YellowSocks

Bullet synopsis for Swirt:

• Own four room College House B&B, Ashland, Ohio
• Opened first two rooms in 2007, last two in 2008
• Married with twin boys
• Don't really care for bullets
• Believe in hard work

Hi, I'm YellowSocks, aka Kk. (for Kathy Kollar).  I chose the user name YellowSocks because I do, in fact, wear yellow socks, at least in the winter.  In the summer I tend toward bare feet.  Or sandals.  Or holey sneakers. 

I own and operate College House B&B, a four bedroom bed and breakfast in Ashland, Ohio (motto: Ashland, Ohio, Someplace Special).  We have a sign on the edge of town that says, "Ashland Ohio, The World Headquarters of Nice People."  And it is.  (Nice, that is).  My dh and I lived in Maryland for many years and I'm delighted to be away from the hour long commute at 80 miles an hour, the drugs down the street, and the hazy-hot-and-humid from May to September (although we do miss the Chesapeake Bay and our wonderful friends there!).  Once our twins were born and dh elected not to re-enlist in the Maryland Army National Guard we knew it was only a matter of time until we'd move somewhere more family friendly.  I never expected to come back to the area where I grew up, but I'm glad to be here!

I was looking for a home-based business so I could homeschool my kids, preferably one that involved hard work and that kids could help with from a young age (I grew up on a farm 20 miles from here).  I'm very grateful that the first innkeeper I talked with answered my question, "What's it like to run a B&B?" truthfully.  She said, "Brawn!"  I said, "Excuse me?"  She said, "A lot of muscle!  Long days and hard work."  My response, "Tell me more!"  So, I didn't come into innkeeping with this romantic vision of sitting on the porch drinking tea, but of providing life skills for my twins, now 5.

Unfortunately, at this point (2008) most of the work falls on me.  Dh got a factory job to provide health insurance, with the caveat that he'll stay five years and then he's outta there.  (We refer to it as the "salt mines.")  So, 2-1/2 more years until we gotta be profitable.  He works 10 hour days then comes home and helps me.  But he loves it and has no regrets for moving here. 

So, we bought our house in 2006, and then spent about as much as we paid for it on fixing it up.  We opened our first guest room, The Music Department, in July 2007, the Art Department in October 2007, and the English and History Departments in June 2008.  We try to be different without being bizarre, and very accommodating.  Since we only have four rooms we are able to be flexible on our breakfast times and I'm willing to prepare special diet breakfasts if I'm given advance warning.  Our rooms are decorated according to their names... Music has musical instruments and a rich decor.  Art has six colors of paint, three lava lamps, beads hanging here and there, and hippy ducks in the shower.  English has gold, Italianate decor, and its bathroom has a huge whirlpool tub with pink tile and chocolate brown walls (sounds odd, but it works).  History is done in red, white and blue with bunting for curtains and American decor.  I love them all!

My dh is a coffee lovah (20 years and he still can't get me to drink it!) who isn't super handy but is willing to clean floors (which I hate doing).  In spite of working full-time he manages to help a lot with cleaning the guest rooms and common areas, as well as landscape maintenance (i.e., mowing the yard).  His current hobby is raising tobacco plants.

I worked in offices for many years and can use any software.  I touch type, so I tend to be long winded, and I'm an English major and a linguaphile, so I tend to use big words and proper English, and long, run on sentences.  But not always.  (I also use a lot of parentheses and unended sentences...)  I used to teach homeschooled kids (my favorite job besides this one).  Over the course of three years I taught science, history, and drama, but my favorite class was 8th Grade Omnibus, a two period class that covered History (Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Reformation), English, Poetry, Theology and Debate.  Anyway, I wrote (and now maintain) the INNspiring Glossary. I wrote it while I was still an aspiring, using words and abbreviations that were either in common use, or which someone had asked "what's that mean?"  For the most part I don't coin Glossary terms, just have fun defining them.  I also helped write some of the INNspiring FAQs.

I'm very frugal, and we run an eco friendly B&B, mostly because it's cost effective (although we care about the environment, too.)  Dh thinks we're not green enough, but we do what we can with what we've got.

Dh and I are very conservative Christians, and I find that innkeeping is good for us.  That is, it forces me to serve others and die to self, while allowing me to practice hospitality.  We tend to be low key about our faith both here on the forum and with our guests, but our faith is an inherent part of who we are and sometimes it will show.  At the same time, we respect others whose opinions and beliefs are different than our own and want them to feel welcome and comfortable both here on the forum and in our B&B.

I remember vividly the times I've received encouragement from others on this forum and try to be encouraging as my way of paying it forward.  If someone comes with a pipe dream I figure there's enough folks here to shoot down their ideas, I don't need to do it, too.

I choose not to be anonymous because I have little to hide, very few PITAs (at least so far), and I fear I'll be too catty otherwise.

I am eternally grateful to this forum and its predecessor... I have learned so much from the innkeepers here!  I used their advice during renovations and setting up my rooms, and we had a very smooth opening because of it.  Because of that, I am always happy to take time with aspiring innkeepers to pass on what I've learned so far, and keep up to date on all the posts here. 

I have a theory that elderly people are just the same as they were when they were younger, only more so.  That is, the dirty old man was a raunchy young man, and the sweet elderly lady was a sweet young lady, too.  Well, I'll be the batty old lady in the sneakers and yellow socks who drives her yellow car way too fast...

=)
Kk.