Review of 308 Ben Howell
The house is approximately 800 square feet.
There are 19 wall switches to control lights in the house and one switch to control the ceiling fan in the bedroom. Most of the switches are sliders/rheostats and a few have an additional on/off switch.
The fixtures controlled by the wall switches provide little light.
Most of the house is very dark when the lights are off. Most of the walls in the rooms are dark, bare-wood subpaneling.
There are four internal doorways in the house. Only the bathroom has a door. There is no door to the bedroom.
The small hallway into which the four internal doors connect is painted dark green/blue and is very dark, especially at night.
The igniters for the gas cooktop in the kitchen area did not work. The burners had to be lighted with a BIC lighter (which did not work) or with matches.
The oven did not work during the stay. The owner provided a new Black & Decker toaster oven. The lack of an oven meant that we had to take most of our meals out.
The toilet clogged and a plunger had to be used to restore the flow of water.
The bathroom lacks sufficient shelf space for toiletries. The only shelf is above the toilet although the window sill can also be used as a shelf.
The shower head is almost out of reach (I’m 6’2”) and needed to be redirected since water from the shower head was going over the shower curtain and on to the floor.
The bathtub/shower faucet does not have a definite shut-off position. It was hard to determine if the water was off or not.
There is no hair dryer; the amenities did not indicate that there was a hair dryer. [After sharing these comments with the owner, the owner indicated that there was a hair dryer under the kitchen sink.]
The bed is large enough and comfortable as well but its position on the floor made it difficult to get in and out of bed.
The screened-in porch is a lovely addition to the house but there are only two chairs on the porch. A few more chairs and a table would make the porch a much more pleasant place to spend time.
The house does not have a television or a microwave oven. On the website the list of amenities for the house does NOT mention these items but lack of them – especially of a microwave – greatly lessens the convenience of a stay of more than a few days. This holds true especially in light of the situation with the oven.
There was a temporary pest infestation during our stay. The infestation was presumably due to the presence of insects/eggs in or on a flowering plant that had been brought in to the house. When the plant was moved out of doors there was no further problem. The owner responded quickly when notified of the problem.
There were a few other insects in the house, not out of the ordinary for houses in Texas with trees near the house.
The panelboard/breaker box for the house is outside. A temporary power outage caused a search for the box.
The Wi-Fi connection was reliable and provided a good high-speed connection.
There is metal edging installed on both sides of the driveway and around a small part of the front yard. The metal edge in the driveway sliced the sidewall of a tire on the car the first time the car was backed out of the driveway. A car should be backed straight out on to the street completely before turning the wheel of the car.
The owner was responsive to requests for help.
The house is probably fine for a stay of one or two nights.
If the house were anywhere other than Austin at present, the rental would be significantly less than the current charge.