The Work You Don't See: Caring for an Old House and the Guests Who Stay Here

When guests arrive at Andon-Reid Inn, we hope they are greeted by something that feels effortless: a warm welcome, a comfortable room, and a space where they can immediately relax and feel cared for.

Caring for a historic inn means there's always something to do, but we hope our guests never have to think about that. Instead, we want them to experience a home that feels warm, welcoming, and impeccably cared for, while the countless hours we spend cleaning, maintaining, and preserving the house happen quietly in the background.

As innkeepers, we try to notice every detail that contributes to that experience. Guests may not realize, however, how much of the work that makes this possible is done by our incredible staff behind the scenes. While we want the effort itself to remain largely invisible from a guest's perspective, that doesn't make it any less meaningful or important.

We wanted to take a moment to shine a light on some of the unheralded tasks our staff performs every day to keep the inn running smoothly. While the breakfast, amenities, gardens, and beautiful historic spaces often receive the attention, it's the hard work happening behind the scenes that creates the foundation for a peaceful, stress-free mountain getaway.

So today, we'd like to celebrate just a few of the many things our team (Sharon, Bob, Jill, Brenda, and Peter) does each day and highlight the countless small tasks that add up to something truly special for our guests.

One of the least glamorous jobs in any bed and breakfast is also one of the most important and time-consuming: dishes.

Breakfast service may last an hour or so, but the cleanup continues long after the last coffee cup has been emptied. Plates, serving dishes, mixing bowls, baking pans, utensils, glasses, coffee mugs, and countless kitchen tools all need to be washed, dried, and put away before preparations begin for the next day. In addition, all the counters, stovetops, and ovens need to be cleaned so we can start with a fresh start. You should see how the stove looks after Peter’s made one of his amazing dishes! Luckily, Sharon and Jill are whizzes at keeping all the surfaces clean!

Then there are the dishes from guest snacks, special events, afternoon treats, and everyday operations.

Most guests never see the dishwashing process, and that's exactly the point. By the time breakfast rolls around the next morning, everything is clean, organized, and ready to go again.

From the morning to the afternoon, the dishwasher gets run two to three times per day, and it could be three to four if our staff wasn’t so good at making the dishes fit in the washer. Brenda was clearly really good at Tetris as a kid, and is passing those skills onto the rest of our staff.

And of course, inevitably, once (finally) done with the dishes, Peter will immediately go and take the knife or pan you just hand-cleaned and dried and make a mess all over again to prepare for next morning's breakfast. It’s never-ending and thankless, but needs to be done, and done well, with care.

In a modern building, supplies might be a short walk or elevator trip away, but in a historic inn built in 1902, things are a little different.

Our staff spends a surprising amount of time walking up and down stairs. Towels need to reach guest rooms. Laundry must be carried. Supplies have to be restocked. Trash needs to be removed. Forgotten items need to find their way back to rooms.

What sounds like a quick task often involves multiple trips between floors, especially when you are rushing around and trying to flip that room for a guest that requested early check-in. Our laundry and supply rooms are in the basement, but we have cabinets and closets on every floor, many two floors up from the basement, that constantly need stocking.

By the end of a busy day, our team has logged more steps than many people get during a dedicated workout. Both Jill and Sharon wear smartwatches and, on a busy day, can easily log 24 to 25 flights of stairs, most of the time while carrying precarious piles of laundry, dishes, or trash. It’s even a game for Jill’s kids - when she picks them up from school, they always ask how many flights of stairs she’s conquered that day. It’s quite the daily burn, and we are thankful our staff powers through each day for our guests.

Every guest room at Andon-Reid Inn is prepared with freshly laundered sheets, pillowcases, blankets, towels, washcloths, bath mats, robes, and more.

The volume can be overwhelming, particularly on busy weekends. With only a small space to do laundry in and a limited number of machines (2 washers and 3 dryers!), managing the timing of the laundry is tricky and requires seamless communication between our staff. If one person has to leave, yet something is in the washer or dryer, someone else has to pick up the baton to keep our linens fresh and crisply folded for our guests.

A weekend full of guests means washing, drying, folding, organizing, and storing hundreds of individual items. Keeping up with laundry is a constant cycle, especially during busy seasons. You have to be really good at managing time and scheduling your tasks in your head to make sure the laundry doesn’t sit too long after it’s done. That means starting a load, going to do something else on the to-do list, then coming back to swap or fold. Oh yeah, and we already discussed going up and down the stairs to accomplish this delicate laundry dance.

