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Thomasville The recipe for a model B&B has been developed here single-handedly by Susie Sherrod, a retired Army colonel/nurse. Indefatigable Susie, who was arranging flowers in the gazebo at our arrival, is a versatile, do-it-yourself dynamo with great taste. Returning to her native Thomasville, she opened in 1991 with three suites in a Victorian house. She later converted a main-floor parlor into a suite with a queen poster bed and a sitting area with a loveseat and two chairs, a small sitting room with a loveseat and separate his and hers bathrooms. In 1994, she added four smaller rooms in a rear garden house beyond a shady, landscaped courtyard. (A Little Victorian Cottage became a shop where she sells the Victorian and lace button bags, wedding bags and sachets that she makes in her spare time.) The crowning touch was added in 1998: a guest cottage that adjoins a pool house with an indoor lap pool and a hot tub. All painted blue with white trim, the buildings enclose a large terrace and courtyard. A state preservation award attests to the authenticity and magnitude of her restoration. Hers is a complex of uncommon appeal and comfort, inside and out. Susie has thought of everything, from private telephone lines for each bedroom and in-room DVD/VHS with free current movies to unusual decorative accents, among them a collection of Hummel and Russian dolls in the main-floor suite. TVs, robes and bedside chocolates at nightly turndown are standard. The main house with wraparound front porch in the residential historic district appears deceptively small from the front. One side of the main floor contains a suite and the owner’s quarters. The other side begins with a light and airy living room (Susie made the window treatments here as well as the bedspreads throughout). Beyond are a formal dining room, a second dining area in what had been the butler’s pantry and a modern kitchen opening onto a sunporch overlooking the rear gardens and courtyard. We’d happily stay in any of the guest quarters, which are smartly decorated in elegant 18th-century style rather than the frilly Victorian you might expect from the era. The second floor of the main house is given over to three suites. The Peach Suite has one spacious bedroom in peach and white with a kingsize fishnet canopy bed and two armchairs on a heart-pine floor, plus a second bedroom that is a mirror image but with a queen bed and a green color scheme. The Blue Suite takes its name from the blue porcelain china from East Berlin in one bedroom. Susie and her mother hand-stitched the floral comforter on the bed to match the china. A second bedroom follows a flower garden motif. The 18th-Century Suite has a queensize fishnet canopy bed and a sitting room furnished in wicker and accented with more German china collections. The secluded Garden Cottage also appears deceptively small. Besides a common room, the downstairs has two queensize bedrooms. Upstairs are a large kingsize room decorated in florals and the smallest room with queensize bed, two wing chairs and a view of the camellia trees. Across the way is the new pool house with attached cottage. We took one look at the cottage and decided to stay. The large room beneath a vaulted ceiling contained a kingsize plantation bed, two armchairs served by strong reading lights, and a TV in an armoire thoughtfully positioned for watching from chairs as well as in bed. There were good artworks on the walls, a hidden kitchenette area and a large bathroom with separate vanity area and a whirlpool tub. Not that we used the whirlpool. We had only to open the door from the bathroom into the pool house – available to all by day, but private for the cottage at night – to swim in the lap pool or soak in the hot tub. The pool was so inviting we swam before dinner, before bed and before breakfast. The cottage’s porch faced a courtyard with lounge chairs and tables. We enjoyed the courtyard for a takeout dinner from a nearby restaurant. Susie poured a glass of wine, and we lingered under the stars on a mild autumn evening. The next morning, she arose early to send us and a couple of regular businessmen/guests on our way with a substantial breakfast of a monte carlo sandwich of Smithfield ham and cheese, garnished with exotic fruit. We can’t wait to return to try her four-berry french toast and her turkey sausage quiche. (912) 226-5197. Fax (912) 226-9903. E-mail: 1884@rose.net For more information: www.1884paxtonhouseinn.com or www.thomasvillega.com Four rooms, four suites and one cottage with private baths. Doubles, $165 to $185. Suites and Cottage, $195 to $275. Children over 12. No smoking. Material excerpted from Inn Spots & Special Places in the Southeast, by Nancy and Richard Woodworth. Copyright 2000. Wood Pond Press E-mail feedback to: Home
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