It's Time.

Tomorrow we celebrate the grand opening of Snapdragon Inn. It's been two years of hard work, decisions, blood, sweat, and tears, but we're incredibly excited to be here, ready to greet our guests tomorrow. One of the many many inspectors who have visited us over the last few weeks (some of you would be amazed at the number of permits it takes to let you sleep in a building!) said we should be happy we took our time and ended up with this result - he sees so many places that are not thought out, have no consistent finish, and are not planned properly. He was very impressed and felt the one word to sum up the entire project was "quality."

We'll take it. :-)

Thank you to everyone who has followed us this far. Stick with us, there's plenty of adventure to come.

The Oldies are the Goodys

I've been working away on our site, getting our information loaded and prepared for opening on September first. My most recent project has been boiling down the (almost) 200 years of incredibly rich and fascinating history of 26 Main Street into a single page for the site.

Let me tell you, it hasn't been easy.

My FAVORITE find so far didn't make the cut for the site, so I decided to share it here with you - "A St. Louis Picture of Mr. Evarts," was printed in the New York Times December 26, 1886, when Evarts was the Senator from New York.

Mr. Evarts is not as thin as he is painted. Nast and Keppler don't do justice to his appetite and digestion. While he is by no means an eligible candidate for membership in a fat mans's club, still he is far from being an organized collection of skin and bones. Mr. Evarts's hair is perfectly white. It is parted on the left side of the head, and there is no suggestion of baldness front or rear. He was dressed in black cloth, and was by no means a flattering advertisement of his tailor. The coat, a Prince Albert of ancient pattern, would have been a better fit for a much bigger man. The trousers bagged at the knees and would have accommodated about five sets of legs the size of Mr. Evarts's. No one would take him to be a remarkable man. There is nothing striking in his appearance, and his voice is ordinary. But he has a magnificent laugh. When he is tickled he laughs from his hair to his toes, and it is not difficult to tickle him. In fact, it can be said that his laugh is set on a hair trigger and goes off with very little provocation. Perhaps he pays as much attention to keeping himself happy as anything else. He doesn't allow trivialities to bother him, and frequently goes out of his way to enjoy the good things of the world.

This quote is even better when I look at a picture of Senator Evarts while I read it. Does this man look like he has a magnificent laugh? Someone that it is not difficult to tickle? I love this human side of Evarts, and it is such a great reminder that those dour historic photos do not equate to dour historic people! (Written like a true history major, I suppose!)

-- McKay

L'Occitane + Snapdragon Inn!

We are proud to partner with L'Occitane, (renowned creator of skincare products and fragrances that are natural and authentic, effective and deliciously appealing) to provide our guests with the best personal amenities possible. Usually found in high end resorts, Snapdragon Inn successfully completed a review process that allows us to join a legendary group of hotel and resort properties who also feature L'Occitane. Their products are delicious, we know you will enjoy them!

Maxwell Perkins - the talk of Hollywood

Seems that we aren't the only Max Perkins fans these days, as Sean Penn is in talks to play Perkins in a new movie based on a biography of Perkins. The book, "Maxwell Perkins: Editor of Genius" won a National Book Award when it was published in 1978 and has recently been re-released.

Of course, here at the Snapdragon we feel it is imperative that character research be conducted at Perkins' home, and we welcome Mr. Penn and the rest of the cast to stop in, relax on the porch, stroll the woods around Lake Runnemede, and soak in the history of Perkins where it happened. And if they can't make it, so be it - more room for you to do the same!

Book any night in September - on the cheap!

Fall getaway to Vermont - on the cheap!
To celebrate our grand opening, book any night in September for only $99/night

Here's how:
Send a email with the subject line "BLOG" to
innkeeper@snapdragoninn.com with your dates.
Save $80 - $200 a night!
Spread the love - share this with your friends!
http://www.snapdragoninn.com/

Color From Beginning to End

Room 3

Room 6

Room 5

We knew from the start that we would like to accent each bed with one of our custom Snapdragon prints and that worked out well for all the rooms but Room 5 because we didn't have any yellow printed. In the 23rd hour before the open house, 2 of our creatives came up with the awesome pillow pictured above. It's also fun to look back at the early days picking colors and watch how it all came together so well (with a lot of hard work of course!)

New Front Door!

The original door is a very cool old door but it sticks and we need something more commercial that can handle a lot of opening and closing. Stay tuned for the painting...

South side of the house: Before and After

We still have a lot of work to do on the outside of the house but this is a good shot of where it has come so far. Brig is cleaning all the windows here and it was amazing the difference a little cleaning made.

3rd Floor Hall: Before and After

Before
(bathroom straight ahead and 2 rooms on either side)


After
(put up wall and made one bathroom into two and combined
rooms to make one per side)

the very cool ( but very old) wall paper we opted to strip




the very very tedious stripping process


building the Taj-Mawall (11+feet tall)


Taj-Mawall with lighting fixture, fire alarms, smoke detectors and other
commercial bits and pieces

I thought this was a particularly fun before and after shot of the the 3rd floor hallway. In order to build all the bathrooms in, we claimed some of the hall space. The smaller bedrooms were also combined to make one larger room per side (rooms 7 & 8).

Where it all began: Inspiration boards

I was attempting to organize Inn pictures and came upon these shots of the inspiration boards we created (mainly going through Domino before it said goodbye). I like to see the details and colors and compare to what we created. Of course, the Snapdragon Inn is going to continue to evolve with bits and pieces as we find them or as lamps fall or pillows get stained but its fun to see what first caught our eye and feel satisfied with the finished product.