The New Sign

Our new sign arrived in June, and boy were we happy with it. Thumbs up to Chuck Dorr at Dorr Woodcarving and Sign in Rockport (obligatory local plug) for such great results. We went to see Chuck back in the early spring with our original design. He took it from there and really blew our expectations away.

So far we are getting all sorts of great feedback from people that have been driving through Camden and have seen the new sign.

We've entered the modern era

... well sorta - We took the plunge in May and finally upgraded and expanded our washer n dryer situation and well got a nice new fridge at the same time. Some might say so what. But, have you ever tried to replace major appliances like these in a 160 year old house? Always a challenge.

1st - energy star/efficiency a must

2nd - expanding from 1 set to 2 sets in the existing space

3rd - get the frig in the kitchen and out of the wash room

4th - front loaders that don't shake the old structure to pieces and vibrate the guests out of their beds (and oh can self level on a floor that has a couple degree tilt to it ;)

5th - is there enough juice in the existing electric panels

6th - make new dryer vents

...

ahh the list went on, and we looked for a few months. And many solutions were available, but ... would they fit, would they shake us too much ...

Well - our local appliance guys at Kelsey's in Rockland came to the rescue and had the answers for us. Not only were they helful, but their prices beat the big box stores - (go local plug).

Anyways - what did we get - Whirlpool Duet Sport - pretty awesome. Fridge - Amana - big thumbs up from Consumer Report, lots of capacity without a big footprint, and oh yeah - great leveling legs in the front (of course in our kitchen we have a little slant going on the floor).

Now for the fun - getting the old fridge out - tilted floor and narrow doorway - not fun; electric supply wasn't really sufficient for the current set-up - so all new electric had to be run; new dryer vents had to be cut (gotta love old construction - wall is about 12" thick - let's see 1" cedar panelling, over 1" of old plaster and lathing, followed by 8" insulation filled void, 1" cedar outer sheathing, .5" of cedar siding, and finally the vinyl siding - oh yes, cedar - unbelievable - smelt great cutting the hole - oh and did I mention make sure to miss the posts in the wall - 8"x8" hardwood posts - oh yeah hardwood - they weren't messing around back in the day), and lastly expanding the fresh and waste water lines (thankful for front loaders this wasn't a problem considering that the 2 new machines combined don't use as much as half a load in the old machine), ...

So - all is in - we are enjoying the fruits of the upgrade (not doing laundry 24 hours a day and not having to walk into the wash room to get to the fridge). And as with all our projects at the old house - we shake our heads and laugh at how much work it took to do something that is a no-brainer in a modern home.

Finally, a curtain that will work!

In our last blog installment we were lamenting the fact that we could not find curtains to go in our newly redecorated Jefferson Davis Room-well the search has come to an end. After receiving two different shipments of curtains from discount websites we decided that discount was not necessarily the way to go. So this past Saturday we drove to Portland and paid a visit to Pottery Barn where we found just the right curtains but we only were able to find three panels of the curtains. I was beginning to think that I had some really bad curtain karma. I asked the salesman, Sabine, who was very helpful, if he could check the Pottery Barn website but the company has a policy that their salespeople cannot get on the site inside the store. So, thinking on my feet (unusual for me), I decided that while Sabine was checking other stores I would call my dear mother and have here look on-line for the curtains.
Here is how the conversation played out.
Beth -"Mom, could you get on the computer and look up Pottery Barn's web page and check their curtain section for the Silk Dupioni mini strip curtain?"
Mom's response- "Oh, sure let me get the computer started. Ok, ahh-what the heck is this page that came up? Kipp is going to have to fix my computer because this silly email page keeps coming up. Well, hold on just one minute let me type it in the address again P-O-T-T-E-R-Y-B-A-R-N.com. Oh, this stupid mouse won't work. I don't know what your father has done to it. I think, oh no I don't have it. Hold on a minute."
Meanwhile, I have aged about 10years and Sabine, fortunately, was able to find the curtains at another store. The following is the end of the conversation with my mother.
Beth-"Mom, don't worry about it. We have it taken care of. I'll call you later."
My mother- " But I can do this just wait one more minute."
Beth- " Mom, I am hanging up. Thanks for your help. Bye."
She called back ten minutes later when she got the page up.
Anyway, we are expecting any day now the other three panels and then I think we can call the room finished. We will have the new room pictures up on our website in the coming weeks for you to see at http://www.abigailsinn.com/.

Jefferson Davis Room has been updated ...

We have now officially remodeled all of the guest rooms since buying the Inn in August of 2004. It's taken quite some time, and there have been several other projects along the way to divert our attention. But, we have now accomplished one of first main goals to freshen up and put our touch on the guest rooms.

As with many of our other projects at the Inn - this one took much longer than anticipated and well had its fair share of mis-directions before arriving at what we both wanted. As with many of our re-do's, Beth spent a lot of time looking at house 'eye-candy' magazines like Country Living, Coastal Living, ..., to name a few. And, she arrived on a great room design using Navy and White - really formal and elegant in keeping with the goal of the Jefferson Davis room. I liked the idea too. However, we missed one important fact - the wall's in the magazine room were more than half covered in molding, floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, windows, ... all with white trim. So the Navy was more of an accent.

