I rented the Squabetty property for a wedding and I couldn't have imagined a better location. First, it took us a full day to figure out where we were in the house. It is a rambling structure with so much to look at and explore, it was an adventure in itself. The high point included finding a Harvard yearbook photo of the original owner in top hat and tails in one of the countless bookshelves. When you walk in, you realize you aren't in a rental, but you are in someones home. It feels like generations of the Deane family have just stepped away for a few hours to go to town and said "make yourselves at home". The kitchens had every imaginable cooking utensil, there were extra blankets for colder nights, and plenty of extra towels, band-aids, tp (although we brought extra and left it there for the next guests)
The wood-burning sauna worked great. We had it going in the afternoons a bit to keep warm between shuffling around in the stream and dipping in the stream-fed pool. We used it again on a couple of the colder nights. There isn't anything on the property we didn't use! We shuffle-boarded, we dipped in the pool, an adventurous friend slept in the lean-to. We played ping-pong until way too late. We sent a group of 5 hiking to the top of Mount Mansfield... We referenced old trail guides in the house in search of a "lake in the clouds" to no success. We ate dinner on the porch and watched fireflies. We saw foxes, chipmunks, and I heard rumors of someone in the party seeing a moose.
The barn is plenty large enough for any dance party to hold and is so charming on its own, I almost didn't bother with the decorations I had brought for the wedding.
The caretaker, Pete, was great. He showed us every last detail of the property and called to make sure everything was going well. When I panicked because we had ran out of water (the whole house is spring-fed and takes about an hour to re-fill once you've emptied the tank (pro tip: don't do laundry, dishes, and have 10 people showering all at the same time))he was there in no time to help us out. The owner was a serious pleasure to work with and was great about getting us things like barn-layouts for party-planning and a porta-potty for the wedding.
The ONLY thing I would do differently is to bring a set of walkie-talkies. The property is huge and easy to get away in (which is kind of the best part, too).
We're already saving our pennies to return, and hopefully return often.