We found the cottage to be adorable and accommodating with its small details and little thoughts. The shower was to die for, as was the bed.
We stayed 3 days (2 nights) total. And spent both nights out by the fire which has some lovely lights and a water fountain which is so peaceful.
It got... A little odd on our last day there. Harriet was very accommodating in allowing us to both check in early and late, (the smallest strike of luck with all the crazy Corona virus stuff happening while during our stay.) but nonetheless, our final morning starts with packing up our things, tossing all the clothes we had worn in the wash as well as our throw blankets and a few sheets ( because I don't like using other people's sheets. It's one of my 'things'. totalling about 4 loads of laundry if I remember correctly, I could have taken them home to wash but it being our 7 year anniversary not wanting to come home to work, living in a apartment without a washer/drier and it being a part of the listing we assumed it would be fine.
As I am packing up, I got to the fire pit which, to my minor annoyance had already been picked up after. Normally I don't take notice of those things, but being that I had been walking around the house naked as I straightened up that morning, and the fire pit is not a stones throw from the front door and all the windows, I took notice.
I also took notice when I was greeted with an annoyed, 'you heading out soon?' from Harriet's husband as he adjusted the shed tarp, not 10 feet from the cottage back door.
'ummm, yea? Just packing up now?' as I continued back toward the front door.
Fast forward maybe an hour and a half, my husband is taking a shower, I am wrapping everything up around the house and drying off from a shower. it's 2 hours before our agreed on later departure. There's a knock on the door. My clothes are still in the bathroom with my husband, (which admittedly locks from the inside, so I am wrapped in my husband's sweater and literally nothing else as I pop my head out and am greeted by Harriet. Who tells me her husband had noticed the drier running a lot and that she had tried to call me (I checked, they called literally 5 minutes before coming down to the house, though they did try to message once an hour or so prior prior, (my phone was in the kitchen though so wasn't getting through) she enquired what was going on, I explained that I had a crappy apartment and we were just getting a couple loads done before we head out, she asked if I'm using my own detergent, yup, I've got skin allergies. I mentioned that the listing said the washer and drier was available, to which I was quite stunned to hear 'not in your case, ' a bit more repeating of Harriet emphasizing that it would have been okay had I asked, and my emphasizing that I didn't know it was a problem and apolizing. She leaves. I knock on the bathroom door to tell my still showering husband what just happened and to try to actually get dressed. We stand there looking at one another stunned for a moment, we've been using airbnb for quite some time, even used it for a spell while we were literally living out of a van and were washing clothes almost solely via airbnbs during the winter, this was the first time anyone had batted an eye let alone messaged us saying they could hear the drier through the walls... (which just emphasizes the lack of privacy that was given when their house is at least 400 feet away from the cottage) just as I decide I am extremely uncomfortable with this weird spying and won't be staying in the Airbnb any longer and am apolizing to my husband his surprise weekend is ending badly on my being uncomfortable, like magic I get a notification from my phone, 'I'm sorry but my husband is very upset. He would like you to vacate our Airbnb immediately. We feel like we were generous with such a late check out but our electric bill will be a lot higher than normal and with all our cancellations we can't have bills being high.' the feeling couldn't be any more than mutual. We were gone in under 20 minutes.
Harriet shoots me a message about 20 minutes before I get the option to review the place that I guess some guy doubled their electric bill or some nonsense by charging his tesla once upon a time. And how they are still upset about that. I honestly have no comment to that, because anyone still reading this novel of a review can make judgements on whether or not a tesla is equivalent to a couple runs on the drier - that-was-listed-for-use. Or whether if I frankly had been running the drier my entire flipping stay whether that would have somehow justified making a person feel like they are being watched, as opposed to - just- saying something, preferably via text or phone, and letting a person know before ya walk up on them. Its the little things as they say that go the farthest.
The cottage was absolutely lovely. No doubt about that there, but if you value privacy, and the ability to maybe do more than 3 loads of laundry when you stay at a place for 3 days, maybe not.