While this last year and a half has been an incredibly crazy ride, I have to say that the last few months have almost started to feel “normal”! We have been enjoying a very busy and wonderful summer season and our guests have been beyond excited to be out and about safely exploring the world again – we are thrilled that they’re choosing Farmhouse to be their home away from home! It feels so good to be back up and running and not worrying every moment about all the “what if” scenarios (though I still have a few things I continue to worry about!). And, for the first time in a very long time, we are growing and making changes and actively trying to improve our guest experiences instead of worrying about hand sanitation stations. Since I’ve not been doing a very good job posting monthly blogs, I thought I would take this opportunity to provide a big update on everything that has been going on here at Farmhouse.
I think our biggest undertaking and something that I am so proud of is our reimagined spa experience. This last winter Irisha Steele joined the Farmhouse family. She brings with her a passion for spa and wellness and all things beautiful! Over the last six months she has built out an amazing team of therapists, a fabulous menu of treatments, and has created the coolest “Chill Lounge”. But most importantly she has filled our beautiful Wellness Barn with so much warmth and love and good vibes. And what I’m most excited about, for the first time ever, our spa experience now goes beyond just the treatment room. Irisha has built-in daily meditations, wellness walks, yoga, and so much more. Wellness is so much bigger than just what happens in the treatment room, and we are thrilled to be actively working with our guests to give them real tools that they can take home with them and practice every day. It’s been so fun getting to see Irisha in action and, honestly, she’s just getting going, there’s so much more to come! Check out our updated Spa Menu here.
Another fun project that Catherine and I took on this summer is the revamping of the pool and outdoor areas with all new furniture, an updated sound system, and a better than ever poolside menu. We have seen more and more guests wanting to just relax all day poolside and we felt like it was time to really upgrade the overall experience. We worked with a Janus et Cie to select all new beautiful outdoor furnishings for every corner of the property. The grounds have always been gorgeous but now we’ve got furniture to match. The reimagined pool experience turned out so great that we decided that we had to have a staff summer pool party to celebrate. With unprecedented demand and a lighter staff than we normally would have during this busy season, we did something this year that we’ve never done in 20 years at Farmhouse Inn, we shut the whole property down, had an all-day Gratitude Pool Party for the most AMAZING team in the industry, and gave everyone a mandatory 4 days off! We had an absolute blast!
To be honest, we probably would have had the summer pool party even if we hadn’t gotten all new furniture, but it sure seemed like a great excuse for a party!
And I’ve saved what I consider to be our most exciting news for last. As I shared a few months back, we lost our beloved farm cat, Charlotte, after 12 years of faithful service. We always knew there was another cat in our future, but the team and I all felt like we needed a little bit of time before we could begin the process of finding another farm cat as perfect as Charlotte. However, the universe intervened and sometime in July a feral gray Tabby showed up, young, ragged, and clearly emaciated. After a little bit of coaxing and a whole lot of cat food, this shy guy turned out to be sweetest cat ever. Super chill and relaxed and exactly what we had hoped for, he is the best replacement to Charlotte we could have asked for. After much debate we named him Charlie Allnut (a long story, ask me over wine!) and you can find this sweet boy most of the time lounging in the lobby or wandering the property looking for attention. Please stop by and say hi, Charlie’s waiting for you!
I know there is so much more that I’m forgetting to share but I’ll save that for next month. What’s next, I don’t know… My team will tell you that I have been talking endlessly about a better in room coffee program and espresso finally in the restaurant. The 2022 winery partner program will be better than ever, we’re spending the next few months visiting every partner personally and really trying to figure out how we continue to improve our guest experience. And Charlie could really use a cat tree house. All I know is it just feels so good to be thinking about the future again!
