Every winter we upgrade our guest house. We feel if you don't improve every year you go backwards.

We were worried that we would experience another hot summer, so we installed more reflective blinds and painted all our silver roofs with reflective white paint. The silver was 70°C to the touch and once painted it went down to 20°C. These measures gave our guests a cool stay in the two rooms affected, so we had great success. We have planted vines in front of Dial Cottage and within a few months these should give extra shade.

In Dial Cottage 2, we have upgraded by replacing the double bed with 2 single beds for the mezzaine - also a 1880's washing mangle has been turned into a feature desk.

In Dial Cottage 3, we installed a staircase and a private sun deck above the adjoining bathroom. This has proved to be a birdwatchers delight. In addition, we have installed two new three-quarter extra-length beds for our guests instead of the two single beds.

Our owl box and bat box have been fixed in place for 6 months and the owl box has a nesting pigeon!

On our garden suite we have put up a Wi-Fi mast so that people can access wi-fi from all guest rooms. This involved a lot of cable laying but it is a welcome asset to the guest house as free wi-fi is becoming standard.

Security was improved with a remote controlled sliding gate into the drive-way with key-pad pedestrian access.

Indoor lighting has been improved and additional outdoor lighting has been provided.

Behind the scenes we have improved our kitchen and built a laundry and linen store.

Vines have been planted to cover the courtyard for an out door breakfast area...once they grow we will errect the colums and this will be 2 years time

Cheers from Montagu.
Mike & May