Dream Job # 2

One of my favourite fantasies is to own a B&B, in the country, or in some quaint small touristy community, like St. Andrews or Mahone Bay.

The house would of course, be huge, heritage, (preferably built by a sea captain, and with a tasteful sea-going theme) on the water, with a very large porch with rocking chairs and a wicker basket of afghans for cool evenings, have extensive gardens, be decorated with antiques, have handmade quilts on the antique beds, and have a resident cat or two, a charmly eccentric Darryl-type handyman, and maybe even an unobtrusive, non-scary ghost. Oh, and Adirondack chairs placed so guests could sit and look at the water...and handknitted thrummed slippers for guests to wear inside the house to keep their feet warm (and the original wide-plank hardwood floors unscuffed), and take home as a gift. And, there's the woodburning fireplace, and the clawfoot bathtubs.

I would spend my days making gourmet breakfasts, decorating, antiquing, gardening, quilting/cross-stitching/rug-hooking/knitting, and serving an afternoon tea while charming my guests with tales of the history of the area.

Siiiigh!

However, it's the kind of thing that's more fun to imagine than to actually do. I understand inns and B&Bs, even small ones, are a horrendous amount of work that eats up all your time, and unless you have a lot of rooms, isn't something you make much money at. You miss out on summer because it's the in-season, and burnout for innkeepers and b&b operators is about 10 years. (Ross Mavis, the very nice man who owns the Inn On the Cove in Saint John told me that)

Not to mention the annoying people coming to your house and messing it up, breaking things, making demands of you, and maybe even stealing the antiques, or stiffing you on the bill! Oh my God! Not the mention all the boring stuff, like zoning and water pressure.

I even once bought a book about running a B&B, and frankly, it sounds awful. But dreaming is fun.