Waypoint House

Address: 211 S Church St. Berryville, Va    Reservation Line: 540-955-8218

Projects

Spring Renewal

Spring Renewal

Understandably, many people get energized and excited at the top of the New Year to make changes and updates in their lives. For me, I always get a renewed sense of energy as I feel spring approaching. Perhaps it’s seeing the gardens awake, and feeling the warmth of the sun grow stronger as we inch closer to the spring equinox that sets me stirring, but I start to look for new ideas and new projects to take on. Now that I am watching the vestiges of what will (hopefully!) be the last snow disappear, the spring renewal has me itching to get to work!

As such, we are very excited to announce the launch of our updated online booking platform. I know a lot of you prefer just giving me a call to make your reservations, and we love that! For dedicated online bookers and for first time guests finding us, however, I really feel like this new system will be much easier and more intuitive to use. It’s also an opportunity to highlight some of the “extras” that we offer to enhance stays. For these additions, we work hard to collaborate with local vendors. That way, our guests get the best of everything that Berryville and the surrounding area has to offer.

Highlighting Local Vendors

As a prime example, we are now very proudly serving locally roasted Cordial Coffee at breakfast. Additionally, we offer a new Wake Up Package featuring a bag of their freshly roasted beans. It’s a great way to bring a taste of Berryville home with you after your stay. Just how local is this locally roasted coffee, you ask? Just two blocks away! That pretty much guarantees a fresh, tasty cup of coffee in the morning!

Cordial Coffee Wake Up Package at Waypoint House B+B

Cordial Coffee Wake Up Package at Waypoint House B+B

Veramar Vineyards has been our purveyor of choice for the wines we serve with our in-room packages for years. Now it’s even easier to add a wine package to your reservation with the new booking system.

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Celebrating a birthday or anniversary during your stay with us? We can offer a unique floral arrangement designed exclusively for Waypoint House from our local florist. Just ask for the Blue Ridge Bouquet when booking your reservation over the phone. It can also be added to a reservation from the extras section while booking online. We’ve even created a package to bring you house made birthday cupcakes!

Birthday Celebration Package at Waypoint House B+B

Birthday Celebration Package at Waypoint House B+B

And if you need something really special for a celebration, we are excited to be able to bring you a premium, local, Virginia sparkling wine. Greenhill Winery and Vineyards’ Blanc de Blancs is available as a package add on.

Greenhill Winery Blanc de Blancs

Greenhill Winery Blanc de Blancs

We invite you to take a look at our newly updated Promotions, Specials and Extras page to see all the details.

Welcome to Spring!


The Big Reveal

It took two weeks from start to finish, but we are ready to show the big reveal of our wallpaper project!

First, I have to give a very big thanks to Terry Ashby of The Cutting Edge wallpaper service. Thanks to him, the process was easy and efficient, and we are so pleased with the results!

One of our worries upon starting this project was how the old wallpaper would come down. I’ve done quite a bit of wallpaper removal myself, and you just never know how the process will go. I was fairly confident that most of what was on plaster walls would come down just fine. We knew there were several drywall additions, though, and I was suspicious that at least one area had multiple layers of paper to get through.

In just two days, though, all the walls were ready for priming. Jonathan and I tackled that chore. Once that was done, we also painted the bottom half of the walls with the new color we had already selected. We knew it was important to get all of out painting done ahead of the paper installation. That way, there was no need to worry about painting near, or splattering on, the new wall covering.

Terry and crew were able to install like the wind after that. In just two and a half days, they transformed the space. Finally, my in-house carpenter (AKA, Jonathan) was able to install the chair railing, and just like that, our lovely lady now looks stunning in her new dress!

More updates to come

In other news, there continues to be great progress on the new roof. We’ve only lost a couple of days of work due to poor weather, and the crew is currently working on the south side of the house which will be the easiest section as there are no angles or valleys to contend with. I’m still very eager for the copper accent roof on the bay window to go on, but I know my patience will be rewarded, and I’m looking forward to sharing that update with everyone soon.


Celebrating Our Five-Year Anniversary and Our June Improvements

It’s been a very exciting first two weeks of June, and today is a very special day for us. Today we are celebrating our five-year anniversary and our June improvements are underway!

Yes, that’s right, it’s already been five years here at Waypoint House and we still love every minute of it.  By itself, that’s a pretty big deal this week, but also we’re right in the middle of our planned June improvement projects.

Aside from the little hint I gave you in the last blog, we are also undertaking having the roof replaced – a new hat for our old girl, as we like to say.  Ironclad Contracting has been on the scene taking the old roof off section by section and re-installing our beautiful new standing seam metal roof.  We are already so pleased with the progress.  The cherry on top will be when our side bay window receives a new copper roof that we think is going to be a really spectacular accent.  I can’t wait until I have photos of that to show you!  It will be the last thing the contractor does, so we must be patient for a few more weeks.

