We opened in June 2021, and slowly the bookings started to come in via the holiday company we were using at the time, bearing in mind this was when people were now allowed to holiday after the pandemic, but many were still choosing not to venture abroad.  Very soon we were booked for the summer through to October.

We were on tenterhooks when our first guests arrived!  We had ample hand sanitizers, deodorizers and masks on hand.

What a joy our first guests were (Mr A.S. from Weymouth) and they had beautiful weather (my prayers to the God of sunshine paid off!) – they left us a lovely review which gave us much encouragement:  “Wow certainly exceeded expectations.  Brilliant hosts, could not have been better.  A brand new enterprise for them and they couldn't have got it better.  No complaints from us, everything you need is there.  High quality furnishings and fittings.  Two very close pubs that sell excellent food.  A very friendly community, locals will always say hello and happy to talk.  Would recommend this retreat and village to everybody.  Thankyou Paul and Maria.”

Every review we have had after that was of a similar ilk with just some comments highlighted here:

Slowly the lodge & courtyard began to take shape, and I had the fun job of the choosing the interior decoration and fittings, we chose to tile the floors throughout as this would be the most practical for our four-legged friends and easiest to keep clean.

The courtyard began to look less like a building site so I could start planning the plants for it.   

The really big event was when the name plaque arrived!

We thought a potted history of how our lodge came about would be interesting to anyone who has stayed with us and also those to come.

When we moved to Dolton in September 2015 – our thought was to renovate the lodge to accommodate an elderly relative, but that did not happen.  After some time of reflection, we thought – why not make it into the sort of holiday rental that we would like to stay in.  We knew it was going to be a long job as this is what we had to start with!

The bare building was good we replaced the leaking roof but the interior had to be gutted and redesigned, so the work started in 2018 in between our ‘day jobs’.

Some of the first things we did were to move two tonnes of pebbles, relocate the oil tank to a safer position and redesign the interior layout to include adding a porch for coats and boots.  Then the rebuild of the interior started: