"In spite of the fact that James lives in New York City, continues to work for VISA and will not be stopping any time soon, we bought the
Carolina Bed & Breakfast in Asheville, North Carolina in September this year.
At some point, James is going to retire, and as our friends will attest, we had been researching ideas and thoughts for a second career for both of us over the past few years. Once we had settled on the idea of a bed and breakfast, it seemed foolish not to take advantage of the recent decline in the housing market and to buy now.
One of the truths about expat marriages is that one of the partners often travels a great deal and both partners get used to living apart for days and sometimes weeks or months at a time. It's not ideal and not all marriages can survive it, but those that do often create bonds which can endure the time apart and makes the time together that much more precious. This is by way of saying that even though Asheville is about 700 miles from NYC, the fact that we have chosen to do this does not reflect on the state of our marriage. We celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary this summer and renewed our vows in front of our family.
So, the Carolina Bed & Breakfast: The house is 110 years old. It was built by Richard Sharp Smith, the supervising architect for the Biltmore Estate. The original owners were, interestingly enough, returned expats themselves! (Considerably rarer in those days). W. Vance Brown had lived in New Zealand as a child while his father worked for the State Department. During the depression the house was bought by the George Webb family and turned into a Boarding House. Not a lot is known about the parents, but the son, David Webb, learned how to make jewelry with the WPA and went on to become a world-famous jewelry designer whose designs were worn by Lana Turner and Doris Day among others. He was also commissioned by Jackie Kennedy to make presents for visiting Heads of State during the Kennedy years. In another interesting aside, the David Webb Jewelry business went bankrupt in June of this year.
The house became a B&B sometime in the 1980's. We are the fourth owners. The couple we bought it from had owned it for ten years and they were well over it! There is lots of deferred maintenance. All of the interior needs repainting. We have just replaced the roof and painted the exterior, so please don't judge us by the website which shows the old pictures. We will be remodeling the kitchen and hope to build a carriage house on the property as owners quarters. We were able to move in some of our own furniture this November and continue to make improvements every day.
Why Asheville? Asheville is vibrant town. The Biltmore Estate, the largest privately owned home in the United States, provides a steady stream of visitors to the town but there is so much more here. Theater is strong. Concerts with top performers occur regularly. The River Arts district is a growing artists' colony. The restaurants and markets here are top-notch. The nearby mountains provide skiing, hiking and water sports. But what we like best about the city is the diversity of the people: McCain Republicans and Obama Democrats live peacefully side by side. The University of North Carolina Asheville keeps the population young while the pleasant summers bring in the "Florida" crowd. And for those like James and myself who grew up in the '60's and '70's, the aging hippies provide a touch of "remember when"! And, before I forget, we even have a single A baseball team! The Asheville Tourists are part of the Colorado Rockies system.
Innkeeping is a lot of fun. The guests are from all over and are usually pretty interesting people. Every day brings new challenges from this old house! In addition, I have learned an awful lot about the internet and marketing in the past three months with a lot more to learn. If anyone one from the SAS community is passing through Asheville and would like to visit us, we are offering a 10% discount for faculty (both former and present) and alumni of Singapore American School. And even if you can't spend a night with us, please stop by to say hello!
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SAS Alum and her dance company performing in Chameleon