Closing on Southard House

Hello Friends!

This is a blog of the Southard House Bed and Breakfast Inn!  My husband and I have dreamt of having our own business some day but we thought we would be opening a candy and gift shop here in our small town.  After writing a business plan and realizing that was going to take way more time, money, and energy than we were willing to invest we went back to the drawing board.  After some serious soul searching I realized that I am a very gifted decorator, cook, and hostess, plus I love to clean!  For many years I dreamt of and prayed for a bed and breakfast of my own.  After trying to book a room for our honeymoon night at the only bed and breakfast in town and being rejected because the whole inn was booked for another wedding that weekend, I realized it was definitely time for my husband and I to put our gifts, talents, and abilities in to action and open another bed and breakfast in Enid, OK.

I plan to share all of our plans for the B&B on this blog so I hope you will return if you are interested.  I hope you will get to know the innkeepers too, so I will be sharing our story along the way.  This is a huge step for us and we are so excited about this amazing journey we have been on for the past six months to get to the point where we are right now.  We began this journey in June after I made that telephone call to reserve that honeymoon suite and we just closed on the house that we will be using for the B&B today.  It has already been such an amazing journey. 

 The Southard House sits at the corner of Madison and Pine in the Kenwood Historic District in Enid, OK.  It was built by George Franklin Southard (Frank) and his son George L. Southard.  They began construction on the home in 1910 and completed it in 1912.  It is three stories with a full finished basement that we will be living in.

 I can't wait to share the amazing story of the Southards' with you and the history of the house.

 I did some fall decorating a few weeks ago and I had so much fun.  I think the most wonderful thing about having the inn will be the decorating of it.  Decorating is by far my greatest passion (besides my sweet James) and I definitely should have been an interior designer.  I don't have any formal training but I just let my spirit speak and move.  It is really amazing what happens when you don't think but just let your spirit move you.  I'm looking forward to sharing how the spirit moves as I decorate this beautiful B&B.

 I made a pumpkin topiary for the front porch.  I used real pumpkins and glossed them with metallic glaze, then added fall garlands to dress it up.

 I love the pretty fall colors!  I can't believe that Thanksgiving is one week from today!  The time just goes so quickly!

 It is so exciting to think that very soon we will have our first guests at Southard House!  There are still so many things to do but I know it will go quickly and before we know it we will be open for business.  We have a target date of February 8-10, 2013 for our open house weekend!

I will be posting more tomorrow to show you the "before" pictures of the interior of the house and to share a little more about our plans.  Until then . . .

May You Be Blessed! 

Tammy