The interior work is underway as well. The front hallway, stairwell and second floor hallway will have all the wallpaper replaced.  We will install chair rail molding and paint the bottom portion of the walls.  Jonathan has already primed and painted the molding for installation and today the wallpaper removal process started.  I’m also doing some touch up painting on the second floor hallway doors and trim so that everything has a nice, clean, polished look.  We’re calling the wallpaper project the new “dress” for our dear girl!  So, a new hat and a new dress for our lovely lady as we celebrate our five year anniversary – not too shabby!  Stay tuned for more updates as progress continues!


Spring Rejuvenations

Spring finally seems to be arriving and we’ve been working on some spring rejuvenations. The days are warmer and we get an extra bit of time each evening before the sun goes down to complete our outside chores (of which there are many this time of year). As you may know, we have a tendency to be involved in some sort of home improvement project on a nearly ongoing basis. Whether it’s outside or inside, we’re almost constantly working on something. We can’t help it. We’re compulsive. We just want to continually make things better. Early on, Jonathan and I had this instilled in us. For me, perhaps, my 4-H days are partially to blame. Any former 4-H kids out there remember the 4-H motto? *Raises hand with enthusiasm as only a nerd at heart would do.* “To make the best better.” Yep, that’s us.

Recently, it’s been outdoor updates keeping us busy. It is spring, after all. The lawn has needed some thatching and reseeding, and we’ve annexed a bit more garden space for our herbs and vegetables this year. I really enjoy being able to bring fresh things from our yard right to the breakfast table and I keep looking for new ways to be able to do that. I just have to figure out where to put those blueberry bushes I want…

Spring Rejuvenations: Our garden annex for 2017

Spring Rejuvenations: Our garden annex for 2017

The most exciting news, however, is that we have two very big projects planned for this summer. Big in scope and big presence. These changes will be zingers.

We’re going to need a little time off to accomplish it all though. We are planning to keep the work mostly to weekdays in the month of June, so if you are considering a weekend visit this summer, we still have you covered. Plan ahead though, folks. With three rooms, we tend to fill fast.

There will be lots of photos and updates through the blog, Facebook and Instagram. If you don’t follow us on either social media platform, now would be a good time to start. Links to our social media pages are in the sidebar of this page. Go have a gander.

“But what are these projects?” you are saying to yourself right now. “Aren’t you at least going to give us a hint?” Okay – one hint:

Getting ready for some changes at Waypoint House Bed and Breakfast

Getting ready for some changes at Waypoint House Bed and Breakfast

 


Home Improvements

Back just before Thanksgiving, I left a teaser on our Instagram account about starting some improvement projects. When you own a home, I think you naturally have a running list of things you want to do – small repairs and updates as well as big projects to complete. That list never seems to get shorter when you own a 130+ year old home that also operates as a Bed and Breakfast!

And so, I wanted to finally share with you the projects we completed just before the Thanksgiving holiday.  These two items had been on our list for a while, and we were glad to be able to check them off as complete! The Shore Room bathroom and the Hearth and Home Room bathroom received facelifts. Both rooms had older linoleum flooring that needed updating and the fixtures in the Shore Room were also a little behind the times.

Day one of the project consisted of removing everything from the rooms and disposing of the old fixtures that wouldn’t be used again. We ripped out the flooring and removed the old light fixtures and exhaust fans.

Day two saw paint touch ups completed, and the new tile floors went down. New lighting fixtures went up, and the new exhaust fans were installed.

On day three we grouted the new floors and reset most of the toe kick at the baseboards.

Everything came back together on day four. The plumber installed the new toilets and the new vanity in the Shore Room. New vanity mirrors were hung, and any remaining caulking and trim work got our attention.

The fifth day was time for us to finish up any final details and clean up. It was a quick turn around to get everything done, but we managed it! I think both rooms look great with their new face lifts.

One of our traditions during any home improvement project is a dinner I call “Renovation Chili”. The chili can be quickly set up in the morning in a crock pot, and by the time you are finished with a long day of work, you have a nice hot meal waiting for you that required very little work. I vary the measurements a little each time depending upon the taste I want, but this is the basic recipe for our Renovation Chili:

Waypoint House Renovation Chili

1 lb Ground Beef

1 Large Onion, diced

1 Green Bell Pepper, diced

1 Jalapeno, seeded and chopped

2 Cloves Garlic, minced

2 cans Diced Tomatoes (14.5 oz)

1 can Kidney Beans, drained

2 Tbl Tomato Paste

2 tsp prepared yellow mustard

1 Tbl Worcestershire Sauce

1.5 Tbl Chili Powder

1 Tbl Cumin

½ Tbl Dried Oregano

1 Bay Leaf

1/2Tbl Apple Cider Vinegar

In a large skillet, brown the ground beef, drain off fat, reserving a few tablespoons for the next step, then transfer meat to crock pot. In the same skillet, sauté the onion, bell pepper, and garlic in a bit of the reserved beef fat until onions are translucent. Transfer to the crockpot. Add the remaining ingredients to the crock pot and stir well. Cook 6-8 hours on low. Remove bay leaf, ladle into bowls and enjoy!

Attached our some pictures of our work in progress, and then the finished product. What do you think of the improvement? Do you like the updates? Let us know!