is a bad idea. How to cook breakfast for philistines. And more. Bear with me, I'll try to do a post a week.

[Carolyn Tillie]

Color me GREEN! with envy.

Blog on -- give all us slugs the encouragement we need to follow our dreams!

Congrats, Gerhard!

[hathor]

I am so glad to see your post!! I've been wondering how it was going. Yes, yes keep posting as often as you can!

I'm sooo sorry you had to leave the stove behind. But, I'm sure you have a great stove where you are now. Looking forward to your further adventures!!