This is a unique apartment that was mostly great for our family of two adults and two teens. It was clean, colorful, and very spacious. I think the listing does a great job of highlighting all the cool things about the property, but there are a few downsides that surprised us, which future guests may want to consider when deciding whether to book.
In reading my review keep in mind: I think the unit is priced fairly given the downsides — call them trade-offs—but it wasn’t easy to tell from the listing exactly what we were trading off. For this reason in my review I’m focusing on the trade-offs we didn’t realize we were making when we booked.
We were surprised to learn upon arrival that there are two vacation rentals in this building. This made it both noisier and less private than we expected.
NOISE. The downstairs apartment is directly beneath the master bedroom of this unit. While in the master bedroom, we were able to hear everything going on downstairs -- conversations, television, game playing -- was all audible nearly to the point that we could follow along. The owners have a strict "Quiet Hours" policy, but most of the noise we heard at midnight was just regular conversation that kept me up because of the way sound traveled through the floor and heat ducts, and it didn’t seem reasonable to ask them to stop talking altogether. On our last night there was a large group downstairs (I counted 5 or 6 voices) and we could hear them playing a TV trivia game past midnight. I could have asked them to be quiet, or I could have contacted the property manager, but it’s just not the sort of thing I want to deal with on vacation.
PRIVACY. The other surprise for me was that all of the outdoor spaces are shared with both units. The hot tub in particular is weirdly located for sharing, as it’s on the upper unit deck, just steps from your double glass doors. So even if you don’t plan to use the hot tub yourself, you could have strangers hot tubbing right next to you while you eat dinner, use the grill, or watch the sunset.
Other tradeoffs:
Beautiful stained glass windows = limited natural light indoors and no mountain views.
Being right on Route 7 (a highway, not a “village setting” and not a quiet country road) = rumbling trucks, traffic noise, no birdsong.
Barn = mice.
All in all an interesting property, I think fairly priced, but with some trade-offs that will be worth it for some people but not for others.