Let me introduce myself

[One Day]

My name is John
My forum handle is "One Day"
I currently reside outside of NYC on Long Island
I am a landscape contractor....been doing it more than care to think about.....I absolutely love what I do......business aspect wears be down time to time....although, I realy shouldn't complain.
I am no stranger to the customer relations aspect of being a business owner....although. I may have to endure the PITA for years.....where as you B&B owners/operators have them for days.....Yes. understood that one can run into a stretch of PITAs
I have been considering the B&B option for more than a year. I have become obsessive with this idea. My industry in my area is over saturated. Far to many illegal companies, or those barely legal. Profit margins shrinking. Very high cost of living.
My intention is to make a move 5 to 10 years from now....but who knows? I could toss in the towel in 2 - 3 years....I am setting aside as much $ as I can...learning to live small has helped considerably.
Some years ago I took over my parents home. Not in name, in $ only...So.......mom, dad, myself.....and niece live under 1 roof.........please don't ask about these arrangements.....I am very bitter about the whole thing and extremely annoyed at the double standard I had to live by in my family.
I am a handy person. Don't mind painting, some electrical, plumbing. What ever...
Love cooking...enjoy baking, though I do need more practice.
Don't mind cleaning....Much prefer the strip down cleaning that is done once or twice a year....doing cleaning as an aspect of business I would be fine with
I am fiercely independent
With all those attributes...I thought that a B&B would be the logical next step.....and I'd like to do it before I am physicaly not able to......I often thought that if I continued with what I am doing as I am now....I would never retire and probably drop on some property
I like the idea of a "small town" or perhaps outside a small city. I love the old Victorian style. Big deep porch. Or perhaps a Greek that has the same porch idea
I have yet to stay at a B&B....think I am going to go next month....Some years ago for many years I had traveled exstensively...4 continents and many countries, as well as cruises. I'd like to think I have reasonable understanding the hospitality industry.
This site is a fantastic resource...been reading thread after thread....I greatly appreciate this site being available.
I thank you all for your openness in the discussions

 

[Penelope]

Keep your chin up. It's good that you know about this forum...it's priceless.
As for the inn buying, there are many, many like what you are looking for...I'm an aspiring, too. Like you, it'll happen "one day"...

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Welcome to the forum John.
We hope to have a buyer soon - but here is a big ol' southern Victorian in a small town.
You sound like an innkeeper - typically they are well traveled, typically fiercely independant, typically turn their hand at most any task!
And you are right, they stay they pay they go away...a short term PITA is much preferred to a long time live in one or work with/for one. If you get the right locale you can cut down on the % of pitas. "They come with the territory" so to speak.
Remember my quote: "Opening an inn is like skydiving and hoping your chute will open" if you have every jumped from a plane then you know what I mean. or my second quote: "Innkeeping is not for sissies" I have considered having this one made up into a tshirt.

All the best! We're glad you're here.

 

[One Day]

Junie
I have been looking at your Inn for some time.....Lovely.
It's about the type I am looking for.
My brother had lived in the Roanoke area....All I remember was Roanoke. that was back in the early 70's....that was his first marriage, didn't last all that long.
I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners.

 

[egoodell]

Junie
I have been looking at your Inn for some time.....Lovely.
It's about the type I am looking for.
My brother had lived in the Roanoke area....All I remember was Roanoke. that was back in the early 70's....that was his first marriage, didn't last all that long.
I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners..

I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners.

From my experience (I'm originally from San Francisco, grew up overseas. Parents from NJ and MA) when my parents retired on Hilton Head in SC the northerners that were disliked were the ones that criticized everything telling the Southerners how "they should correct things". The Southerns rightly tell those folks to go back home. If everything is done so much better back there, why are you here?
I'm now in Charlottesville, Virginia, which I thought was "south" but many Southerners consider something like "middle East Coast" or something like that. We have had no problems dealing with locals. And my husband has worked with many doing carpentry work and gotten along with them just fine. He's from Vermont.
My only problem is sometimes I can't understand what the country folk say when they're talking...but DH does and can translate....but I have the same problem in the countryside in California as well.
Just pick a town/area that you like.
Riki

 

[One Day]

LOL Riki
I have a hard time understanding some of the folks here.
I befriended an old guy who is a mechanic where I park my trucks...He's originaly from south east Virginia....won't tell me exactly where...I find that odd, no big deal
Have a cousin. He and his wife relocated a second time to the Raleigh area of NC.
I gottcha on the northerner attitude and need to correct everyone.
I'm pretty laid back and can get along with just about anyone. Only ones I can't get along with are those that are inherently stupid, and those that take....not partcial to arrogance either.......however.......I have a high tolerance

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

Junie
I have been looking at your Inn for some time.....Lovely.
It's about the type I am looking for.
My brother had lived in the Roanoke area....All I remember was Roanoke. that was back in the early 70's....that was his first marriage, didn't last all that long.
I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners..

