Sunday, July 19, 2015

Homestead Inn Bed & Breakfast, New Milford, CT

Originally published, February 9, 2009

When you are traveling through New Milford, Connecticut there are scantly few places for the bed and breakfast aficionado to stay. My wife and I were fortunate enough to hook up with Innkeeper Bill at the Homestead Inn in the historic district of New Milford on a recent trip through the area. The Homestead Inn is 154 years old and gloriously shows off its history. While the overall impression may have been a little rough around the edges the fact remains that first impressions are often incorrect. Homestead Inn evoked more pleasant memories and even though New Milford, Connecticut is a place I'd never been to before; after our great experience at Homestead Inn, New Milford, Connecticut will be a place I'll return to often!

The directions to Homestead Inn were a little confusing. Google maps are typically spot on and they were still but in this instance, the directions to the parking lot of the Homestead Inn were a little hard to understand. If you keep your eyes peeled, you'll be out in front of the Homestead Inn and the directions will take you out back into their parking lot. If you're quick (not me) you shouldn't have any problems with the location.

In the description for the Homestead Inn on their website it says "our 14 guest rooms have recently been redecorated and are furnished with country antiques and reproductions..." There was an eclectic balance of old and new in our room on the second of three floors. There was a little bit of kitsch and the forward ringing progress of technology (DVD player and WiFi) which reminded us that we were still in the year 2009.

When we first came in downstairs, Innkeeper Bill heavily relies on the "honor system" at his B&B. He appears to live in an attached house and is a short phone call away, but his program is that he has a wide selection of DVD and a coffee tin. Leave a dollar. He has snacks, sodas, and water available in the fridge and clothes pinned to the wall; prices are listed; make change. It's not an abrasive feeling at all; it's actually a very INCLUSIVE feeling. It's like when your dad puts your first TV in your room and tells you that you can stay up to watch it until X time, but then you need to go to be. He retreats to his room, never knowing (but always knowing) whether or not you've obliged his rules. But you do. Because it's this mutual respect which will go on to forge your relationships, in all spheres, in the future.

This was the way the entirety of the Homestead Inn felt; a bed and breakfast that didn't want to get all up your business, but one that still wanted you to have a good time. We were only there for one evening, but, creaky floors and all, we had a good time.

Some may be aghast at the breakfast portion of the Homestead B&B. But the breakfast at Homestead was very much in keeping with the theme of the experience. It was a continental and it really was what you made of it. In their open air dining room there were bananas, oatmeal, muffins, yogurt, juice, coffee, tea, waffles; whatever you liked! Innkeeper Bill just wasn't going to hold your hand through the experience.

My wife and I have been to a number of different style bed and breakfasts over the last couple of years; this most recent trip to the Homestead Inn Bed and Breakfast is the one which most closely reminded me of home.


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