Our family of five came to this house for a vacation in February. While the rest of the United States was experiencing record snow storms, we experienced low 80s and sun every day. I thought mosquitos could be a problem due to the warmth, but they weren’t a problem at all, we rarely had to use mosquito spray.
This house is on a quiet, residential street, with its backyard facing a lake; it's easy to walk/run around exploring different neighborhoods. After staying in both Airbnbs and hotels, I realized that the location of Airbnbs, especially this house, are much better than hotels. However, we prefer this type of location but others may also prefer being on a very commercial street. Hotels are usually on busy commercial streets, you cannot really walk or run without bumping into a lot of people. Though the neighborhood is quiet, it is a quick drive away from beaches, restaurants, and entertainment the area has to offer.
Unlike some more commercially-run Airbnbs where everything is minimal, Gary’s house is different. This house has lots of furniture, chairs, sofas, pillows, kitchen appliances, plates, cups, utensils and cooking pans. In the kitchen, it has two coffee makers, one Keurig and one Cuisinart. It even has two toasters, one is a very nice Optigrill. Initially I felt the house was a little busy, but I began to appreciate all the choices available in the house. Whatever I needed, there was always something to satisfy that need. The decoration made the house feel just like home as well so we easily felt comfortable and fit in with the house.
The house has four bedrooms and three full baths. Two bedrooms have king size beds, one has a queen size, another has a bunk bed that has 2 twin size and one full size mattresses. These mattresses are of high quality and also included very nice comforters instead of fleece blankets. The duvets were comparable to high-end hotels while still having charm. There were also lots of backups for duvets, sheets, pillow cases and more.
The house is all one floor. I really liked the fact that there are three wings separated by two doors: one wing contained the kitchen/family room, another contained dining room/living room, and finally the bedrooms wing. With the two doors shut, people in the bedroom area could not hear loud conversations in the kitchen, giving much more needed privacy.
For the outside area, they have a pool guy who comes to maintain the pool every Thursday; the pool water was really clean so we felt comfortable swimming in the pool. The outside area is very pretty and the jacuzzi works very well. The area had many chairs and tables at different sides of pool, many towels, and two outdoor grills. The owner must love to entertain. Throughout the day, you can always find a spot you like, either under the sun, under the umbrellas, or in the half indoor half outdoor area where there are curtains and a pullout-wall to make it mostly indoor, if the curtains or pullout-wall is not up, there’s a roof and three walls, with one wall showing the outdoors. My daughter was even able to do her remote learning there because there were barely any bugs and she felt very comfortable.
Finally, I have to shoutout our host Gary. He is so wonderful and very considerate. He setup two stations inside that had hand sanitizer, Lysol spray and some wipes. He gave us a house tour, showed us nearby shopping and restaurants, and even gave us a welcome gift! Whenever I called him, he always picked up the phone. He doesn't respond to text messages as quickly as calls, but usually my text messages are not urgent.
We appreciate how Gary and the house owner trusted us with everything in the house instead of emptying its amenities; this is a house that touched our heart. Everyone in our family wants to come back in the future.