Pam & JB
- Mar 3
- 7 min read

Inn the waves of change....we find our true direction

Change is hard at first, messy in the middle and beautiful at the end - Although I'm exceptionally cognizant of our beloved inn’s rich history as seen in some of these incredible pics below...

The "Atlantic" through the years...

....... it has become super easy to forget about the condition of the inn when we first embarked on this Atlantic adventure - Walking around the many rooms and gardens, it’s truly difficult to believe the condition the century-old hotel had been in when we bought it. Last week, when looking for a particular photograph, I came across lots of pictures I had taken when we first bought the inn and the changes were incredible - What was once a tired, rundown, shabby old hotel has truly come back to life💕 . I thought it might be fun to share some of the pics with you..

Tired, rundown....and a little shabby

April 2020

Here are just a few of the "unexpected surprises we had to deal with...

And then you find out the bathroom needs a completely new floor!!!!!

Who does that to such a beautiful wood ceiling??

And what was this hole found behind a mirror??

Now, some of my earlier blogs documented the changes as we tackled the multitude of renovation projects (I still can't believe we managed so much in just a year), but as I have mentioned before, we want the Atlantic inn to continually evolve and grow.... never to be taken for granted again and allowed to fall into such a state of disrepair. That when guests return (which we are super fortunate and still can't believe how many of our guests/friends do return again and again to visit with us), that although the inn retains its historic charm and character, that there will also be something new.

Here at the Atlantic Inn, we have several different types of "changes":

There are those that are forced upon us, like when an AC unit fails, one of the hot water heater stops working, or our rather harsh weather conditions finally take a toll on outside furniture, decks etc.……Many of these projects are unavoidable – well, this is a century-old hotel that had been rather neglected in the latter 10 years of its life, and repairs are often a bit like opening Pandora's box… and, as we’ve found out to our cost, are generally super expensive.

Now, for the most part, many of these projects go unnoticed by guests, as they should - who wants to hear about a broken water heater, AC unit or fridge, or indeed see pictures of them before and after? it's not exactly newsworthy… but these types of projects are critical to our business and the success of the inn…

No warm water for your shower after a long day on the beach, no nice cool bedroom to return to for a nap, and no breakfast, because we had to throw away all the food from the fridge…. would most certainly upset our guests, and rightly so, these are basic services that should be easily met. So, these “changes” always take priority. The safety and comfort of our guests always comes first.

Don't worry I'm not going to post a load of pics of these projects, although I do have to post one of our new washing machines and tumble dryers in the laundry...they are huge and awesome, and can be controlled via an app on my cellphone 😁

Loving our new washers/dryers...

Next come the changes that happen due to experience and lessons learned - remember three years ago when we bought the inn JB and I had absolutely zero experience in the hospitality business, in fact I was much more at home working in the “hospital” business🏥, which I suppose at least comes from the same Latin root word “hostes” which refers to someone who receives a visitor.

Changes that had to happen.....Initially, before we actually opened to guests, we learned how to work in a commercial kitchen, where it fast became evident that many of the implements and equipment that are required to run a safe and efficient kitchen, were missing when we purchased the inn.

What we needed? Why we needed it? Where was it needed? and How were we going to source it? were just a few of the questions that we had to ask when purchasing commercial grade sinks, microwaves, dishwashers etc.

There were many items that transferred with the sale of the hotel that were outdated, worn, broken, unsafe to use, plain ugly, or in some instances..... just plain scary, like some of the artwork!!!! –

The list was endless, more akin to starting from scratch, which was what we were actually doing. Coffee makers, crockery, cutlery, pots, pans, ice machine, furniture for every room, beds, mattresses, bedding (we are super, super fussy about the types of bedding we use), towels (who knew we could go through so many towels!!!) and I certainly won’t bore you by continuing the pages and pages that made up our long lists…..but needless to say, it was way much more than we had ever imagined!

Everything just had to go...

Much of the initial shopping was super important as we had a very distinct vision of what we wanted the inn to look and feel like, and wanted to make sure we got it right. You can judge for yourselves to see if we got it right...check out these "Before and Afters".

Before.....and Afters