Junie
I have been looking at your Inn for some time.....Lovely.
It's about the type I am looking for.
My brother had lived in the Roanoke area....All I remember was Roanoke. that was back in the early 70's....that was his first marriage, didn't last all that long.
I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners.

Are you asking if southerners LIKE northerners or are you asking how northerners fare in the southern states?
This is the only state divided, we have northerners and southerners in the same state.
It is actually a melting pot here. We have this very large lake that is mostly northerners, as the tax rate here is nothing like it is up where you are, so most of the baby boomers and early retirees are moving in.
Roanoke itself is tops in terms of retirement locations, quality of life, healthcare, services, weather, taxes, etc. If you have not been recently you would not recognize it, it is still undergoing a boom. They were just approved for a medical school (our guest who checked out today on their honeymoon here were from UVA up near our inn-mate Riki) who said they are losing some to this new medical school here. Of course this is VA Tech country.
Before we moved here we spoke to person after person and they ALL said the same thing "You will love it here" "You will never want to live any place else" and it is true, as the saying goes "I was not born in the south but I got here as quickly as I could!"
I grew up in San Diego, so SW, but not SE.
Dh works for our county who just received the honor of being in the Top 10 for Technology for counties under 500,000 people. This is huge, as this WAS very backwoods and now is just rolling along. That honor really would be his alone as he brought the technology into the I.T. dept from Seattle.
All that to say, we love it here, we are not leaving, we are just building a new home and continuing on. 75% of the county budget goes into the school system - so we have great schools as well. Great workforce, low unemployment usually - it is higher than normal now of course, but the bottom has not dropped off around here like other areas. There was no overinflated/overextended housing market here.

 

[JunieBJones (JBJ)]

LOL Riki
I have a hard time understanding some of the folks here.
I befriended an old guy who is a mechanic where I park my trucks...He's originaly from south east Virginia....won't tell me exactly where...I find that odd, no big deal
Have a cousin. He and his wife relocated a second time to the Raleigh area of NC.
I gottcha on the northerner attitude and need to correct everyone.
I'm pretty laid back and can get along with just about anyone. Only ones I can't get along with are those that are inherently stupid, and those that take....not partcial to arrogance either.......however.......I have a high tolerance.

LOL Riki
I have a hard time understanding some of the folks here.
I befriended an old guy who is a mechanic where I park my trucks...He's originaly from south east Virginia....won't tell me exactly where...I find that odd, no big deal
Have a cousin. He and his wife relocated a second time to the Raleigh area of NC.
I gottcha on the northerner attitude and need to correct everyone.
I'm pretty laid back and can get along with just about anyone. Only ones I can't get along with are those that are inherently stupid, and those that take....not partcial to arrogance either.......however.......I have a high tolerance

My other guests from New Jersey this morning said "We don't have an accent YOU DO!" and I said, hold on there badda bing, I am not from here, if you spoke to ANYONE around here you would quickly hear a heavy heavy sw Virginia accent. They speak very fast and sound like they have a mouthful of marbles.

Plenty from tidewater areas here as well, you know, New-pit News and all that area, move to these mountains to escape the unbearable humidity.

 

[Samster]

Junie
I have been looking at your Inn for some time.....Lovely.
It's about the type I am looking for.
My brother had lived in the Roanoke area....All I remember was Roanoke. that was back in the early 70's....that was his first marriage, didn't last all that long.
I have to ask this......of all who would be considered Southern.
How are the local folks where it concerns northerners relocating?
I've talked with several folks in the Virginias and Carolinas. Who are in my industry that very same question.......Most said.....depends on where.....there are locations where northerners have been coming down for years and it's no big deal.....While I have also been told. There are those that truly dislike northerners..

Well, you Yankees won the aggression against the South and some of us are still living that! haha!
No, seriously....here in the South, it's not so much if you are a Northerner relocating but if you're a Northerner who keeps saying, "That's not the way we do it up in ______". Or a Midwesterner, West Coast person, etc. They like to do things their own way here