Life is getting back to normal
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Finally, two and a half months later the renovations are starting to wind down. For those guests who stayed here while we were renovating, thank you for your business and for your patience with the extra noise and my lack of attention. To all past and potential future guests all I can say is Wow! This new room on the third floor is spectacular and much nicer than I ever imagined it would be.
Finally, two and a half months later the renovations are starting to wind down. For those guests who stayed here while we were renovating, thank you for your business and for your patience with the extra noise and my lack of attention. To all past and potential future guests all I can say is Wow! This new room on the third floor is spectacular and much nicer than I ever imagined it would be.
It was a long and trying process but we survived it. Some days I wondered if it was worth the stress, the money and the risk to the inn, but now that it's done I am very pleased with how it turned out. The room itself is magnificent. The views are amazing. I want to move in there myself.
I have to say a special word of thanks to Lee Olsen, my architect and also a guest of The Carisbrooke Inn. His firm near Reading, PA did a great job coming up with a design that fits into the original structure of the building so well you would never know this was an addition.
I also have to put out a word of thanks to Jack Francesco, my roofer (Francesco Roofing). Although I have many excellent contractors, he gets the Hero award for this project. Jack really went above and beyond one day in early February and helped me out and probably saved the inn from sustaining a lot of damage.
The carpenters had just put up the new roof structure and had most of the roof plywooded. We were expecting a storm that night so they covered everything with a tarp. Luckily overnight there was not too much rain, but there was tremendous winds. By morning the tarps were tearing badly, and some of the 2x6's the carpenters used to nail the tarps in were actually ripped out (nails and all). The rain started coming that morning and I didn't know what to do.
I called Jack and asked if he could come over, thinking as a roofer maybe he knew a better way to secure the tarps and seal up the building. Even though he had nothing to do with the project up to this point, he climbed out on the roof with me (40 feet up in the air) during strong winds and somewhat heavy rains and helped me secure new tarps to the structure. I have to say, not too many contractors would do that. Thanks Jack.
During all of this, my employees were heroic. They, along with me spent the day with buckets and mops and towels trying to stay ahead of the leaks coming in. If it had not been so serious it would have made for good comedy. In fact it reminded me of the episode of I Love Lucy when Lucy and Ethel were working on the candy line wrapping candies. It seemed like a futile effort.
In the end though, Jack and I were able to get a new tarp on the roof and the rain began to let up just a little. Me and my employees were able to get ahead of the water in the house and keep it from doing too much damage. We did end up losing a ceiling in one bathroom and had to do a little painting in the hallway, but all in all it was not too bad. It could have ended up being much much worse so I am very thankful for everyone's efforts.