About
A 1911 house, kept.
We did not restore it into a museum or gut it into a hotel. We kept it. The floors creak in the same places they did a hundred years ago, and the oaks out front were old before the house was built.
The story
A family from San Francisco built it to get out of the fog. We keep it so you can do the same.
The house went up in 1911 as a summer place. Redwood frame, a porch wrapping two sides, and the two valley oaks that still shade the gravel. The family came down by train every June and went home every September, and for fifty years that was the whole life of the house.
In 1962 it became a boarding house for teachers at the high school. Nine rooms, one kitchen, a chalkboard by the phone for messages. Some of the brass door numbers on our rooms are the ones they screwed on. We have the chalkboard too. It lives in the kitchen and still carries the breakfast count.
Nora's parents bought it in 2004 with the roof failing and raccoons in the attic. Three years of work followed, most of it done by people who lived within ten miles. Seven rooms opened in 2007 with breakfast for twelve. In 2019 Nora took over, added the four Garden Rooms along the path and the Pool Cottage by the water, and set the long table for sixteen. That is the house as it stands today. Twelve rooms, no plans for a thirteenth.
Who runs it
Five people. You will meet all of them.
- NoraInnkeeper and owner. Grew up in Los Gatos, came back from a decade in Portland hotels to take the house on. Answers most of the emails herself.Since 2019
- TeoRuns the kitchen. Breakfast every day, the long table on Friday and Saturday. Will remember how you take your coffee by the second morning.Kitchen
- PriyaFront desk, mornings. Knows which trail is muddy, which winery has a dog, and how to get a Saturday table downtown at the last minute.Desk, 7am to 3pm
- SamGarden and pool. The lavender, the olives, the pool chemistry and the string lights are all Sam. Also the person who fixes the porch swing.Grounds
- LuisEvenings and the Friday table. Lights the fires at four in winter, pours the wine at seven, locks up at ten.Desk, 3pm to 10pm
The garden
Half an acre, mostly lavender and gravel.
The garden is dry on purpose. Lavender, rosemary, three old olives and a fig that fruits in August. Drip lines, no lawn, no sprinklers. The gravel path runs from the porch past the Garden Rooms to the pool, and the string lights come on at dusk on a timer.
The pool is small, heated from May to October, and open from seven in the morning to nine at night. There is no lifeguard. There are four loungers, two umbrellas, and a box of towels by the gate that Sam refills twice a day.
Guests can cut lavender and rosemary. Please leave the figs until Teo says so.
Water, waste and power
What we actually do, in plain words.
We skip the badges and only claim what we can back up. Here is the list.
- Sheets and towels are changed on request, or every third night on long stays. A card on the bed says how to ask for more.
- The roof has carried solar panels since 2021. On a clear day they cover the kitchen and the pool heater. At night we buy from the grid like everyone else.
- Breakfast scraps go to a compost bin behind the kitchen and then to the garden. Coffee grounds go on the roses.
- Soap and shampoo are in refillable bottles. No little plastic ones.
- Most of what you eat at breakfast came from within forty miles. The bread came from six blocks away.
- The garden runs on drip irrigation and gets watered before dawn. There is no lawn to water.
What we have not solved: the dryers run on gas, the pool heater is a big draw in May, and guests mostly arrive by car. We will say so when that changes.