Signs

We officially “opened” for business June 21, not much fanfare, but a houseful from around the country in Coupeville for a wedding. We hosted guests in our Carriage House since April 2007. We had a great Summer/Fall season this year and found our groove meeting and greeting and housing and feeding 120 different configurations of people from 1-4 in each reservation so we figure well over 200 people were under our roof sometime during the past year.

Our goal is to boost that number by a third this year and one thing that might just help us is if we had a sign in front of the house!

It’s been on the list all year. Why does this have to be so hard?

Another fact about Mitch and Lynda – we are easily distracted. Our first distraction is the house itself. We have endless lists of projects, maintenance and then stuff that comes up like a burst water pipe from the freeze a couple weeks ago, and a new Wii for Christmas (Mitch has developed tennis elbow).

Our other distractions are hard to ignore. Here are 3 of them:

(Aug. 08 - sour cherry pickin by our 3 girls)


Here’s another one:

This is Mitch’s mom. She’s six blocks away, and has helped us understand what the “Sandwich Generation” means.

Then, since we are opening a business, why not at the same time have Lynda take a half time job (the kind you take home with you and is on your mind all the time).

So, time to put the sign at the top of the list. (I’m sorry, but the entire time writing this I keep thinking of that kind of freaky movie Signs with Mel Gibson, sorry.) We have a logo and design for the sign -check. We have a sign maker - check. Lynda is on the Design Review Board of the Town so will have to recuse herself in approving the permit, but at least we know all the hoops we need to jump through—check. Next step, fill out the paperwork and get it done.
Sounds easy.
Feels hard.

We’ve made it this far so will go back to our motto in this whole adventure:

Keep moving forward! (we borrowed it from the animated movie, Meet the Robinson’s)

In case the sign isn’t quite up, here’s the GPS coordinates (48° 13’ 10.18” N, 122° 41’ 14.25” W)

Getting to know us - getting to know all about us

Who are we?

That is quite the philosophical question to ask at the beginning of the year!
Through the course of the Lovejoy Inn Blog, we will attempt to answer that question for you and for ourselves.

Here’s the first tidbit in getting to know us: we are well meaning procrastinators.
Jan. 1, just 6 days ago, we began the Lovejoy Inn Blog. The plan – blog daily – meaning every day. By the evening of Jan. 1, we agreed we should at least write something 4 or 5 times a week. This is our second entry – you do the math.

Back to a little history: from what we can guess, we are about the 7th owners of our house at 5 NW 8th St.
It started with Ernest and Nellie Watson in 1886, then to the Vradenburg family, and couple owners in between, the Kitch’s, Canfields then our family, the Richards.

We got to know the Canfield’s and appreciated their history with the house – they built the Carriage House (yay!), and painted the downstairs for an art gallery with colors like brick red, purple, sage green, marigold yellow (ugh).
We met Mrs. Kitch and in the 1980’s she and her husband added the wraparound porch and a lot of nice vintage doors (thank you!). Working in the yard one day a woman walking by stopped to tell me she lived here in the 60’s during high school when there was one bathroom and wood kitchen stove.

Jump ahead to 2009 and the Richards. There’s Mitch and Lynda, married almost 18 years. Living in Coupeville since 1997. We are mid to late 40’s (Mitch is mid). We love our little town of Coupeville. We are best one-on-one with friends, strangers and guests.
Mitch has worked in customer service and project management for all his adult life. “I just want make you happy” is what I say to Lynda – sort of jokingly, but that is how I treat guests, customers, friends and family. I’m not a door mat, but I do want you to have a good experience. I managed the Fort Casey Inn in Coupeville for 7 years, and Camp Casey Conference Center for 10. The guests were the best part of the job, and that’s how it is at the Lovejoy Inn. My job satisfaction will increase as we have more guests, so please, stay at the Lovejoy and have a relaxing getaway, and make me happy.

Now Lynda is a different story – she is my favorite woman ever! She is a great listener, has a steady and calm demeanor, has great organizational skills, along with being a foodie who can cook and bake like a pro (when she wants to). Her career has gone from teaching, selling shoes, restaurants, community programs, administration, and event organizing. Include being Mom to our three girls, soccer coach, parent volunteer, homeschool teacher (for a year) and you start to get the picture. She is the General Manager of the Lovejoy Inn. I am the Head Housekeeper and Guest Relations.

We’ve got a kind of yin-yang thing going. We are usually in sync, which is usually good, except when we put things off. So, Lovejoy Inn Blog post Number 2. Hooray for us! See you in February.

(pic - Lynda & Mitch at Dave & Amber's Wedding Oct'08 - we dress like this every 3 years)

The Beginning

Start with an old house. Add a charming town on the shores of Penn Cove on Whidbey Island. Add two classic underachievers with great people skills who stumbled into the charming town and 11 years later found themselves the unlikely innkeepers of the old house.

This is the story of the Lovejoy Inn.

It all started in 1886 when Howard B. Lovejoy was contracted by Rev. Ernest Watson to build him a house in Coupeville, Washington.

Here’s a photo of Watson:

The house was not grandiose or extravagant. This is the earliest photo we have of the house.

There weren’t many houses in town at that time, a few nearby, then mostly pastures, farmland and cows.

Watson got quite a deal on the house as he ended up marrying Lovejoy’s sister Nellie. Here’s a photo of Nellie Lovejoy Watson:

They were married on Christmas Eve in 1886. How nice for her to move into a brand new house that her brother built.

In the past 123 years many (?) owners have expanded, remodeled, painted, carpeted, wallpapered and fixed up this house. We are still trying to figure out what came when. Here are a few photos we have of the additions:

Over the past 2 years that we have owned the house, we are beginning to understand that the beauty of the Lovejoy Inn is not found in its originality, but in its “charm” – read funkiness, uniqueness, location...and the stories of all its' inhabitants over the years.

More to come!

The 2 pictures below are the Lovejoy Inn today.