We are Officially Open for Business and some more random thoughts!

The Bed and Breakfast is now open! We had our first guest, and it was wonderful! I just wanted to get the word out there as much as possible to say that we are ready for anyone who needs a cozy place to stay. The rooms are fully decorated and have anything that you might need!

While we were building the addition there was always something to be done. We had to paint, and build and shop and clean etc. etc. And I think that I expected that as soon as the renovations were done, that we would have guests every weekend, and it would be crazy busy! However that has not been the case. We have had a guest and we have a couple of bookings, so it's very promising and exciting! But I just want it to be busy! I love being at home with my boys, but I also really enjoy having something besides looking after the kids to work on and challenge me in a different capacity. I enjoy being able to focus on something besides being a mom. I know that business will come and at some points I am sure that I will be so overwhelmed and wonder what the heck I was thinking about wanting to be more busy, but at this point I can't wait for that to happen! I feel like I should be doing something more to get more people to come and stay at the B and B. This past week I made up a brochure. My mom started it for me, and I went to their place last week to finish it up. It turned out really well, and I was able to get out to some of the local businesses and pass it out. I went to the golf course, hospital and funeral home. It was a lot of fun actually, the people that I talked to were excited about the idea and were willing to suggest the B and B as an option for family, friends, and the brides that they deal with. Again, hopefully that will bring more guests in! My plan is to go out a couple of more times this week! Wish me luck.

Anyways if anyone needs a place to stay in Barhaven please let me know! We will be offering a friends and family discount, so just give us a shout if you are interested!!
613-608-0565
greentruckbandb@gmail.com
www.bbcanada.com/greentruck

An Update on GreenTruck B & B

We had our first guest last week! It was really great. The people that came were family of a friend of mine from Toronto! We had met them once before at a wedding, but that was it. So it was neat to be able to host someone and hear their stories! They decided to have breakfast served with us at our dining room table. It was really nice to chat with them. They were interested in Ottawa as well, as the daughter is potentially going to be going to Ottawa U. They had reserved both rooms, which was great! So as Ben and I were putting the finishing touches on the rooms, we turned on the water and noticed that one of the toilets was leaking...eeek!! We called the plumber right away and they were able to come, however there was a hole in the toilet. How does that happen, a brand new toilet and it had a hole in it??!! Unfortunately the plumber was not able to get a new toilet in time for our guests, so they had to share a toilet. Thankfully they were ok with that. Other than that I think that they enjoyed their stay and had everything that they needed. And don't worry the toilet is now fixed and ready for anyone else that comes to stay with us.

Every time I check my e-mail, I get a little bit excited that maybe there will be a new reservation for the B and B. So far we have 2 other reservations. We were supposed to have someone come and stay this week from Tuesday to Saturday, however they cancelled at the last minute today. I was pretty bummed out about it. I had just done all of my grocery shopping and cleaned the house, and put new sheets on. Only to have them not show up. If people need to cancel they should really give more notice that 10minutes!! There is a lot of work that goes into making sure that a room is ready, so ya I was bummed out. But on the plus side, my house is really clean! And the rest of the week will be a little more relaxed, as I won't be needing to make extra breakfast. As for the other reservations we have someone coming at the end of March and someone coming in September from Switzerland. I am really excited about that one! It's going to be really cool to meet someone from abroad.

We have put a lot of time and energy into the B and B, it's great to be able to see some of the fruits of our labour!

The Open House is a Success!!!

This past Sunday I had an open house for the bed and breakfast for our neighbours, friends and family! It was AWESOME! We had 22 people come and check out what we were up to. I had set up some breakfast food on our dining room table, and we gave tours of the B and B to everyone that showed up. The tours went great, every single person loved the rooms and gave us so many compliments and encouragement. It was really exciting for me to be able to show people and to get some great feedback. For the food I baked some scones, some egg strata, some muffins, some french toast with brie and pear, and a fruit salad. And of course coffee, tea or juice was served with it. Again all of the comments on the food were great. From the comments that I got I would have to say that the egg strata and the scones were the favorites.

It was a really great event and a good way to get the word out about the B and B to the neighbourhood. It was neat for my neighbours as well because there were a couple of people who were able to meet some of their fellow neighbours for the first time! This open house was a bit of an experiment for us to see if people would like the place, but also to see if I would enjoy taking people into our home. And I loved it! It was great to be able to host people and to chat and learn just a little bit more about everyone that came through. Saturday and Sunday morning were crazy insane days trying to get everything set up. At that point we still had a lot of painting to do, we had trim to do, we had decorating to do, we had kids to look after, Ben had to work.... I had pretty high expectations of what I wanted the place to look like, and I just wasn't sure if it was going to be done. I was nervous and very tired, but thankfully God gave us the energy and the resources that we needed to be able to get everything done. We got it all done, and everyone loved it!

I need to thank a lot of really great people in my life for the help that they gave. Without it I wouldn't have been able to get everything ready. I am not very good at asking for help even when I desperately need it and all of these people just came and did what they could. I am very very grateful. Nathan worked hard to make sure that all of the finishing trim, cleaning, and set up got done. Nathan's wife Margaret came over on Sunday morning to look after all of the kids so that Ben and I could just put our heads down and work. Kate, a great friend, came over on Saturday and helped me cook the egg strata, scones and cleaned my kitchen! I may have to have her come over to make egg strata on a regular basis! It was awesome. I need to thank my wonderful, caring sister Angela for coming over after the open house and cleaning up the kitchen for me. It was spotless and I was able to put my feet up. Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I seriously couldn't have done it without you


Here's what the place looks like! Enjoy!!