While the goal sounds simple - that every guest should walk into a room that feels fresh, comfortable, and welcoming - the amount of effort in doing laundry to high standards is quite complex for Jill and Sharon. And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention how complex it is to just fold one fitted sheet, especially the king-sized ones! Those things are no joke!

Old houses have character and quirks and [ahem]... charm.

Unlike newer buildings, a historic home requires constant attention and improvisational skill. There is always something that needs touching up, repairing, repainting, adjusting, cleaning, or improving. As the fifth B&B owners since 1996, with many residential owners prior to then, we often have no context as to why something was built or structured in a particular way. If something needs fixing, we almost always have to be creative and improvisational in our efforts to repair. We are lucky to have Bob, who can often think through the potential reasons why something broke the way it did, and can think of creative solutions to get things back in order without having to call an expensive contractor who can’t show up for two months.

One week might involve painting trim. Another week might mean troubleshooting fans or light fixtures. Sometimes it's replacing hard-to-find hardware or plumbing fixtures, fixing a squeaky door, disassembling, cleaning, and reassembling air conditioning units, or solving one of the unique challenges that only an old house can create, like changing light bulbs and batteries or cleaning windows in awkward, impossible-to-reach places. And oh my gosh, the painting… so much painting.

Historic inns don't simply run themselves or stay beautiful indefinitely. Preserving their beauty and functionality requires ongoing care and a team that takes pride in the details and can think on their feet.

The beauty of our property is one of the first things guests notice, especially when enjoying a morning coffee on the porch, relaxing in the lounge, or sitting on the patio by the firepit.

To a guest, it feels like it’s always this way, but it’s the work that happens before they arrive that makes this happen. Leaves and debris need to be blown from walkways and porches (we are lucky Bob loves leaf blowing!). Flowers and plants need watering. Outdoor furniture requires cleaning. Pathways need attention. Bird feeders need filling and monitoring to keep our feathered visitors coming back (the blue jays are ravenous!). Cobwebs need to be hunted down and removed. The rhododendrons, roses, and hydrangeas need care and pruning. And of course, Rosie, our guest favorite outdoor inn-cat, needs to be fed, watered, and cleaned up after every day! She’s part of the family!

Simply put, Mother Nature just doesn’t cooperate with our efforts to control her spaces and maintain order, but our team is out there every day, doing what needs to be done. Brenda even has pictures of the parking lot that Bob had cleared of leaves one morning that was covered again by check-in time! We love doing this so we can provide a welcoming outdoor environment for our guests so they can refresh their souls in comfort, surrounded by the embrace of the mountains.

Our grounds are cozy and comfortable, yet wonderfully uncluttered, and it takes a dedicated team to make it this way for the enjoyment of our guests.

Running an inn means being prepared for needs before they arise and anticipating what comes next.

That means stocking guest amenities, organizing storage areas, replenishing cleaning supplies, folding extra linens, checking inventory, and making sure every cabinet, closet, and supply shelf is ready for the unexpected.

When guests or staff easily find what they need, it's usually because someone spent time making sure it was already there and was on constant alert to what needs to be purchased.

Shopping, whether in person or online, is another endless task for our staff and us innkeepers. We sometimes go to the store multiple times per day to make sure we can deliver the right experience for our guests. New dietary restriction? No problem, Peter’ll go grab some portobello mushrooms to swap out for sausage (Peter loves the grocery store - must be because his parents owned one when he was a kid). Wobbly toilet seat? Also, no problem, Bob enjoys visiting the hardware store and has quite the extensive toolbox, ready to fix almost any problem. Running low on toilet paper? Nah, never. Brenda’s already got it ordered and it will be here later this afternoon.

The reality is that many of the most important parts of hospitality happen behind the scenes.

The dishes, laundry, maintenance projects, stair climbing, leaf blowing, stocking, cleaning, organizing, and countless other tasks aren't particularly glamorous. But they are acts of care.

Every member of our rockstar team contributes to creating the experience guests enjoy (and return for) when they walk through our doors.

So the next time you visit Andon-Reid Inn, take a moment to appreciate the unseen work that goes into your stay. Behind every clean room, every hot breakfast, every tidy porch, and every welcoming space is a group of hardworking people who take pride in caring for this historic home and the guests who choose to make it part of their travels. It takes a dedicated team to make the Inn experience happen, and we are so incredibly thankful that we have a well-rounded, highly skilled team of hard workers who do this unseen, unheralded, yet crucial work every day.

--Your Innkeepers,

Brenda and Peter