Not noting this - big mistake on our part - we jumped right in to the project. And, this is where the fun began. First, Navy is a difficult color to work with. As we've learned over the years - and any of you who've ever gone for a really dark red or blue - good luck getting any color consistency on the first or second coats - in this case it took 1 coat of battleship grey primer and 4 coats of the Navy to get the right color consistency. At this point - 2 weeks had gone by - and that's when we both started realizing that if we did the whole room this way - it was going to take forever and well, it was just going to be too dark - getting a little gothic to be exact. And of course, that's when we finally put on our thinking caps and made the realization noted above regarding the magazine room. Bottom line, we had too much wall - not enough molding and such that could be painted white to balance it out.

So - there we were 2 weeks in - turning away reservations - and starting over. Not good.

But, as with any project that has gone the wrong way - at the height of our frustration - we found a perfect color in a Behr paint brochure. We also got back to basics and remembered our color wheel lessons - rooms should be warm and inviting - get back to the earthtones. So we settled on a nice spiced brown color (Pepper Spice is it's name) and matched it up with a great rich antique white for the trim (Edwardian Linen from Ralph Lauren). Best of all - this color worked well with the existing furniture in the room. It really brought out the richness of wood tones in the furniture that the former color was dulling (which we hadn't realized until the change). So the remodel is pretty much complete. Well, at least we thought it was until the curtains we ordered online arrived - flimsy would actually be being kind.

Sooo - we are almost there - just have to figure out the curtain issue. And, I have this need to strip the bed frame and re-stain to a rich wood tone (we'll see where I get on this ...). And, of course, Beth is now eager to get started on the bathroom ...

We don't have any photos - yet - but they are on the way - once we have them - we'll get them up on our website at http://www.abigailsinn.com/ .

Oh - almost forgot - why is the room named after Jefferson Davis - especially in Camden, Maine? This isn't Richmond, VA. And, well, we weren't trying to bring our Southern roots north.

A little house history comes into play here. Jefferson Davis was a guest of the house on multiple occasions in the 1850's and stayed in this room on his visits. Why was he in Camden, Maine? We don't have hard facts, but here is what we've pieced together so far. Davis in the 1850's made numerous trips to Boston to speak to the town leaders regarding the problem of run away slaves. Essentially, trying to get Bostonians to feel as if they should help out the wealthy slave owner's of the South - good luck there (found this out doing a little channel surfing late one night and happening upon this story on the History Channel). Our guess is that as part of these trips, he also included visits to Camden, Maine, where US Congressman E.K. Smart lived. Smart was an outspoken critic of the South's claims for reparations for runaway slaves - as we found in a 16 page speech he delivered to the US Congress in 1852 (actually one of our guests last year found the speech and was kind enough to get us a copy). Basically, Smart laid out that if the South expected the North to pay $800,000 in reparations for run away slaves, then the South needed to pony up about $20 million to cover expenses for federal services in the South covered by the taxpayers of the North (postal service, coastal defense, ...). So our best guess is that Davis as part of his excursions North was also paying visits to an outspoken critic of the views he represented. This is what we know to-date, and of course we'll add more as we learn more.

So -back to the topic of this entry - any of our previous guests to the Jefferson Davis Room - you will be in for a pleasant surprise on your next stay at Abigail's Inn.

Hello

Well, we procrastinated long enough, but finally we have started the blog that many of you have asked us to do. Why so long - well, owning, running, and being the labor of our Bed & Breakfast has distracted us for a while. But, we finally bit the bullet and have joined the 21st century - which is somewhat embarrassing considering our backgrounds.

For any of you arriving here for the first time to visit us - we are Kipp and Beth, the proprietors of Abigail's Inn in Camden, ME - www.abigailsinn.com. We are a small Bed & Breakfast located on the Mid-Coast of Maine - in the picturesque town of Camden.

Back in 2004, we were those people some refer to as DINK's - double-income-no-kids. We lived in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. We held 'big' jobs. But, somewhere over too many glasses of wine one weekend in April of 2004 at Hillsborough Winery, we decided that we were - well - bored with the whole job, commute, ... So, we decided - time to make a change - was it to buy and old country home and remodel, was it to quit and travel, was it to start a home-flipping business, was it relocate overseas, ... Where did we end up ... Let's buy a B&B and quit the big city and the corporate life.

So that Spring and early Summer, we started looking - Cape Cod, mountains of Virginia, mountains of North Carolina, and Maine. Why these locations - just places that we'd been that had a left a favorable impression upon us. We looked online at first, then started visiting places. We got very interested in a B&B on Cape Cod, but Beth said let's go check out Maine. So we did. In planning the trip, a friend mentioned that we should check out Camden, Maine - so we included a side trip to Camden, Maine to visit Abigail's.

Well - in true guerrilla fashion - we left DC by car on Thursday night after work - drove until 2am, making Rhode Island where Beth's parents have a place. Got up at 6am the next morning and drove straight to Camden for a short visit on our way to the planned destination. All this being - right before July 4 weekend.

Upon arriving in Camden, we were immediately drawn in by the town and area. Here before us was this beautiful small town with a main street lined with stores, a harbor that opens on to the Penobscot Bay, and mountains (not tall by many people's standards - but for the East Coast of the US to have a mountain on the coast is a rarity). We had been to Maine before but not to Camden or even this far north - we had only made it as far as Booth Bay. So we were hooked on our first visit. We visited Abigail's, and well we were also hooked. It made our true destination an immediate after thought.

So after this whirl-wind visit, we came back 2 weeks later, put down a contract, closed on August 20, 2004 and the adventure began. Since then, we have had many wonderful guests and have learned quite a lot about how to run our own business and how to be your own best handy man/woman.

Welcome to our blog, Beth and Kipp
Come visit us at www.abigailsinn.com